Donald Trump New York hush money jury selection to begin: Live updates – The Independent

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Jury selection will get underway in the former president’s first criminal case where he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels in 2016
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Donald Trump is making history once again as the first American president to ever stand trial on criminal charges.
The former president has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, in order to silence her over an alleged affair in 2006.
The charges on their own are misdemeanours but have been elevated to felonies because Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg says they occurred to violate state or federal election laws.
Mr Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Before jury selection gets underway, Judge Juan Merchan has denied a recusal motion and both sides are now debating what evidence can be admitted. A transcript of the Access Hollywood tape will be admitted, as will testimony from ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal but not in the context of Melania Trump’s pregnancy.
Earlier on Monday morning, Mr Trump instantly unleashed a series of rants on Truth Social blasting “the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case” and claiming he wants “my VOICE back”.
At one point in court, he appeared to fall asleep.
The second potential juror is married, lives in midtown and has worked as creative director for Lands End, previously Kenneth Cole. He likes hiking, cooking and playing with his dog.
He reads NYT, USA Today, CNN, WSJ, “that’s about it.”
The third juror sounds young, is from Texas, lives in Harlem, works at a company and likes to “sing, watch TV, go shopping, and go to the club” in her free time.
She gets her news from Google, TikTok and Al Jazeera.
To this question: “Do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former President Donald Trump, or the fact that he is a current candidate for president that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror?”
She said yes. So they chat with her about that to see whether she should be excused— and she is.
The Independent’s Alex Woodward reports:
The first prospective juror is a married woman with an MBA who likes restaurants in the city and reads The New York Times, CNN and Wall Street Journal and listens to The Daily.
On this question — “Do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former President Donald Trump, or the fact that he is a current candidate for president that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror?” — she said “no.”
Trump is following along with the list of questions. He’s holding up the paper close to his face and leaning back to read it.
A further nine jurors were excused after Judge Merchan asked if they could not serve for any other reason, leaving 34 of the original 96 from which the 18 were selected to answer the jury questionnaire.
Of the excused jurors, more than two dozen were white women.
Kathryn Watson of CBS News notes that for many of the prospective jurors, their first time ever seeing a current or former president in person is in criminal court:
Alex Woodward reports on the process of selecting a jury:
This is the first step in a two-step “hybrid” selection process intended to weed out people who cannot serve quickly before getting to the 42-question survey.
The video feed has been cut off but it sounds like at least a dozen jurors said they can’t be fair and impartial.
And now we’re doing another round, asking jurors to “raise your hand if you are unable to serve for any other reason,” like travel, medical or family obligations, etc.
18 prospective jurors are now being randomly called be seated to answer the questionnaire.
Per pool reporters in the courtroom: At least 50 jurors of the pool of 96 people were excused after they said they couldn’t be fair and impartial…
Alex Woodward reports from the court:
Trump’s eyes are closed.
He then leans back, looking at the judge. He’s occasionally been turning towards the jury box but he’s been pretty tuned out the last 20 minutes.
Trump’s attorneys don’t seem to care, none of them have nudged him or acknowledged him, so this might just be standard Trump to them.
Meanwhile, Judge Merchan has asked first-round question to potential jurors, whether they believe they can’t be fair and impartial, considering the circumstances.
Not missing a beat, the Biden-Harris campaign retweeted the CNN clip in which journalist Maggie Haberman said that Donald Trump fell asleep in court:
Here’s Kelly Rissman with reaction from social media as #SleepyDon trends:
His ‘Sleepy Joe’ nickname for his rival seems to have come full circle, with social media users now calling Mr Trump ‘Sleepy Don’
The Independent’s Alex Woodward reports from the court:
Judge Juan Merchan read a portion of the jury instructions to the court.
The allegations are in substance, that Donald Trump falsified business records to conceal an agreement with others to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, it is alleged that Donald Trump made or caused false business records to hide the true nature of payments made to Michael Cohen, by characterizing them as payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a retainer agreement. The People allege that in fact, the payments were intended to reimburse Michael Cohen for money he paid to Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, in the weeks before the presidential election to prevent her from publicly revealing details about a past sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations.
The Independent’s Alex Woodward reports from the court:
Judge Merchan returns to the courtroom and says the hearing on Trump’s alleged gag order violations and contempt charge will now take place next Tuesday 23 April at 930am and not on 24 April as previously reported.
Video and audio feeds to the media room were switched off as the first 96 potential jurors were brought into court. We presumably will get them back once the cameras are reset to block them out. There are about two hours left in today’s proceedings, and attorneys get 30 minutes for this batch of jurors.
They are now being sworn in and Judge Merchan tells them instructions will take 30 minutes.
Trump is leaning forward at the table, he appears to be reading something, bobbing his head left to right as he scans the page.
The judge introduced the defence team, and Trump stood up with them and turned to the jurors in the room.
This morning, just hours before the trial was set to begin, he called the case a “witch hunt” as he argued for the trial to “be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge”.
It’s become an increasingly common refrain from Mr Trump, who appears unable to stop his attacks even when they put him in increased legal, personal, and financial jeopardy.
A litany of pundits have argued that if Mr Trump could just stop talking about himself and start talking about the issues voters care about, he’d be much likelier to win re-election this fall.
Gustaf Kilander reports:
‘He ascribes all kinds of terrible motives and characteristics to them, many of which are simply images of himself that he rejects and puts on other people,’ Harvard psychiatrist tells Gustaf Kilander

Alex Woodward reports from the court:
Judge Juan Merchan will hear prosecutors’ contempt charges on Wednesday 24 April at 2:15pm.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wants more time to look through exhibits – a deadline that he blew past two months ago. The initial deadline, before the new flood of federal documents, was 22 February.
Merchan is giving him 24 hours. Otherwise, the defence will be precluded from using them.
The judge hammers the defence for a wave of motions within the last two months to try to get the case dismissed. “Frivolous or not … the defence team was very busy filing motions,” he said.
“I don’t know how you managed to get all those motions out …. One Sunday you got three premotions to me with exhibits and attachments,” he added. “The way you use your time is your business … I’m giving you 24 hours.”
Blanche is not thrilled.
He blustered a bit and handed off to Susan Necheles, her first time talking in court today. She was barely mic’d up so we could barely hear her.
Blanche is leaning towards Trump to listen to him speak. Trump is gesturing with both hands, scowling as he typically does, while he’s hunched in his chair with the shoulders of his suit jacket scrunched around him.
All is quiet in court as we wait for the jurors to come in.
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Donald Trump in court for historic hush money trial
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