Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens with jury selection today.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to conceal a secret payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the presidential election in 2016.
The charges stem from a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to Daniels to prevent her from going public with an allegation that she and Trump had an affair. Trump then reimbursed Cohen by falsely recording the expenses as legal fees in the company’s records.
Will the trial be televised?
By the associated press
Television cameras will not be in the courtroom to film the historic first criminal trial of a former president.
Judge Juan M. Merchan denied news organizations’ willingness to televise the proceedings, although he will briefly allow photographers in the courtroom. New York is among the most restrictive states when it comes to electronic delivery of court proceedings, a nonprofit group found in 2022.
Merchan allowed television cameras into the hallway outside the courtroom.
Manhattan court must find a dozen jurors to hear first-ever criminal case against a former president
By Jennifer Peltz | The Associated Press
Of the 1.4 million adults who live in Manhattan, a dozen will soon be the first Americans to try a former president accused of a crime.
Jury selection is expected to launch former President Donald Trump’s hush money case – the first trial among four criminal prosecutions against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The proceedings represent a historic challenge for the court, lawyers and ordinary citizens who find themselves in the jury pool.
“There is no question that jury selection in a case involving someone as well-known as former President Trump poses unique challenges,” one of the trial prosecutors, Joshua Steinglass, said during the hearing. ‘an audience.
Those problems include finding impartial people about one of the most polarizing figures in American life and detecting any bias among potential jurors without encroaching on the privacy of the ballot box.
There is also the risk that some people will try to force their way onto the jury to serve their personal interests. Or they may be reluctant to decide a case against a politician who has used his megaphone on social media to denounce court rulings unfavorable to him and who has tens of millions of fervent supporters.
Learn more here.
Trump targets two likely witnesses ahead of criminal trial, despite silence
By Rebecca Picciotto, CNBC
Donald Trump on Saturday took aim at two likely witnesses at his upcoming secret trial in New York, testing the limits of a silence order that prohibits such public statements.
“Was Mark POMERANTZ prosecuted for his terrible actions inside and outside of the DA’s office. Was disgraced attorney and criminal Michael Cohen prosecuted as a LIAR?” the former president posted on Truth Social.
The social media post is the latest challenge to the boundaries of a silence order that bars Trump from making public statements about likely witnesses and jurors.
Cohen previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney and will likely be a key witness in the trial. In 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges related to hush money payments to two women in 2016, which he said were made “at the direction” of an unnamed 2016 presidential candidate. name Trump in the upcoming trial.
Pomerantz is a former prosecutor who led the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s investigation into Trump’s secret payments before stepping down from the case in 2022.
Read the full story here.
Appeals court judge rejects Trump’s attempt to delay secret trial
By Adam Reiss, Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian | NBC News
A state appeals court judge last week denied Donald Trump’s request to urgently delay his impending criminal trial in New York, NBC News reported.
The decision by Judge Lizbeth González of the state Appellate Division came after the former president’s lawyers argued that the trial should be halted because “an impartial jury cannot be selected at this time on basis for prejudicial pretrial publicity.” The judge denied the request in a one-line ruling Monday afternoon, without explanation.
The decision came just hours after Trump’s lawyers filed a last-minute attempt to delay the trial, centered on accusations that Trump falsified business records linked to secret payments.
This lengthy legal maneuver took place exactly a week before the first criminal trial of a former president was scheduled to begin.
Read the full story here.
NBC Chicago
