Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens today with jury selection.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to cover up a hush-money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead up the 2016 presidential election.
The charges stem from a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to keep her from going public with an allegation that she and Trump had had an affair. Trump then reimbursed Cohen by falsely logging the expenses as legal fees in company records.
Trump complains about gag order and blasts New York case as politically motivated
By NBC Staff
Donald Trump has spent his morning posting on his Truth Social platform, blasting the trial as “rigged” and complaining about the gag order he’s been placed under.
“I want my VOICE back. This Crooked Judge has GAGGED me. Unconstitutional! The other side can talk about me, but I am not allowed to talk about them! Rigged Trial!” he posted.
How will jury selection work?
By The Associated Press
A group of regular citizens — Trump’s peers, in the eyes of the law — will be chosen to decide whether the former president of the United States is guilty of a crime.
The process of picking a jury could take days. Lawyers on both sides of the case will have limited opportunities to try and shape the panel in their favor, but the court’s goal won’t be to ensure that it has a partisan balance between Democrats and Republicans, or is made up of people oblivious to previous news coverage about the trial.
The idea is to get people who are willing to put their personal opinions aside and make a decision based on the evidence and the law.
This jury will be made up only of people who live in Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs. All English-speaking, U.S. citizens over age 18 who have not been convicted of a felony are eligible for jury duty in New York. Court officials identify potential jurors from lists of registered voters, taxpayers, driver’s license holders, public benefit recipients and other sources.
The pool of potential jurors for Trump’s trial will have been chosen at random. People can volunteer for jury duty, but they can’t pick what trial they serve on.
Will the trial be televised?
By The Associated Press
TV cameras won’t be in the courtroom to capture the historic first criminal trial of a former president.
Judge Juan M. Merchan has denied news organizations’ push to televise the proceedings, though he will briefly allow still photographers in the courtroom. New York is among the most restrictive states when it comes to electronic broadcasting of court proceedings, a nonprofit group found in 2022.
Merchan has allowed TV cameras in the hallway outside the courtroom.
Manhattan court must find a dozen jurors to hear first-ever criminal case against a former president
By Jennifer Peltz | The Associated Press
Of the 1.4 million adults who live in Manhattan, a dozen are soon to become the first Americans to sit in judgment of a former president charged with a crime.
Jury selection is set to start Former President Donald Trump’s hush money case hush money case — the first trial among four criminal prosecutions of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The proceedings present a historic challenge for the court, the lawyers and the everyday citizens who find themselves in the jury pool.
“There is no question that picking a jury in a case involving someone as familiar to everyone as former President Trump poses unique problems,” one of the trial prosecutors, Joshua Steinglass, said during a hearing.
Those problems include finding people who can be impartial about one of the most polarizing figures in American life and detecting any bias among prospective jurors without invading the privacy of the ballot box.
There’s also the risk that people may try to game their way onto the jury to serve a personal agenda. Or they may be reluctant to decide a case against a politician who has used his social media megaphone to tear into court decisions that go against him and has tens of millions of fervent supporters.
Trump targets two likely witnesses ahead of his criminal trial, despite gag order
By Rebecca Picciotto,CNBC
Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two likely witnesses in his upcoming New York hush money trial, testing the boundaries of a gag order that prohibits such public statements.
“Has Mark POMERANTZ been prosecuted for his terrible acts in and out of the D.A.’s Office. Has disgraced attorney and felon Michael Cohen been prosecuted for LYING?” the former president posted on Truth Social.
The social media post is the latest challenge to the limits of a gag order that forbids Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors.
Cohen previously worked as Trump’s personal lawyer and is likely to be a key witness in the trial. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges related to hush money payments to two women in 2016, which he said were made “at the direction” of an unnamed 2016 presidential candidate. He is expected to name Trump at the upcoming trial.
Pomerantz is a former prosecutor who once led the Manhattan District Attorney Office’s investigation into Trump’s hush money payments before he resigned from the case in 2022.
Appeals court judge denies Trump’s bid to delay hush money trial
By Adam Reiss, Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian | NBC News
A state appeals court judge last week denied Donald Trump‘s bid for an emergency delay of his impending criminal trial in New York, NBC News reported.
The ruling by Justice Lizbeth González of the state Appellate Division came after attorneys for the former president argued the trial needed to be halted because “an impartial jury cannot be selected right now based on prejudicial pretrial publicity.” The judge rejected the request in a one-line ruling late Monday afternoon with no explanation.
The ruling came just hours after Trump’s attorneys filed an eleventh-hour attempt to delay the trial that centers on charges that Trump falsified business records related to hush-money payments.
The long-shot legal maneuver came exactly one week before the first criminal trial of a former president is scheduled to start.