Donald Trump was joined Friday by his trusted aide Margo Martin as he took to court for the fourth day of his historic secret trial and demanded that the silence order be lifted.
The former president, 77, walked out of Trump Tower with his communications team and rode in a motorcade in preparation for the final part of the grueling jury selection process.
He waved and high-fived the crowd of fans and photographers waiting for him as he crossed the sidewalk while Martin looked at his phone.
The full panel of 12 people who will decide his fate has already been chosen, but the court needs six alternates in case someone withdraws.
When he arrived in court on Friday, he demanded that the silence order be “lifted”, after prosecutors asked to convict him of contempt over his social media posts.
Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower and heads to court for the fourth day of his historic secret trial
He was joined by his faithful assistant Margo Martin in the procession as he prepared for the selection of jury alternates.
“The gag order must be lifted. People have the right to talk about me and I have the secret. Just to show you how much more unfair it is,” he told reporters.
“And the conflict must end with the judge.
“The judge has a conflict, the worst I have ever seen. And it must end with the judge. The gag must be lifted. I should be allowed to speak.
Every time I come to talk to you, I want to be open because we have done absolutely nothing wrong.
“Yesterday I showed you 30 stories, 32 stories from lawyers. I don’t have one the other way around. Thirty-two stories of legal experts forcefully arguing that there is no case, that this case should never have been brought, that Trump did nothing wrong
On Thursday night, he left court and embarked on a “scam” case in which he is accused of hiding a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about their alleged affair.
He has denied 34 charges of falsifying business records and says all legal experts believe the allegations are exaggerated.
After three days of legal debates, a panel of seven men and five women was selected and will assess his guilt or innocence over the coming weeks.
Moments after the last of the 12 were selected, Judge Juan Merchan said, “We have our jury” and they were led out of the courtroom.
Along the way, they passed Trump, who had his elbows on the table, and looked at the dozen New Yorkers who will rule over his future.
Jurors include a corporate lawyer, an investment banker, a software engineer and a teacher.
One juror called the ex-president “selfish” when questioned about her views in court.
The president of the jury, asked about the origin of his news, declared, among other things, to Dailymail.com.
Once the jury was chosen, Trump walked out of court and expressed frustration with the trial process, brandishing a thick stack of newspaper clippings.
The former president read some headlines that said the trial was a “show and scandal” and that it showed America was a “third world country.”
Flipping through them, he said: “The whole world is watching this New York scam. I haven’t seen one (cuttings) that says it’s a good try. It’s political. It’s a shame.
Trump waved and high-fived the crowd of fans and photographers waiting for him as he crossed the sidewalk while Martin looked at his phone.
The former president, 77, walked out of Trump Tower with his communications team and rode in a motorcade in preparation for the final part of the grueling jury selection process.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass talks to jurors while attorney Todd Blanche and former U.S. President Donald Trump pay close attention to the criminal trial of Trump, who is accused of falsifying business records to hide money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan State Court in 2016. New York, USA, April 18, 2024, in this courtroom sketch.
“I’ve been sitting here for days now, from morning to night, in this freezing room. It’s cold in there. All that for this. It’s very unfair.
Trump continued: “I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and a lot of places campaigning, but I’ve been here all day for a trial that’s really an unfair trial.”
“Very bad thing. The whole world is watching. You have an out of control prosecutor. You have a very confrontational judge.
He added: “Everything is a mess and you have the leading candidate, Joe Biden – he is the one who should be judged. We have a corrupt president.
“He should be judged, but he is in charge. His top officials are here, working with the DA’s office to make sure everything goes smoothly because they have no case. It’s a shame, this country is becoming a third world country without order or justice.
Earlier, the judge dismissed two jurors as the court struggled to assemble a panel for one of the most high-profile criminal cases in American history.
Prosecutors said one juror failed to disclose prior run-ins with the law, and Judge Merchan excused him after bringing him into court for further questioning.
That came shortly after the judge dismissed another juror, a nurse, who said she felt intimidated because some of her personal information had been made public.
It highlighted the unprecedented pressures surrounding the first ever criminal trial against a former US president.
One of the jurors who was dismissed was a grandfather and IT consultant who previously told the court he found Trump “fascinating.”
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