Donald Trump arrives at New York court for criminal trial jury selection – live – The Guardian US
Former US president becomes first to undergo criminal trial over charges of falsifying business records to hide his affair with Stormy Daniels
To recap: Merchan reiterated that the Access Hollywood tape and Trump’s reference to the tape in a deposition won’t come into evidence.
But Merchan allowed into evidence the transcript – so that prosecutors can read out the full Trump quote “grab them by the pussy” – and a 2015 email chain where Hope Hicks forwards the transcript to Kellyanne Conway asking if it was Trump’s voice, to which Conway asks Michael Cohen who was doing damage control.
Donald Trump has returned to the courtroom following a lunch break.
He did not answer shouted questions as he made his way back to the courtroom, per pool.
The former president has remained largely silent during court so far.
During the morning period of today’s trial, Trump spoke three barely audible words into the record – he said “yes” three times as he was read his so-called “Parker warnings”, advising him that he is entitled to be present in court, but that he can be removed from court for reasons of misconduct.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office spent years circling Donald Trump while investigating the hush-money payments.
The DA’s office first subpoenaed the Trump Organization for documents related to the Daniels payment in 2019. The investigation continued when Alvin Bragg became district attorney in 2022.
Though the investigation appeared to be drifting after years of simmering under the surface, investigators started presenting evidence in January 2023 to a grand jury that ultimately indicted Trump in March 2023. A clear narrative about the payments only came to light after the indictment was released. Though the payments had been previously reported, Trump’s role in the process was relatively ambiguous.
Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, said he expects the trial to last about six weeks. The trial will be Trump’s third over the last year. Trump was fined $450m for inflating the value of his assets on financial statements in his New York fraud trial, and he was fined another $83.3m for defamation against the writer E Jean Carroll. Both were civil trials that did not put Trump, who is appealing both cases, at risk for prison time.
Bragg’s case is the first of four criminal cases against him to go to court. Trump faces a criminal case in Florida over alleged mishandling of classified documents, a case in Washington DC over the January 6 insurrection and a third in Georgia over attempts to overthrow the 2020 election. It is unclear when the Florida and Georgia cases will go to a trial, while the supreme court is considering arguments of presidential immunity in his DC case.
Back when candidate Donald Trump was just starting to fill stadiums across the US with loyal crowds of supporters, he held a fateful meeting that would set the course for the first criminal trial of a former US president, which kicked off today.
At that August 2015 meeting, Trump spoke with David Pecker, then-CEO of American Media, the parent company of tabloid the National Enquirer. Pecker told Trump he could be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s presidential campaign, on the lookout for any salacious stories people were telling about him. Prosecutors would later call this strategy a “catch and kill” scheme.
As Trump’s campaign began to grow, Pecker learned about an adult film actor who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, the year after he married Melania, and was willing to go public with her story.
With the help of his former fixer Michael Cohen, Trump would allegedly pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about her story. After Trump became president, prosecutors say, he started reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he would record in his financial records as legal fees to Cohen.
These payments could land Trump in prison. Prosecutors allege that Trump broke the law by falsifying these business records to hide illegal hush-money payments and protect Trump’s chances during the presidential election.
The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts last April. The charges carry a maximum of four years in prison.
Here are some sketches capturing scenes inside the Manhattan courtroom where no cameras are allowed inside.
Police are investigating a bomb threat at the home of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, from this morning, they said.
A police spokesperson said a 911 caller reported the threat shortly before 9am, AP reported.
This isn’t the first time Bragg has been threatened for his role in prosecuting the case against Donald Trump.
A powdery substance was found last year with a threatening letter that said ““Alvin, I am going to kill you” in a mailroom at Bragg’s offices.
It will also be difficult for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to define a clear victim in the case. Stormy Daniels received a payout for her silence and Michael Cohen also willingly accepted money.
That puts the pressure on Bragg to explain why the true victims are the voting public.
“You don’t need Michael Cohen or Stormy Daniels or any victim, you know – all New Yorkers are victims because … all of us who have businesses who do things the right way,” Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said.
