Donald Trump will return to a New York courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign.
Quick Read
- Jury Selection Continues for Trump’s Trial: Donald Trump’s trial resumed in New York, focusing on selecting jurors to determine if he falsified business records during his 2016 campaign. The trial’s first day concluded without any jurors chosen, as many were dismissed for potential bias. This legal battle is the first of four criminal cases against him to reach trial, emphasizing the legal challenges Trump faces amid his presidential campaign against Joe Biden.
- Charges Explained: Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, linked to a $130,000 payment intended to prevent Stormy Daniels from disclosing an alleged sexual encounter. While Trump denies the encounter, he has admitted to reimbursing his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for the payment, arguing it was unrelated to his campaign.
- Potential Impact on Presidential Campaign: The trial places Trump’s legal troubles at the forefront of the upcoming election, where he positions himself as a victim of a politicized justice system. Trump’s portrayal of the case as a “scam” and “witch hunt” by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg highlights his strategy of discrediting the legal proceedings.
- Jury Selection Challenges: The process of forming a jury has been challenging, with a significant number of potential jurors expressing doubts about their impartiality. The trial’s location in Manhattan, a predominantly Democratic area where Trump rose to fame, adds complexity to selecting an unbiased jury. The selection process may extend over days or weeks, further delaying the trial’s progression.
The Associated Press has the story:
Trump will return to court for hush money criminal trial jurors selection
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP) —
Donald Trump will return to a New York courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign.
The first day of Trump’s history-making trial in Manhattan ended with no one yet chosen to be on the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates. Dozens of people were dismissed after saying they didn’t believe they could be fair, though dozens of other prospective jurors have yet to be questioned.
It’s the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial and may be the only one that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee should return to the White House. It puts Trump’s legal problems at the center of the closely contested race against President Joe Biden, with Trump painting himself as the victim of a politically motivated justice system working to deprive him of another term.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign. On Monday, Trump called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “scam” and “witch hunt.”
The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump has previously said it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Jury selection could take several more days — or even weeks — in the heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status decades before winning the White House.
Only about a third of the 96 people in the first panel of potential jurors brought into the courtroom on Monday remained after the judge excused some members. More than half of the group was excused after telling the judge they could not be fair and impartial and several others were dismissed for other reasons that were not disclosed. Another group of more than 100 potential jurors sent to the courthouse Monday was not yet brought into the courtroom for questioning.
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