Trump’s historic hush-money trial begins
NEW YORK (AP) — The historic hush money trial of Donald Trump got underway Monday with the arduous process of selecting a jury to hear the case charging the former president with falsifying business records in order to stifle stories about his sex life.
The day ended without any jurors being chosen. The selection process was scheduled to resume Tuesday.
The first criminal trial of any former US president began 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 simultaneously campaigning for office. He has blended those roles over the last year by presenting himself to supporters, on the campaign trail and social media, as a target of politically motivated prosecutions designed to derail his candidacy.
“It’s a scam. It’s a political witch hunt. It continues, and it continues forever,” Trump said after exiting the courtroom, where he sat at the defense his lawyers.
After a norm-shattering presidency shadowed by years of investigations, the trial amounts to a reckoning for Trump, who faces four indictments charging him with crimes ranging from hoarding classified documents to plotting to overturn an election. Yet the political
table with stakes are less clear because a conviction would not preclude him from becoming president and because the allegations in this case date back years and are seen as less grievous than the conduct behind the three other indictments.
The day began with pretrial arguments — including over a potential fine for Trump — before moving in the afternoon into jury selection, where the parties will decide who might be picked to determine the legal fate of the former, and potentially future, American president.
After the first members of the jury pool, 96 in all, were summoned into the courtroom, Trump craned his neck to look back at them, whispering to his lawyer as they entered the jury box.
“You are about to participate in a trial by jury. The system of trial by jury is one of the cornerstones of our judicial system,” Judge Juan Merchan told the jurors. “The name of this case is the People of the State of New York vs. Donald Trump.”
Trump’s notoriety would make the process of picking 12 jurors and six alternates a near-herculean task in any year, but it is likely to be especially challenging now, unfolding in a closely contested presidential election in the heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and became a celebrity decades before winning the White House.