No Jurors Picked on First Day of Trump’s Manhattan Criminal Trial (original) (raw)
Five takeaways from the first day of Trump’s criminal trial.
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Donald J. Trump’s lawyers faced an uphill battle Monday with Justice Juan M. Merchan, a no-nonsense jurist.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
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The criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, the nation’s 45th president and the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, started Monday with potential jurors assembling in a drab courtroom in New York City while Mr. Trump looked on.
Mr. Trump was charged in Manhattan, a deeply Democratic county and his former home, with falsifying nearly three dozen business records in an attempt to cover up a payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, who has said she had a brief sexual encounter with him in 2006.
Mr. Trump denies that encounter happened, and has declared his innocence, calling the charges politically motivated. He has attacked the judge, Juan M. Merchan, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, a Democrat, who also attended the first day of trial on Monday.
Mr. Trump faces 34 felony counts and could face probation or up to four years of prison time.
The trial, which is expected to last weeks, has a fascinating list of potential witnesses: Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer turned apostate, who made the payment; Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who says she, too, had an affair with Mr. Trump; and Hope Hicks, a former aide to Mr. Trump. Ms. Daniels herself may testify.
Before any of that happens, a jury must be selected, a winnowing that began Monday.
Here are five takeaways from Mr. Trump’s first day on trial:
Justice Merchan is no-nonsense. That hasn’t favored the defense.
Justice Merchan, a veteran New York jurist, has been consistent about batting back defense motions on issues including the tardy disclosure of documents by prosecutors and efforts to delay or even dismiss the case.
That pattern continued on Monday, as Justice Merchan rejected a defense effort to force his recusal. The defense had cited several issues, including the fact that his daughter is a Democratic political consultant.
He also ruled that prosecutors could introduce evidence regarding Mr. Trump’s involvement with coordinating publicity with The National Enquirer to aid his 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump’s lawyers had described the evidence as a “sideshow,” but lost.
But Mr. Trump’s lawyers convinced Justice Merchan that sexual assault allegations that arose against Mr. Trump after the release of the so-called Access Hollywood tape, in which Mr. Trump was caught bragging about grabbing women’s genitals, would be prejudicial to the former president. Justice Merchan said the allegations would be off-limits during the trial, calling them “complete rumors, complete gossip, completely hearsay.”
The trial is about much more than business records.
Justice Merchan’s decisions on Monday made it clear that the trial will resurface unsavory events in the former president’s life.
Those include the Access Hollywood tape and other stories that Mr. Trump sought to suppress including an alleged affair with Ms. McDougal. Justice Merchan said on Monday that both could be discussed.
In a minor victory for the defense, the judge reaffirmed that the “Access Hollywood” tape itself could not be played, but that Trump’s exact words could be entered into the record.
Still, most of Mr. Merchan’s rulings indicated that salacious details of Mr. Trump’s biography will be heard in court.
Trump says he’s happy. His demeanor suggests otherwise.
Entering the courtroom, Mr. Trump said he was “very proud to be here.”
Once he was in front of Mr. Merchan, Mr. Trump looked a lot less enthusiastic. He slouched. He scowled. He scoffed. And he was quiet, not the norm for a man who built a political career with his gift for slashing attacks and vicious put-downs.
In court, the former president spoke only briefly, when asked a few questions by Justice Merchan about procedural matters, and whether he understood the consequences — ejection or jail — if he interrupted proceedings. He did whisper with his lawyers. And when the prosecution played a recording of him claiming to have great respect for women, he mouthed the word “true.”
But all in all, it seems it could be an exhausting experience for Mr. Trump; at one point before lunch, he appeared to fall asleep.
This trial may take a while.
It’s easy to forget how long it takes to do a little in legal settings. On Monday, the morning session was dominated by maneuvering by prosecutors and the defense, even as prospective jurors waited. By lunch, they were still waiting.
Jury selection could take days or weeks, and the trial itself may take two months. The Passover holiday could cause delays, Justice Merchan said, though he might make some of that up by holding hearings on court matters on Wednesdays, which was previously going to be an off day.
We are on our way to picking a jury. Slowly.
By afternoon, prospective jurors finally made their way into Justice Merchan’s courtroom. He warmly welcomed them, introduced the lawyers and Mr. Trump and read them a summary of the case.
Justice Merchan asked if any believed they could not be fair and impartial to the former president. Of the 96 prospective jurors in the room at that time, more than 50 raised their hands. They were immediately excused.
