Court: Trump becomes first ex-president to face criminal trial as jury selection begins
DONALD Trump has described his trial over alleged “hush money” payments to a porn star and a Playboy model as an “assault on America”.
He arrived at a Manhatten court for the first ever criminal case brought against a former US President yesterday.
Trump is accused of having a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels in 2006 while married to wife Melania, before allegedly being involved in a backroom deal to try to stop it becoming public in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
He is also accused of an affair with Playboy model Karen Mcdougal, together with a second alleged payment to buy her silence.
The day began with hours of pretrial arguments, including over a potential fine for Trump, before moving into the start of jury selection in the afternoon.
The first members of the jury pool — 96 in all — were summoned into the courtroom, where the parties will decide who among them might be picked to decide the legal fate of the former, and potentially future, American president.
Trump’s notoriety would make the process of picking 12 jurors and six alternates 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 heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status decades before winning the White House.
Judge Juan Merchan denied a defence request to recuse himself from the case after Trump’s lawyers claimed 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.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office also asked for Merchan to fine Trump $3,000 (£2,400) over social media posts they said violated the judge’s gag order barring him from attacking witnesses.
Last week, he used his Truth Social platform to call 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!”
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche maintained that Trump was simply responding to the witnesses’ statements.
“It’s not as if President Trump is going out and targeting individuals. He is responding to salacious, repeated vehement attacks by these witnesses,” Blanche said.
Judge Merchan did not rule on the request immediately and instead set a hearing for next week.
Before the hearing on Monday, Trump spoke as he arrived outside Manhatten Criminal Court, Trump said “there has been never anything like this” case.
He claimed: “Every legal scholar said this case is nonsense, it should have never been brought, there is no case. This is an assault on America and that’s why I’m very proud to be here.”
Trump is casting the case, and his indictments elsewhere, as a broad “weaponisation of law enforcement” by Democratic prosecutors and officials.
He maintains they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of impeding his presidential run.
Trump, a billionaire property tycoon and reality TV star, is the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, and set for a second showdown at the polls with Joe Biden in November.
However, his campaign is set to be punctuated by court appearances, with the hush money trial just the first of four criminal cases against Trump.
It is alleged that financial records were fabricated in order to hide the “hush money” payments from the electorate in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump has denied the charges, and has also previously denied extra-marital affairs.