If I were them, I would say this case has nothing to do with Michael Cohen. It’s more about concealing something from voters.
Fred Wertheimer, the founder and president of Democracy 21, who has been supportive of the prosecution, said that keeping the focus on the political significance of the hush-money payments would be key.
“This is not just a hush-money case, as it tends to be described,” he said.
The money was given to influence the 2016 election. In other words, the silence was purchased so [Daniels] would not provide damaging information in the closing weeks of his campaign
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg faces other risks: a star witness in the case is Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time confidant who has pleaded guilty to campaign finance and tax evasion charges and since been disbarred.
Trump’s attorneys are likely to go hard and try to undermine his credibility when he takes the stand, making it more difficult for Bragg to convince jurors he can be believed.
“Prosecutors are used to trying cases where their witnesses are flawed and have a lot of baggage,” Cheryl Bader, a professor at Fordham law school who specializes in criminal justice, said.
They know how to prepare a witness who has lied in the past and has committed crimes in the past to answer questions in cross-examination and to admit, right, to come clean to the jury and therefore show that they are willing to answer honestly even about the wrongs that they’ve done.
Cohen’s credibility may also be enhanced because he is not testifying in exchange for any leniency since he has already served a prison sentence, Bader noted.
Lying on the stand because you hate somebody is different than lying on the stand because you want to save yourself from going to jail.
But Cohen hasn’t done himself any favors. Last month, a federal judge suggested Cohen may have committed perjury when he testified in October that he hadn’t actually committed tax evasion even though he pleaded guilty to it in 2018.
The court is now taking a lunch break and will resume at 1.30pm ET.
Donald Trump left the courtroom with his lawyers and the Secret Service. Asked by reporters how the trial is going, he responded with another thumbs up.
Prosecutors are now asking Judge Merchan to enter an order that would impose a sanction of $1,000 per violation and they want Trump to be ordered to take down offending posts. (There are three that prosecutors are mentioning.)
The prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, also noted that “a little after 9 o’clock this morning, I was alerted to another post,” he said.
It’s entirely possible it was done inside this courthouse.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche is responding to prosecutors’ request that Trump be punished for repeatedly violating the gag order.
It’s not as if president Trump s going out and targeting individuals.
He’s responding to salacious claims, Blanche insisted.
The judge did not immediately issue a ruling.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche did say that while the former president “wants to be present at everything”, there might be some days that just wouldn’t work.
Earlier today there was a brief discussion about whether there would be court on the day of Trump’s son Barron’s high school graduation.
Merchan appears eager to get on to the voir dire jury selection process.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche says Trump intends to be present for everything – including side bars – which is now causing a new problem bc logistics issues with the US Secret Service. Blanche insists:
President Trump wants to be present at everything. He does want to be present.
Merchan, speaking to Trump, tells him that if he disrupts the proceeding, he could be jailed, with jury selection continuing in his absence.
It’s a routine “Parker warning” that Merchan issues to all defendants.
Donald Trump appears to be nodding off.
His eyes close and his head tilts or lowers and then it jolts him awake again.
Merchan seems eager to move things along.
As both sides been trying to hash out remaining issues about evidence that can be let into the trial, Merchan mentioned that there were 500 potential jurors waiting for selection.
He told prosecutors and defense to “work it out”.
The case puts lying, a critical part of Donald Trump’s political rise, back into the center of public discourse.
It also showcases an embarrassing moment for Trump in the public spotlight – reminding voters that he was concerned enough about news of an affair getting out that he was willing to pay a substantial sum to keep it quiet.
“Hush money for sex is never really dry,” said John Coffee Jr, a professor at Columbia University.
Whit Ayres, a longtime Republican pollster, said he was doubtful those allegations would make a difference.
Gee, Trump screws around on his wives. Whoa, what a revelation. And then he tries to cover it up. Whoa, what a revelation. Evangelical voters long ago made peace with the fact that Donald Trump is not exactly a model for fidelity in marriage.