The remaining jurors were each asked 42 questions. By the end of Monday, 11 jurors had been questioned and two more were excused: a woman who said she could not be fair and a man who said his child’s wedding date could conflict with the trial.
Trump spoke briefly to TV cameras after court adjourned for the day, repeating his longstanding claims that the trial is a “political witch hunt” before heading to his motorcade and departing the courthouse.
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Reporter: [inaudible] the trial — [inaudible] So thank you very much. We had some amazing things happen today. As you know, my son is graduating from high school, and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who’s worked very, very hard. He’s a great student and he’s very proud of the fact that he did so well. And was looking forward for years to have his graduation with his mother and father there. And it looks like the judges isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam. It’s a scam trial. If you read all of the legal pundits, all of the legal scholars today, there’s not one that I see that said this is a case that should be brought or tried. It’s a scam. It’s a political witch hunt.
CreditCredit...Reuters
Shortly before court adjourned for the day, Trump’s campaign sent out a fundraising email falsely claiming he had just stormed out of court.
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The first day of Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial is officially over.
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Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
The action will pick back up with more jury selection tomorrow starting at 9:30 a.m.
Merchan’s tone becames sharp as he questions Blanche. “You don’t think you should be here at all right now?” he asks. Blanche says that yes, they don’t believe this trial should happen during campaign season. Merchan reminds him that his client is a criminal defendant and required to be in court — his request is denied.
There is still some business to attend to. Todd Blanche, Trump's lead lawyer, is asking Merchan to let Trump attend a hearing in one of his other cases next week. Steinglass, the prosecutor, pauses for a long time before answering that he isn’t interested in saying yes to this.
The request by Blanche is quite interesting. Over the weekend he made the opposite request, asking the judge in the Florida classified documents case to delay a deadline he was facing because he’s so busy in the New York case.
Jury selection is over for the day, the judge says. Merchan asks the prospective jurors to return early tomorrow so that he can start at 9:30 sharp.
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Many of the prospective jurors have been answering the yes or no questions simply and without elaboration. But a few have offered some further detail, such as a man who identified himself as a bookseller and said that “no one is above the law,” including former presidents. Another prospective juror, a nurse, said that she received Trump’s emails several years ago but that she “unsubscribed.”
Activists and antics punctuate the scene outside the courthouse.
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Laura Loomer appeared outside the Manhattan courthouse on Monday.Credit...David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
As former President Donald J. Trump’s first criminal trial began inside a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, the scene outside had elements of a feisty political skirmish and a surreal circus rolled into one.
The streets below the courtroom drew a mix of gawkers, activists and publicity hounds, along with a large contingent of journalists.
Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist known for her aggressive tactics and closeness with Mr. Trump, led a chant of “Donald Trump Did Nothing Wrong!” alongside Andrew Giuliani, the son of Rudy Giuliani, a former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer.
“We’re going to be here every single day talking to all you fake-news media freaks,” Ms. Loomer said through a Harvey Milk-style bullhorn in a video she posted on social media. “And letting you know that Donald Trump did nothing wrong until you start reporting the truth.”
Ms. Loomer described the case as a “witch hunt” — a frequent assertion of Mr. Trump’s — and criticized a key witness for the prosecution, Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, and the wife of the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan.
Mr. Trump promptly reposted the video on Truth Social — despite a gag order that bars him from attacking witnesses in the case or Justice Merchan’s family. His post, made during the lunch break, came shortly before Justice Merchan said he would hold a hearing later this month on prosecutors’ request that Mr. Trump be held in contempt of court over statements they say violate the order.
Performance artists also vied for attention. One, known as Crackhead Barney, stood screaming outside the gates surrounding Collect Pond Park that she had been kicked out, and demanded police officers’ badge numbers. Another played the flute atop a park bench, notes drifting through the wind and his instrument glinting in the sunlight.
Some anti-Trump demonstrators held handmade signs emblazoned with “Loser” and “Convict Trump Already,” while others tried to confront Ms. Loomer. One, Sue Scarlett Montgomery, asked reporters why they were paying attention to Ms. Loomer, a former Republican candidate for Congress who previously visited a treacherous migrant crossing in Panama as part of her anti-Muslim activism.
“They’re covering me because I broke the story about this corrupt judge here,” Ms. Loomer shot back, attacking Judge Merchan’s daughter, a Democratic political consultant who has also been a target of Mr. Trump.
The latest potential juror to be questioned reads The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, but is also the first person to say they are a New York Post reader. The Post was for decades Trump’s favorite paper.
