The first day of the trial against former President Donald Trump began on Monday, April 15 with the selection of an impartial juryHowever, the first session of this process ended without a single member being able to be elected.
According to the media Telemundo 51the process will begin again this Tuesday the 16th, since 12 members and six substitutes must be chosen for the group that will play a very important role in the case.
The process turned out to be more difficult than expected, as more than half of the 96 individuals summoned for this task were excused after admitting that they would not be able to give an impartial opinion.
Another of them was excluded after he confessed to having strong opinions about Trump, which would prevent him from maintaining a neutral position on the case.
The process to select jurors is expected to last one to two weeks, depending on how many more people are excluded by Trump’s defense and the prosecution.
Judge Juan M. Merchán, in charge of the case, emphasized how important this process is, since it is imperative to find someone whose opinion about Trump is not positive or negative enough to affect the verdict, which must be made after analyze the evidence neutrally.
Trump is currently facing 34 felony charges for allegedly falsifying business records related to a payment made on behalf of adult performer Stormy Daniels.
According to the accusations, Trump would have used money from his company to pay for the woman’s silence after an alleged affair that could have affected the image of his political campaign.
The magnate’s company would have given $130,000 to his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, so that he could give the money to the actress, placing the payment as his company’s legal fees, something that is illegal to do.
Merchán had to resolve several previous requests during the first day of the process, including one made by Trump’s defense to recuse himself from the case due to an alleged conflict of interest.
Likewise, prosecutors requested a fine of $3,000 for Trump for violating a gag order and attacking witnesses in the case on social media.
This is the first of four proceedings that will be filed against Trump in different jurisdictions, and is considered a historic event because the magnate is the first former US president to be subjected to a criminal trial.
#choose #single #impartial #juror
