Fine Trump $3K for posts, judge urged

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 yesterday ahead of jury selection, with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office seeking a $1,000 fine for each of three posts they say violate a 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 – writing they were “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our country dearly”.

Trump had earlier arrived at the New York court for the start of jury selection in his hush money trial, marking a singular moment in US history.

It is the first criminal trial of a former US leader and the first of Trump’s four indictments to go to trial.

As Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, the trial in Manhattan will also produce the split-screen effect of a candidate for the White House spending his days in court and, he has said, “campaigning during the night”.

At the outset of yesterday’s court proceedings, Judge Juan M Merchan denied a defence request to recuse himself from the case.

To some extent, it is a trial of the US justice system itself as it grapples with a defendant who has used his enormous prominence to assail the judge, his daughter, the district attorney, some witnesses as well as the allegations against him – all while blasting the legitimacy of a legal structure that he insists has been appropriated by his political opponents.