President Trump exited the courtroom telling the press what happened today was incredulous.
"Amazing things happen today. As you know, my son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son. My son has worked very, very hard. And he's a great student,” he said.
Justice Merchan had declined to decide whether he will excuse President Trump from court that day.
Right before 4:30 p.m., Justice Merchan gave potential jurors instructions that court would adjourn for the day and resume again 9:30 a.m. tomorrow.
After returning from a break around 4 p.m., three prospective jurors answered the questionnaire. None have attended Trump rallies or are on Trump campaign email lists.
One was a woman who lives in Midtown East and works in business development. She gets her news from New York Times, CNN, Google, Wall Street Journal, and podcasts.
Another was a middle-aged man who lives in Midtown and works as a creative director. He has previously served on a criminal jury that reached a verdict. He gets his news from the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal.
More than 50 the first batch of potential jurors were excused after being asked whether they believed they could be fair and impartial.
Around nine more were excused for not being able to serve for other reasons.
One juror who left the courtroom was heard saying, "I just couldn't do it."
The first panel of potential jurors have been sworn in.
Several stare at the former president as the judge introduces the case.
“The jury’s responsibility is to evaluate the testimony and all of the evidence presented at the trial,” Justice Merchan told the group. “The trial is the opportunity for you to decide if the defendant is guilty or not guilty.”
The first panel of 96 potential jurors went through security beginning around 2 p.m.
Justice Merchan told parties that all names of potential jurors need to be kept secret except to the parties.
Twelve juror and six alternates will be chosen to try the case.
Justice Merchan said he would hold a hearing on April 23 on prosecutors' request to fine President Trump $3,000 over social media posts about witnesses including Michael Cohen.
The defense was given an April 19 deadline to file a response.
President Trump returned to the courtroom without addressing the press.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg returned around the same time.
Prosecutors asked for a $3,000 fine on President Trump for violating the gag order. They pointed to three social media posts and asked the court to fine him $1,000 per post.
“The defendant has demonstrated his willingness to flout the order. He’s attacked witnesses in the case,” said Christopher Conroy, one of the trial prosecutors.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche said the three social media posts prosecutors referenced "do not violate the gag order."
Justice Merchan said there were 500 jurors awaiting questioning, putting an end to debate on procedures and pretrial motions.
The judge on April 8 approved final questions for potential jurors, and the court will need to seat 12.
Justice Merchan ruled the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape where then-candidate Trump was recorded on a hot mic cannot be played for the jurors.
However, the prosecutors will be allowed to present internal campaign emails that Assistant District Attorney Steinglass said contained “powerful evidence of the campaign’s reaction to the incendiary language contained in the Access Hollywood video.”
Justice Merchan made a few more decsisions from the bench on pretrial motions, including denying the defense's request to add juror questions and to allow Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who alleged an affair with Donald Trump, to testify.
“This is by far the most exhaustive questionnaire this court has ever used,” the judge said.
Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 in 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer for the rights to her story about her alleged 10-month affair with Trump in the mid-2000s. President Trump denies any affair.
Trump’s lawyers have requested that the trial not be held on May 17 so that the former president may attend his son Barron’s high school graduation. A Trump lawyer has also requested the trial not be held June 3 so that he could attend his own son’s graduation.
Justice Merchan said he was not prepared to rule on either request, but that if the trial proceeds as planned he’s willing to adjourn for one or both days. “It really depends on how we’re doing on time and where we are in the trial,” Justice Merchan said.
From the bench, Justice Merchan rejected the defense's motion that he recuse himself from the case.
Hands folded, President Trump stares straight ahead as his lawyers settle in around him at the defense table. He’s flanked for the proceedings by attorneys Todd Blanche to his right and Emil Bove and Susan Necheles to his left.
Hundreds of people from Manhattan will file into the courthouse today to be considered as possible jurors in a process that could take multiple days.
President Trump addressed reporters before heading inside the courtroom.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before," he said. "There is no case and they said, people who don't necessarily follow or like Donald Trump said, 'this case is an outrage.' This is political persecution."
"This is an assault on America. And that's why I'm proud to be here," he added. "This is an assault on our country ... it's a country that's run by a very incompetent man who's very much involved in this case. This is very much an attack on a political opponent, that's all that it is."
Around 200 Trump supporters are outside the courthouse and roughly 40 other individuals are there protesting against the former president, both groups chanting various slogans as President Trump arrives.
There is perhaps more press than all demonstrators combined.
Crowds and cameras are lined up outside the courthouse for the criminal trial of any former U.S. commander-in-chief in history.
Because he is also the presumptive nominee for this year’s Republican ticket, the trial will produce the head-spinning split-screen of a presidential candidate spending his days in court and, he has said, “campaigning during the night.”
President Trump arrived just after 9 a.m., traveling from Trump Tower.
Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social hours before trial to claim election interference.
"The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States. Election Interference!" he wrote.
The trial is expected to last around six weeks, four days a week without Wednesdays, and could take President Trump off the campaign rail for a significant amount of time.
The first of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trials is set to begin on April 15 after New York prosecutors accused him of falsifying business records related to an alleged affair with adult performer Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels.
The impending trial raises the prospect that he could face additional penalties, including a criminal conviction, before the 2024 election.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday accused the judge overseeing the “hush-money” case of giving his lawyers a short period of time to review “hundreds of thousands” of documents a day before his New York trial is scheduled to start.
“Of course, and as the Judge knows, we need far more time than that,” President Trump added. “They could have started this Fake Biden Trial many years ago, not right in the middle of my campaign for President, and time would not be a problem. This is a blatant and unprecedented attack on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent.”
The process of selecting jurors and alternates for the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, on charges related to allegedly falsified business records connected to a “hush money” payment, is highly unlikely to result in a jury that will weigh the evidence and render a verdict objectively, a legal expert has told The Epoch Times.
While some of the questions on the form directly address potential political biases and animosities on the part of respondents, it conspicuously fails to account for personal and political agendas that jurors are likely to bring with them into the courtroom, making a fair trial an impossibility.
SCHNECKSVILLE, Pa.—When former President Donald Trump denounced the New York criminal case against him as a “communist show trial,” thousands of people at his April 13 rally here responded with a thunderous chant: “We love Trump!”
“Thank you; I love you, too. ... That’s what I put up with this stuff,” President Trump said, referring to the repeated allegations and investigations he has faced ever since entering politics.
He expressed appreciation for the crowd at the Schnecksville Fire Company Fairgrounds, which he estimated at 42,000 people; most shivered in chilly, damp conditions with gusting winds for at least five hours.
During a joint press conference on April 12 with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), former President Donald Trump said he would testify at his upcoming criminal trial in New York if called to do so.
“I’m testifying, I'll tell the truth,” President Trump said. “I always tell the truth, and the truth is they have no case.”
In a previous press conference, President Trump said he was willing to testify but had added that he expected the trial to be delayed past the April 15 trial date. After three back-to-back rejections from the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court to stay the trial pending appeals, the case is set to go to trial Monday.
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