The criminal trial of former U.S President, Donald Trump has entered its second day as jury selection remains under way.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records surrounding hush-money payments to adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to get the trial postponed by attempting to remove Judge Juan Merchan – who is overseeing the case – and challenge his rulings, including a gag order. T
Trump’s lawyers have also tried – and failed – to move the trial from Manhattan over claims that the former President would not be able to get a fair jury pool in the heavily Democratic borough.
In a selection process that is expected to take several days, more than 500 potential jurors have been summoned to the Manhattan courthouse.
Each potential juror is expected to respond to a 42-point questionnaire.
“Let’s talk about the obvious: The defendant in this case is both the former president and a candidate for that office. No one is suggesting that you can’t be a fair juror because you’ve heard of Donald Trump,” Assistant District Attorney, Joshua Steinglass told the group.
He added, “We don’t expect you to have been living under a rock for the last eight years or the last 30 years.”
“This case has nothing to do with your personal politics … it’s not a referendum on the Trump presidency or a popularity contest or who you’re going to vote for in November. We don’t care. This case is about whether this man broke the law.”
Joshua Steinglass
As the selection proceeded, a number of prospective jurors were excused from serving on the case after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments..
In the interest of saving time, Judge Merchan later asked the prospective panelists to raise concerns about their ability to serve before going through the entire questionnaire.
After acknowledging that every juror undoubtedly has their own views on the former President, Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche honed in on the “extraordinarily serious” nature of the case, saying that Trump needs “to know that he’s going to get a fair shake.”
Seven jurors were sworn in for Donald Trump’s hush money trial following hours of questioning and a process of elimination.
The jury selection was set to resume on Thursday, April 17, 2024, as eleven more people need to be sworn in before opening statements begin as early as next week.
Prosecutors File Motion For Contempt Against Donald Trump
Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office filed a motion for contempt against Donald Trump.
In the motion filed, prosecutors argue that Trump “willfully violated this court’s [gag] order by publishing several social media posts attacking two known witnesses – Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office highlighted three social media posts from Trump on Truth Social that name Michael Cohen and/or Stormy Daniels, in one case calling them “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly,” saying that he should be fined a thousand dollars a pop, admonished and ordered to take the posts down.
In one of Trump’s social media posts, he called his former lawyer Michael Cohen a “disgraced attorney and felon” before going on to call judge Juan Merchan and prosecutors “thugs.”
The motion said, “It is absolutely critical that defendant immediately halt any conduct that would violate the April 1 order’s narrow restrictions to protect the integrity of the ongoing trial.”
It added, “A finding of criminal contempt, imposition of sanctions, and stark warnings from this court are the minimum remedies necessary to achieve this indispensable objective.”
Judge Merchan set a hearing on the matter for April 23, 2024.
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