Trump’s history-making hush money trial starts Monday with jury selection
NEW YORK — In a unique moment in American history, the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump will begin with jury selection on Monday.
It is the first criminal trial against a former commander-in-chief and the first of four charges against Trump to come to trial. Because Trump is the presumptive nominee for this year’s Republican ticket, the trial will also present the dizzying split-screen of a presidential candidate who spends his days in court and, he has said, “campaigning at night.”
And to some extent, it’s a lawsuit against the justice system itself, as it grapples with a defendant who has used his enormous fame to attack the judge, his daughter, the prosecutor, some of the witnesses, and the charges — all of which while challenging the legitimacy of his statements. a legal structure that he insists has been appropriated by his political opponents.
Against that backdrop, dozens of ordinary citizens will be called into a cavernous room in a practical courthouse on Monday to determine whether they can serve on the jury fairly and impartially.
“The ultimate question is whether the prospective jurors can assure us that they will put aside personal feelings or biases and make a decision based on the evidence and the law,” Judge Juan M. Merchan wrote in an April 8 filing.
Trump has denied guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying company records as part of an alleged effort to expose salacious — and, he says, false — stories about his sex life during his 2016 campaign.
The indictment concerns $130,000 in payments Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. He paid that amount on behalf of Trump to prevent porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public a month before the elections with her claims about a sexual encounter with the married mogul ten years earlier.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely recorded as legal fees to disguise their true purpose. Trump’s lawyers say the payouts were indeed legal fees and not a cover-up.
Trump himself has labeled the case, and his other charges elsewhere, as a broad “weaponization of law enforcement” by Democratic prosecutors and officials. He claims they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of hindering his presidential run.
After decades of filing and initiating lawsuits, the businessman-turned-politician now faces a trial that could result in up to four years in prison if convicted, although a no-jail sentence would also be possible.
Regardless of the final outcome, the trial of an ex-president and current candidate is a moment of extraordinary gravity for the American political system, but also for Trump himself. Such a scenario would once have seemed unthinkable to many Americans, even a president whose tenure has left a trail of shattered norms, including two impeachments and acquittals by the Senate.
The courtroom scene may be greeted with a spectacle outside. When Trump was indicted last year, police broke up minor skirmishes between his supporters and protesters near the courthouse in a small park where a local Republican group has planned a pro-Trump rally on Monday.
Trump’s lawyers lost a bid to have the hush money case dismissed and have since repeatedly tried to delay it, prompting a flurry of last-minute hearings in the appeals court last week.
Trump’s lawyers claim, among other things, that the jury in predominantly Democratic Manhattan has been tainted by negative publicity about Trump and that the case should be moved elsewhere.
An appellate judge has denied an emergency request to delay the trial, while the request for a change of venue goes to a group of appellate judges who will consider it in the coming weeks.
Prosecutors in Manhattan have countered that much of the publicity stems from Trump’s own comments and that asking questions will show whether future jurors can set aside any biases. According to prosecutors, there is no reason to believe that there cannot be twelve honest and impartial people among Manhattan’s roughly 1.4 million adult residents.
The process of choosing those 12, plus six alternates, will begin with dozens of people reporting to Merchan’s courtroom. They will be known only by numbers because he has ordered their names kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.
After hearing some basics about the case and jury service, potential jurors are asked to raise their hands if they believe they cannot serve or be fair and impartial. Those who do will be excused, according to Merchan’s filing last week.
The rest are eligible for questioning. The 42 pre-approved, sometimes multi-part searches include background information, but also reflect the unique nature of the case.
“Do you have any strong opinions or held beliefs about former President Donald Trump, or the fact that he is a current candidate for president, that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror?” asks one question.
Others ask about attending Trump or anti-Trump rallies, opinions on how he is being treated in the case, news sources and more — including any “political, moral, intellectual or religious beliefs or opinions” that might influence a prospective juror’s view could ‘confuse’. approach to the matter.
Based on the answers, the attorneys can ask a judge to eliminate people “for cause” if they meet certain criteria of being unable to serve or being unbiased. The attorneys can also use “peremptory recusals” to exclude 10 potential jurors and two potential alternates without giving a reason.
“If you start hitting everyone who is a Republican or a Democrat,” the judge noted during a hearing in February, “very quickly you will run out of compelling challenges.”