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Trump is holding up the jury questionnaire and squinting at it, appearing to follow along as the latest prospective juror answers the questions.
Merchan just excused a juror and then congratulated him on his child's upcoming wedding, in a brief moment of levity. “Congratulations,” the judge said. “Good luck.”
Among the Trump aides in the courtroom is Natalie Harp, his ever-present favorite who uses a wireless printer to provide him with an ongoing stream of good news from the internet. She was initially sitting two rows behind the defense table, as she usually does. A security official in court just made her head to the back to sit in the same row as Trump’s other aides.
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Credit...Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters
Trump has walked back into court after the break. Merchan is already on the bench
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The prospective jurors who were answering the questions were in the jury box. As Merchan gives a recess, those people are led out of the courtroom. Trump watches them as they leave.
Just a reminder: the potential jurors answering questions right now are merely those who have made it through an initial culling. They will ultimately be subjected to a more intense, more personal (and likely more political) round of questions by the defense and prosecution.
To prepare for that inevitability, Justice Merchan has already decided that certain topics are off-limits during jury selection: lawyers for both sides cannot ask who the prospective voters plan to vote for or have voted for in the past, their political party registration or past political contributions.
Prospective jurors head for the exits, saying they can’t be fair to Trump.
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Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
Everyone expected that picking a jury to try a polarizing figure like former President Donald J. Trump was going to be a challenge.
But the experience of the first round of about 100 potential panelists gave a flavor of just how difficult the process could be: More than half told the judge that they could not hear the case against Mr. Trump fairly and were immediately excused.
Justice Juan M. Merchan, who is presiding over the case, read aloud to the prospective jurors a list of people who might serve as witnesses or be mentioned during the trial, asking them whether they recognized the names. Many of those names were indeed very recognizable.
Among those who could come up during the trial were Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s former adviser, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and one of Mr. Trump’s lawyers.
Several of Mr. Trump’s relatives were also on the list, including his wife, Melania, his older daughter, Ivanka, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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The first prospective juror is a young woman of color with a business degree who reads The New York Times and watches CNN. She seemed unbothered by the need to be fair and impartial and answered questions rapidly and almost nonchalantly.
The second prospective juror is a white creative director with glasses who lives in Midtown. Also a Times reader (thank you prospective juror). He did not answer with any surprises. When we start to get different answers to the final series of questions — which are more political and some of which concern Trump — is when we’ll get something a little more interesting.
The third prospective juror, asked about her hobbies, said she likes to “go to the club.” She said it in a playful voice, prompting a big laugh from reporters in the overflow room.
One thing that is striking: Trump has used the previous court appearances in other cases to project an image of grandeur. That is hard to do in this dingy courtroom, which smells slightly off and where he is an island amid a sea of people.
Prospective jurors who have not indicated that they wish to be dismissed are now being seated to answer the 42 questions that lawyers have agreed upon. They are being seated by jury identification number.
Trump is reading along with the juror questionnaire as the first possible juror, a young woman, ticks through her answers.
Of the 96 possible jurors brought into the room, more than 50 raised their hands to say they couldn’t be fair. They were immediately excused.
Trump turned and stared at possible jurors as they raised their hands indicating they couldn’t be fair in the case.
It’s remarkable that more than half of the potential jurors brought in for a first round of questioning immediately said they could not hear Trump’s case fairly. We knew that it would be hard to pick a jury, but a fail rate of 50 percent or higher right out of the gate is surpassingly rare.
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Among the notable names that the judge just read out as potential witnesses or people who could come up were Stephen K. Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Melania Trump and Jared Kushner. Not all will appear as witnesses or even potentially be mentioned. But it certainly gives jurors a sense of the cast of characters.
At least five hands went up when Merchan asked whether potential jurors could not be fair and impartial.
The first prospective juror who says he can’t be impartial, a man in a mask, has been excused. He walks past the defense table as he leaves.
Justice Merchan tells the prospective jurors that the trial will last approximately six weeks.
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Here’s what each side is looking for in a juror.
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The jury selection process in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan could take two weeks or more.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
Lawyers representing the State of New York and Donald J. Trump will try to divine unspoken political biases, opinions about law enforcement and other hidden agendas in picking the 12 people who will decide the former president’s fate.
The potential jurors, who could face public anger and threats if they are chosen, will be asked about their education, occupations, families and news sources. They will be asked to reveal whether they volunteered for or against Mr. Trump. Perhaps most critically, they will be asked whether their feelings would interfere with their ability to be fair.
