Prosecutors seek $3,000 fine against Trump over social media posts that they say violate gag order
Donald Trump’s history-making hush-money trial begins with challenge of picking a jury
Prosecutors in the New York hush money case against Donald Trump have asked a judge to fine the former president $3,000 over social media posts about key witnesses.
The request was made Monday ahead of jury selection, with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office seeking a $1,000 fine for each of three posts that they say violate gag order that bars him from commenting on witnesses.
Last week, Trump used his Truth Social platform to call two important witnesses -- his former lawyer Michael Cohen and the adult film actor Stormy Daniels — “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!”
The day began with Judge
Juan M Merchan ruling on a variety of procedural pretrial motions as Trump sat hunched over in his seat and stared into a monitor directly in front of him on the defense table while evidence was shown.
The judge denied a defense request to recuse himself from the case after Trump’s lawyers said he had a conflict of interest. He also said prosecutors could not play for the jury the 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump was captured discussing grabbing women sexually without their permission. However, prosecutors will be allowed to question witnesses about the recording, which became public in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.
When jury selection begins, scores of people are due to be called into the courtroom to start the process of finding 12 jurors, plus six alternates.
Trump’s notoriety would make the process of picking a jury a near-herculean task in any year, but it’s likely to be especially challenging now, unfolding in a closely contested presidential election in the city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status before winning the White House.
Merchan has written that the key is “whether the prospective juror can assure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.”
No matter the outcome, Trump is determined to benefit from the proceedings, casting the case, and his indictments elsewhere, as a broad “weaponization of law enforcement” by Democratic prosecutors and officials.
He maintains they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of impeding his presidential run.
He’s lambasted judges and prosecutors for years, a pattern of attacks that continued up to the moment he entered court on Monday, when he said: ‘“This is political persecution. This is a persecution like never before.”