By Michael R. Sisak, Jennifer Peltz, Jake Offenhartz and Alanna Durkin Richer, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will return to a New York courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to pick a jury to make your mind up whether the previous president is guilty Criminal charges for falsifying business documents to cover up a sex scandal in the course of the 2016 election campaign.
The first day of the historic trial against Trump in Manhattan ended with nobody yet chosen for the jury of 12 jurors and 6 alternates. Dozens of individuals were dismissed because they said they didn't imagine they could possibly be fair, although dozens of other potential jurors still must be interviewed.
It is the primary of 4 criminal proceedings against Trump go to court and potentially be the just one who could reach a verdict before voters choose it in November presumptive Republican presidential nominee should return to the White House. It puts Trump's legal troubles at the middle of the closely contested race against President Joe Biden, with Trump portraying himself as a victim of a politically motivated justice system designed to deprive him of one other term.
Trump has pleaded not guilty To 34 crimes the falsification of business documents Part of a supposed effort to forestall salacious — and, he says, false — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign. On Monday, Trump called out the case he filed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “fraud” and a “witch hunt”.
The indictment centers on $130,000 in payments that Trump's company made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. He paid this amount on Trump's behalf to stop porn actress Stormy Daniels from going public along with her claims a couple of sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied that a sexual encounter ever occurred.
Prosecutors allege the payments to Cohen were falsely recorded as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as a part of a plan to cover up damaging stories that Trump feared could help his opponent within the 2016 race, especially as Trump's popularity suffered on the time due to comments he had made about women.
Trump has admitted that he reimbursed Cohen for the payment and that it was intended to maintain Daniels from going public in regards to the alleged encounter. But Trump has previously said it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Jury selection could take several more days — and even weeks — within the heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and was catapulted to celebrity status many years before he won the White House.
Only a couple of third of the 96 people from the primary group of potential jurors brought into the courtroom Monday remained after the judge excused some members. More than half of the group were excused after telling the judge they might not be fair and impartial, and a number of other others were dismissed for other reasons that weren’t disclosed. Another group of greater than 100 potential jurors sent to the courthouse Monday haven’t yet been brought into the courtroom for questioning.
Richer reported from Washington.
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