The process could take two weeks or more — and may be as pivotal as any evidence presented in court.
“It’s the most important part,” said Arthur Aidala, a defense attorney whose firm has had many high-profile clients, including Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer. “And the hardest part too.”
The stakes of jury selection are particularly high for Mr. Trump’s team, which is aware of the former president’s poor standing among many in New York County — Manhattan, as most people know it — which overwhelmingly voted for President Biden in 2020.
Mr. Trump’s legal team sees the case as winnable, although some believe a full acquittal is less likely than the prospect of finding jurors willing to cause a mistrial by holding out against a unanimous guilty verdict, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers want a jury that includes younger Black men and white working-class men, particularly public employees like police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers. Those who have had bad experiences with the legal system will also be prized by the defense, which has cast the case as politically motivated.
Prosecutors, conversely, will probably be looking for more educated voters from Democratic neighborhoods, fishing for those who consume news from sources like MSNBC, known for its outspoken liberal hosts, and who are fond of late-night comedians like Stephen Colbert, who hosted a presidential panel with Mr. Biden on March 28.
Unlike most trials, where many potential jurors are loath to serve, some may be actively trying to get seated in this case. Michael Farkas, a defense attorney, said that those who seem to be angling for the jury “are the people who are most likely to have a partisan agenda.”
Some may not be completely forthcoming.
“In a case like this, both parties can pretty much rest assured that they are going to have people on the jury that aren’t being completely honest about how they feel,” Mr. Farkas said.
Mr. Aidala was blunter about potential jurors.
“They lie,” he said, adding, “People want to be on that jury because they think they’re going to write a book or they’re going to be on ’20/20’ or ’48 Hours’ or one of those things.”
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Trump appears to doze off in court, but also shows signs of irritation.
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Former President Donald J. Trump smirked and scoffed during pretrial proceedings on Monday in Manhattan.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
Follow our live coverage of Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan.
Former President Donald J. Trump seemed alternately irritated and exhausted Monday morning, as his lawyers and prosecutors hashed out pretrial motions before jury selection in his criminal case.
Even as a judge was hearing arguments on last-minute issues in a criminal case that centers on salacious allegations and threatens to upend his bid for the presidency, Mr. Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest.
The former president’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, passed him notes for several minutes before Mr. Trump appeared to jolt awake and notice them.
At other times, Mr. Trump whispered and exchanged notes with Mr. Blanche. He sat motionless while his own words from the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape — on which he bragged about grabbing women’s genitals — were read from a transcript by a prosecutor.
At times, Mr. Trump’s emotions were characteristically on display. He smirked and scoffed, and appeared frustrated when the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, did not immediately agree that he could miss court to attend the graduation of his youngest son, Barron.
But when Justice Merchan warned that Mr. Trump could be ejected or thrown in jail if he disrupts the proceedings, the former president indicated that he understood.
The only time Mr. Trump showed a flash of humor was when he laughed at one of his own social media posts, which attacked his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, who is expected to be the prosecution’s central witness.
Jurors won’t hear the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, but can be told what Trump said on it.
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Former President Donald J. Trump’s comments on the “Access Hollywood” tape will allowed to be introduced as evidence.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
The judge in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial on Monday again refused to allow the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape to be played for jurors, but said that the comments Mr. Trump made on the tape could be introduced as evidence.
On the tape, revealed in The Washington Post about a month before Mr. Trump was elected president in 2016, he is heard bragging about grabbing women’s genitals, saying he could do so with abandon because “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
“You can do anything,” Mr. Trump said on the recording.
The tape rocked Mr. Trump’s campaign. And prosecutors in Manhattan say it led him to agree to pay off Stormy Daniels, a porn star, who was shopping a story of a 2006 sexual encounter with the candidate.
Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer, paid Ms. Daniels $130,000. The payment is at the heart of the 34 felony charges against Mr. Trump, who is accused of falsifying business records to cover it up.
The judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, had previously ruled that prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office could question witnesses about the tape, but found that it would be prejudicial to allow the actual video to the played. He reaffirmed that ruling on Monday.
“You can bring out what was said in the tape,” Justice Merchan said, adding that he didn’t want jurors “to hear Mr. Trump’s voice and his gestures” in the tape.
In a victory for the defense, the judge also ruled that the prosecution could not introduce evidence about sexual assault allegations against Mr. Trump that surfaced in the aftermath of the tape becoming public, calling them “complete hearsay.”
