NEW YORK (AP) – Donald Trump will return to a New York courtroom on Tuesday as judges work to find a jury to decide whether the former president is guilty. Criminal charges for allegedly falsifying business records To cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 election campaign.
First day of President Trump's hush money trial, which will go down in history The Manhattan trial ended with no one yet selected for the jury of 12 jurors and six alternates. Dozens of other potential jurors have not yet been questioned, although dozens were dismissed because they did not believe it was impartial.
What you need to know about Trump's hush money trial:
This is the first of President Trump's four criminal charges. He is scheduled to go to trial and may be the only person who can reach a verdict before voters decide whether to go to trial in November. prospective Republican presidential nominee You should go back to the White House. Mr. Trump's legal problems are at the center of his close race against President Joe Biden, with Mr. Trump portraying himself as the victim of a politically motivated judicial system bent on stripping him of his term in office.
Mr Trump is pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies for falsifying business records as Some of the alleged efforts This was to prevent sordid and false stories about their sex lives from surfacing during the 2016 campaign. On Monday, President Trump denounced the lawsuit. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “Fraud” and “witch hunt”.
The first day of Donald Trump's historic hush money trial ended with hours of pretrial motions and initial jury selection in which dozens of potential jurors were excused for being unable to be impartial or impartial. The process ended on Monday.
The charges center on a $130,000 payment made by Trump's company to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen.He paid that amount on Trump's behalf to keep porn actor stormy daniels She also never went public with her claims about sexual encounters with Trump a decade ago. President Trump has denied that there was any sexual contact.
Prosecutors claim the payments to Mr. Cohen were incorrectly recorded as legal expenses. Prosecutors said the comments were part of a plan to kill harmful stories that Trump feared would help his opponent in his 2016 campaign, especially since the president's reputation at the time had been tarnished by the comments. are doing. he was talking about women.
President Trump acknowledged that he had repaid the payments to Cohen and that the payments were intended to prevent Daniels from going public about the alleged meeting. But President Trump has previously said he has nothing to do with the campaign.
Jury selection could take days or weeks more in the heavily Democratic city where Mr. Trump grew up and rose to celebrity status decades before his White House victory.
Of the 96 members of the original panel of potential jurors brought into court on Monday, only about a third 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 court Monday have not yet been brought into court for questioning.
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Richer reported from Washington.
