Jury selection in former President Trump’s historic and unprecedented criminal trial stemming from charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is expected to resume Thursday morning.
Bragg has charged Trump, the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
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Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts. He has blasted the trial as pure politics, a “political persecution,” and maintains his innocence. The former president is expected to testify during his trial.
Former President Trump is shown before proceedings get underway on the second day of jury selection at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer/Pool)
“I tell the truth,” Trump said last week, when asked about his possible testimony.
Trump is the first president in United States history to stand criminal trial.
By the end of jury selection on Tuesday, seven jurors had been selected and sworn in. The jury pool so far includes four men and three women, all living in New York City. Their professions include law, finance, nursing, technology and more.
Court will not meet for the trial on Wednesdays, and the third day of jury selection is expected to begin at 9:30 a.m. in Lower Manhattan.
Tuesday, the second day of the trial, brought a filing from Bragg, who argued that Trump should be held in contempt of court for violating the gag order imposed upon him by Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial.
Bragg and prosecutors are arguing that Trump must pay a $1,000 fine each for three alleged violations of the gag order, with all relating to social media posts.
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In the motion, Bragg urged the judge to warn Trump that “future violations” of the gag order can be punished “not only with additional fines, but also with a term of incarceration of up to thirty days.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on April 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
But after sitting in a courtroom for more than eight hours of jury selection Tuesday evening, Trump made a campaign stop at Sanaa Convenience Store in Harlem. Trump was met by a large crowd chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump,” “Four more years” and “We love Trump.” The crowd was singing the national anthem.
The visit was intended to highlight rising crime in New York City under Bragg’s watch.
Former President Trump visits a Manhattan bodega – where a worker was assaulted by a man in 2022 and ended up killing him in an ensuing fight – on April 16, 2024, in New York City. Trump visited the bodega after spending a second day in court where he faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Trump blasted the trial and charges against him, saying it is “rigged,” “all politics” and “coming out of the [President Biden’s] White House.”
“It makes me campaign locally, and that’s OK,” Trump said. “We’re doing better now than we’ve ever done, so I think it’s having a reverse effect.”
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“We’re going to come in – No. 1, you have to stop crime, and we’re going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. They have to be able to do their job,” Trump said. “And we’re going to come into New York. We’re making a big play for New York, other cities, too. But this city, I love this city.”
Trump said New York has “gotten so bad in the last three years, four years.”
“And we’re going to straighten New York out. So, running for president, we’re putting a big hit in New York; we could win New York,” he said.
A court sketch depicts the second day of former President Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on April 16, 2024. Jury selection in his hush money trial is ongoing. (Christine Cornell)
“They want to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump said. “But based on what I’m doing, I think there’s more press here than if I went out to some [other] location.”
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As for crime in New York City, Trump said, “It’s Alvin Bragg’s fault. Alvin Bragg does nothing. He goes after guys like Trump who did nothing wrong. Violent criminals, murderers? They know there are … hundreds of murders all over the city. They know who they are. They don’t pick them up. They go after Trump.”
He added, “The people of New York are not going to take it. That’s why they’re going to vote for Trump.”