However, Justice Merchan said that prosecutors could introduce emails that followed the tape’s disclosure, showing frantic efforts by Trump advisers to contain the fallout. The correspondence, he said, “bolsters the people’s claim that this was a crucial event.”
Todd Blanche, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, had called on Justice Merchan to reconsider admitting “this extremely salacious evidence,” which he described as “very prejudicial.”
Mr. Trump, who is again the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has denied any wrongdoing and has cast the case against him as politically motivated.
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Here’s what to know about the trial.
The first criminal trial of an American president officially began on Monday as prosecutors and defense lawyers convened in a Manhattan courtroom to start selecting the jury that will decide Donald J. Trump’s fate.
The initial pool of prospective jurors dwindled rapidly. More than half of the first group of 96 were dismissed in short order after indicating that they did not believe they could be impartial. Court adjourned for the day roughly two hours after jury selection began, with zero jurors chosen.
Before beginning the arduous process of choosing a jury for the landmark trial — on allegations that Mr. Trump falsified documents to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star — the judge overseeing the case once again declined to step aside, rejecting Mr. Trump’s latest effort to oust him.
But there was also a ruling that favored the former president: The judge, Juan M. Merchan, rejected a request by prosecutors to introduce accusations of sexual assault that women lodged against Mr. Trump years ago, calling them “rumors” and “complete gossip.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case against Mr. Trump, also asked the judge to hold Mr. Trump in contempt and penalize him $3,000 for violating a gag order barring him from attacking witnesses in the case.
On social media over the weekend, Mr. Trump assailed one of the prosecution’s key witnesses: Michael D. Cohen, his former fixer. Mr. Cohen paid $130,000 to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she said she had with Mr. Trump.
After the lunch break — during which Mr. Trump posted a video of an ally yelling about the judge’s wife — Justice Merchan said he would hold a hearing later this month to discuss potential violations of the gag order, which also bars Mr. Trump from attacking the judge’s family.
The jury selection process could take two weeks or more, and the trial may spill into June. Mr. Trump is expected to be in the courtroom for much of it.
Mr. Trump seemed alternately irritated and exhausted during pretrial arguments on Monday, sometimes smirking and scoffing, but also appearing to nod off, his mouth slack and his head drooping to his chest. After the trial got underway in the afternoon, he chuckled when Justice Merchan told the first group of 96 prospective jurors that he would ensure a fair trial.
Mr. Trump, who might take the witness stand in his own defense, has denied the sexual encounter with Ms. Daniels. But prosecutors say that, while serving as president, he allowed his company to falsify records to hide the reimbursements to Mr. Cohen. They argue the payment to Ms. Daniels was part of a pattern: Mr. Trump, faced with damaging stories that could have doomed his campaign, concealed them to influence the election.
Here’s what else to know about Mr. Trump’s trial:
- This is the Manhattan criminal case against Mr. Trump, and it was brought by the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, a year ago. Mr. Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and, if convicted, could face up to four years in prison. The case, one of four indictments facing the former president and presumptive Republican nominee, may be the only one to make it to trial before Election Day.
- Jury selection will be crucial for both sides. Prosecutors have some advantage, as the jury pool is drawn from Manhattan, one of the most Democratic counties in America. Mr. Trump’s team will be looking for red needles in a blue haystack.
- Mr. Trump has twice sought Justice Merchan’s recusal, citing his daughter’s work as a Democratic political consultant. Justice Merchan has declined to step aside, noting a ruling by a judicial ethics commission that found his daughter’s work posed no conflict for him. “There is no agenda here,” Justice Merchan said in court on Monday, adding, “we want to follow the law, we want justice to be done.” Mr. Trump has also attacked the judge’s daughter on social media.
- Hundreds of potential jurors have been summoned. Those who say they cannot be fair or otherwise serve are being excused, and the remaining prospective jurors will answer 42 questions compiled before the trial. Lawyers on both sides will be able to remove a limited number of them without explanation. The lawyers can also ask to remove a potential juror “for cause” by providing specific reasons they believe that person cannot be fair.
- In addition to the payment to Ms. Daniels, Mr. Bragg’s office is expected to highlight two other deals involving The National Enquirer, a tabloid that has longstanding ties to Mr. Trump. In one deal, the tabloid bought the silence of a man who had heard that Mr. Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock, a rumor that turned out to be false, and in the other, it paid Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model, who wanted to sell her story of an affair with Mr. Trump.
- The prosecution’s witness list is expected to include David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, as well as Hope Hicks, a former aide to Mr. Trump. Ms. Daniels and Ms. McDougal could also testify.