Manhattan Jury Seated in Impeachment Trial of President Donald Trump – Latest Updates and Testimony

NEW YORK (AP) – A 12-person jury was seated Thursday in the impeachment of President Donald Trump. happy money testmoving the proceedings closer to opening statements and the start of weeks of extraordinary testimony.

The court quickly turned to selecting other jurors, with the process on track to end by the end of the week. Prosecutors could begin presenting their case early next week.

The jury of Manhattanites includes a sales professional, a software engineer, a security engineer, a teacher, a speech therapist, multiple lawyers, an investment banker and a retired wealth manager.

The first-ever trial of a former American president is taking place in New York during this year’s race for the White House, meaning the Republican candidate who is expected to spending his days in court against sobering and irreconcilable evidence about his personal life while simultaneously campaigning for recovery. the position he held for four years.

He has made it clear that he is determined to use his legal threat, which is already a major issue in the race against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, to his advantage. After a full day of jury selection, he complained to reporters that he should have been out campaigning but was in court instead for what he said was a “very unfair trial”. .

“Everybody is frustrated by it,” he said. “You know the whole world is watching this scam in New York.

Jury selection proceeded at high speed earlier on Thursday as two jurors were dismissed, one after he expressed doubts about her ability to be fair after revealing details about her identity and the other about concerns that some of his answers in court may have been inaccurate.

But lawyers who started the day with just five jurors quickly settled on the remaining seven, along with one other person. Judge Juan Merchan has said his goal is to have six more.

The jury selection process is an important stage in any criminal trial but especially when the defendant is the vice president and the Republican nominee. Prospective jurors have been misled about their social media posts, personal lives and political views as lawyers and the judge search for any bias that would prevent them from be impartial.

Inside the court, it’s widely acknowledged how far-fetched it is in trying to find jurors who don’t know Trump. A prosecutor said this week that lawyers were not looking for people who had “been living under a rock for eight years.

To that end, several jurors selected for the panel admitted that they had personal opinions about Trump or his leadership.

One juror, a man who works in investment banking, said he was “sceptical” about Trump, saying, “I may not like some of his policies, but there has been some good” for the country.

A woman selected for the jury said she thought Trump seemed “very selfish and self-serving,” adding, “I don’t really appreciate that from a public servant.” existence.” Defense attorneys were out of peremptory strikes, which would allow them to dismiss a jury without giving a reason.

The test is based on a $130,000 payment that Michael Cohenwho was Trump’s lawyer and personal negotiator, made it to porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the final days of the 2016 race.

Prosecutors say Trump hid the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company paid back Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a key witness. to the prosecutors.

Trump has denied meeting with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He could receive up to four years in prison if convicted, although it is not clear whether the judge will choose to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.

Trump is facing four criminal cases, but it is unclear if any more will go to trial before the November election. Appeals and legal wrangling have caused delays in the three other cases impeaching Trump plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and with illegally keeping classified documents.

The jury selection process began Tuesday with the selection of seven jurors. But on Thursday, Merchant revealed in court that one of the seven, a cancer nurse, “had expressed concerns after sleeping at night about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case.”

And while the names of jurors are being kept secret, the woman told the judge and lawyers she had doubts after she said aspects of her identity had been made public.

“Just yesterday I had friends, colleagues and family pushing things to my phone about questioning my identity as a juror,” she said. “I do not believe at this point that I can be fair and impartial and allow outside influences to influence my decisions in the courtroom. “

A second seated juror was dismissed after prosecutors raised concerns that he may not have been honest in answering a jury selection question by saying he had never been charged or convicted of a crime .

After removing the already chosen nurse, Merchan, from the jury to order journalists in court not reporting jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.

“We lost, perhaps, what would have been a very good jury for this case, and the first thing she said was that she was afraid and afraid of the media, all the media, and everything that had happened,” Merchan said.

In other developments, prosecutors requested that Trump be held in contempt over a series of social media posts this week.

The district attorney’s office on Monday sought a $3,000 fine for Trump for three Truth Social messages it said violated a judge’s gag order limiting what he can say publicly about witnesses. . Since then, prosecutors said Trump has made seven additional appointments that they believe violate the order.

Trump’s lawyer Emil Bove said that Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and Trump was just responding.