Current:Home > NewsTrump will return to court after first day of hush money criminal trial ends with no jurors picked-LoTradeCoin
Trump will return to court after first day of hush money criminal trial ends with no jurors picked
View Date:2024-12-23 21:59:05
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump will return to a New York courtroom Tuesday as a judge works to find a panel of jurors who will decide whether the former president is guilty of criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign.
The first day of Trump’s history-making trial in Manhattan ended with no one yet chosen to be on the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates. Dozens of people were dismissed after saying they didn’t believe they could be fair, though dozens of other prospective jurors have yet to be questioned.
What to know about Trump’s hush money trial:
- Follow our live updates here.
- Trump will be first ex-president on criminal trial. Here’s what to know about the hush money case.
- A jury of his peers: A look at how jury selection will work in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial.
- Donald Trump is facing four criminal indictments, and a civil lawsuit. You can track all of the cases here.
It’s the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial and may be the only one that could reach a verdict before voters decide in November whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee should return to the White House. It puts Trump’s legal problems at the center of the closely contested race against President Joe Biden, with Trump painting himself as the victim of a politically motivated justice system working to deprive him of another term.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious — and, he says, bogus — stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign. On Monday, Trump called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “scam” and “witch hunt.”
The first day of Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial ended Monday after hours of pretrial motions and an initial jury selection process that saw dozens of prospective jurors excused after they said they could not be fair or impartial.
The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He paid that sum on Trump’s behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the sexual encounter ever happened.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees. Prosecutors have described it as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
Trump has acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment and that it was designed to stop Daniels from going public about the alleged encounter. But Trump has previously said it had nothing to do with the campaign.
Jury selection could take several more days — or even weeks — in the heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status decades before winning the White House.
Only about a third of the 96 people in the first panel of potential jurors brought into the courtroom on Monday remained after the judge excused some members. More than half of the group was excused after telling the judge they could not be fair and impartial and several others were dismissed for other reasons that were not disclosed. Another group of more than 100 potential jurors sent to the courthouse Monday was not yet brought into the courtroom for questioning.
___
Richer reported from Washington.
veryGood! (9515)
Related
- FSU football fires offensive, defensive coordinators, wide receivers coach
- American Express, Visa, Mastercard move ahead with code to track gun store purchases in California
- Former NFL Player Tony Hutson Dead at 49
- The Daily Money: 'Romance scams' cost consumers $1.14b
- BITFII Introduce
- House GOP seeks transcripts, recordings of Biden interviews with special counsel
- The Proposed Cleanup of a Baltimore County Superfund Site Stirs Questions and Concerns in a Historical, Disinvested Community
- Lab-grown diamonds come with sparkling price tags, but many have cloudy sustainability claims
- Threat closes Spokane City Hall and cancels council meeting in Washington state
- Tom Brady Weighs In on Travis Kelce and Andy Reid’s Tense Super Bowl Moment
Ranking
- Georgia House Democrats shift toward new leaders after limited election gains
- The 5 states with the fastest job growth in 2023, and the 5 states with the slowest gains
- Race to succeed George Santos in Congress reaches stormy climax in New York’s suburbs
- Flight attendants are holding airport rallies to protest the lack of new contracts and pay raises
- Worker trapped under rubble after construction accident in Kentucky
- My Big Fat Fabolous Life's Whitney Way Thore Reveals 100-Pound Weight Loss Transformation
- The Proposed Cleanup of a Baltimore County Superfund Site Stirs Questions and Concerns in a Historical, Disinvested Community
- Caitlin Clark goes for NCAA women's scoring record Thursday vs. Michigan
Recommendation
-
Wheel of Fortune Contestant Goes Viral Over His Hilariously Wrong Answer
-
Real Housewives' Melissa Gorga Is “Very Picky” About Activewear, but She Loves This $22 Sports Bra
-
Yes, a lot of people watched the Super Bowl, but the monoculture is still a myth
-
Hiker stranded on boulder hoisted to safety by helicopter in California: Watch the video
-
Oprah Winfrey Addresses Claim She Was Paid $1 Million by Kamala Harris' Campaign
-
45-year-old man arrested in Jackie Robinson statue theft that was not motivated by race, police say
-
The 5 states with the fastest job growth in 2023, and the 5 states with the slowest gains
-
Wisconsin Assembly to consider eliminating work permit requirement for 14- and 15-year-olds