Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in Manhattan Criminal Court on April 19, 2024 in New York City for his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments.
Spencer Platt | Via Reuters
A full jury of twelve jurors and six alternates was selected Friday for the New York hush money trial of Donald Trump.
Judge Juan Merchan expects opening statements in the Manhattan Supreme Court trial to begin on Monday.
As on the previous three days of proceedings, efforts on Friday to fill the jury for the unprecedented criminal trial were not always easy.
Some potential jurors were dismissed because they said they could not be impartial in the former president’s case. And at least three people said they suffered from anxiety or “self-doubt” at the prospect of sitting on the jury.
The fourth day of the former president’s historic trial is also expected to include a hearing designed to brief Trump on what his prosecutors might ask him about if he decides to testify under oath.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said that if Trump takes the stand, they plan to question his credibility by questioning him about his various other legal disputes, including two high-profile civil verdicts he was convicted of in New York.
Trump was ordered to pay $454 million in fines and interest in February after a state judge found him guilty of fraudulently inflating the value of his assets to increase his net worth and obtain financial benefits.
In a January ruling in federal civil court in New York, Trump was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83 million for defaming her when he denied her claims that he had her in the mid-1990s raped in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store. A separate federal jury had previously found Trump responsible for sexually abusing Carroll.
Trump is appealing both the economic fraud and defamation convictions. Merchan will decide whether this type of questioning is permissible during the so-called Sandoval hearing.
Trump has announced that he will testify in the hush money trial. He is not obliged to do this.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has fumed that the trial is a “fraud” and a “witch hunt” aimed at hurting his election chances against President Joe Biden.
Read more about Trump’s hush money trial
Trump is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump years ago when he was married.
The payment from Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen was aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election by suppressing damaging information from voters, Bragg claims. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
This is developing news. Check back for updates.
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2024-04-19 17:37:33
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