Donald Trump’s history-making hush-money trial begins with challenge of picking a jury
Additional legal arguments & housekeeping matters were expected before formal start of jury selection
NEW YORK: Donald Trump arrived Monday at a New York court for the start of jury selection in his hush-money trial, marking a singular moment in American history as the former president answers to criminal charges that he sought to stifle stories about his sex life.
The first trial of any former US commander-in-chief will unfold as Trump vies to reclaim the White House, creating a remarkable split-screen spectacle of the presumptive Republican nominee spending his days as a criminal defendant while also campaigning for the presidency.
After a norm-shattering presidency shadowed by years of investigations, the trial amounts to a historic courtroom reckoning for Trump, who now faces four indictments charging him with crimes ranging from hoarding classified documents to plotting to overturn an election. Yet the political stakes are less clear since a conviction would not preclude him from becoming president and because the allegations have been known for years and are seen as less grievous than the conduct behind the three other cases.
The day began with Judge Juan M. Merchan denying defense requests to recuse himself from the case and to expand the questionnaire filled out by jurors. Additional legal arguments and housekeeping matters were expected before the formal start of jury selection.
When it finally does begin, 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, presenting himself as the victim of politically motivated prosecutions designed to derail his candidacy. 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.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records that arose from an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.