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More alternate jurors are being selected Friday in the New York hush money trial of former U.S. president Donald Trump, with opening arguments in the case possible on Monday. <\/p>\n
Seven men and five women were seated on the jury Thursday to hear evidence in the first criminal case ever brought against a former U.S. president. The jury includes two lawyers, six people who are employed at businesses, two who work in the education field, a health care worker and an engineer. None of them has been publicly identified. <\/p>\n
Some of the jurors acknowledged to New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and Trump\u2019s defense lawyers that in recent years they had expressed negative views about the 77-year-old former president, but all said they could put those views aside and judge the case fairly. Several said they barely follow the news of the day. <\/p>\n
One alternate juror was also picked Thursday, with Merchan saying he wants to add five more alternates to hear testimony and be available to replace any jurors who are incapacitated or otherwise need to be replaced. The alternates would only be involved in jury deliberations and help decide the verdict if they end up on the jury as a replacement in what could be a six-week trial. <\/p>\n
The case broadly involves allegations that Trump, the 45th U.S. president, schemed in 2016, just ahead of his successful White House campaign, to hide hush money payments to two women to cover up their claims of alleged extramarital affairs with him. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors are contending that Trump was seeking to keep compromising information about his private life from voters, just before they cast ballots eight years ago. <\/p>\n
Trump, who was president from 2017 to 2021 and is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in this year\u2019s November 5 election, has denied the affairs and all 34 felony counts in the indictment filed against him a year ago. <\/p>\n
If convicted, he could be imprisoned for up to four years. <\/p>\n
Merchan, prosecutors and Trump defense lawyers spent hours over three days this week asking prospective jurors about their views of Trump. <\/p>\n
When the 12th juror was picked, Merchan declared, \u201cWe have our jury.\u201d <\/p>\n
The judge and the lawyers quizzed the jurors about how they consumed news of the day, where they worked and, specifically, whether they could fairly judge Trump, a New York celebrity and real estate magnate for years before entering politics in 2015. <\/p>\n
Dozens of would-be jurors, their names drawn from voter registration lists in the heavily Democratic city that resoundingly voted against Trump in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, immediately told Merchan they could not render an unbiased verdict and were dismissed. <\/p>\n
Merchan dismissed some possible jurors whom he felt, based on their answers in court or social media posts denigrating Trump, could not fairly judge the case. <\/p>\n
Both the prosecutors and Trump\u2019s lawyers had 10 available peremptory challenges they could use to keep jurors they did not like off the jury. <\/p>\n
The limit on challenges came into play at the end of jury selection, to Trump\u2019s detriment. <\/p>\n
When one potential juror was asked how she felt about Trump, she said she did not have strong opinions about him, but added, \u201cI don’t like his persona, how he presents himself in public.\u201d <\/p>\n
She then said, \u201cI don\u2019t like some of my coworkers, but I don\u2019t try to sabotage their work.\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawyers tried to keep her off the jury, objecting to her selection \u201cfor cause,\u201d but Merchan denied their challenge. <\/p>\n
By that point, Trump\u2019s lawyers were out of peremptory challenges, and she is on the jury, which was sworn in by Merchan. <\/p>\n
Although the names of the would-be jurors have not been made public to protect their identities and safety, the lawyers had a list of them. Trump\u2019s support staff pored over the names to see what anti-Trump social media messages they may have posted in recent years. <\/p>\n
Trump has often assailed Merchan in his social media posts and called the case \u201celection interference\u201d as he seeks to reclaim the presidency. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors have contended that Trump several times has violated Merchan\u2019s gag order prohibiting him from disparaging key participants in the case, although the judge excluded himself from the edict. <\/p>\n
Merchan has scheduled a hearing next week to listen to demands by prosecutors that Trump be held in contempt of court and fined. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The former president has watched the proceedings from the defendant\u2019s table flanked by his lawyers, taking some notes and occasionally glancing at the prospective jurors. He appeared to doze off at some points on Monday and Tuesday before jolting alert again. <\/p>\n
Eventually, he could take the witness stand to defend himself, depending on how he and his lawyers view the prosecutors\u2019 evidence. <\/p>\n
Since Trump is required to be in court, the case almost certainly will limit his time on the campaign trail as he runs for the second straight election cycle against President Joe Biden, a Democrat. On an off day for the trial, Trump is headed to North Carolina for a rally on Saturday night. <\/p>\n
Charges explained<\/strong> <\/p>\nTrump stands accused of hiding a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels just ahead of the 2016 election to keep her from publicly talking about her claim that she had a one-night tryst with him at a celebrity golf tournament a decade earlier. That was less than four months after Trump\u2019s wife, Melania, had given birth to Barron, the couple\u2019s son, who is now 18. <\/p>\n
In a second instance, the indictment alleges that a former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Karen McDougal, says she had a monthslong affair with Trump and was paid $150,000 by a tabloid publisher who bought the rights to her story and then, at Trump\u2019s urging, killed the article. <\/p>\n
Trump has denied both affairs and all 34 charges he faces in the New York case, including that he directed his one-time political fixer, convicted perjurer Michael Cohen, to make the payment to Daniels and then reimbursed him during the first year of his presidency in 2017 \u2014 all the while labeling the monthly stipends to Cohen in Trump\u2019s business records as legal expenses. <\/p>\n
As he arrived for the trial on Tuesday, Trump told reporters, \u201cI was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense. That\u2019s exactly what it was.” <\/p>\n
Altering his company\u2019s ledgers would be a misdemeanor offense, but to convict Trump of a more serious felony, prosecutors will have to convince jurors he committed an underlying crime, such as trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election by keeping information about the alleged affairs from voters. <\/p>\n
It is not illegal to pay hush money, and Trump may claim the payments were made simply to avoid disclosure of personally compromising moments of his life, not to try to influence the 2016 election. <\/p>\n
The 12-member jury will have to reach a unanimous decision of either a guilty verdict or acquittal. If the jurors fail to agree among themselves, there would be what is called a \u201chung jury,\u201d leaving the prosecutors to decide whether to seek a new trial. <\/p>\n
Each of the charges carries the possibility of a four-year prison term, although Trump is certain to appeal any guilty verdict and sentence. <\/p>\n
The New York case is one of an unprecedented four criminal indictments Trump is facing encompassing 88 charges, all of which he has denied. <\/p>\n
Two of the other indictments \u2014 one state and one federal \u2014 accuse him of illegally trying to upend his 2020 loss, while the third alleges he illegally took hundreds of highly classified national security documents with him to his oceanside Florida estate when his presidential term ended, and then refused requests by investigators to return them. <\/p>\n
No firm trial dates have been set in any of those three cases, and Trump has sought to push the start dates until after the election. <\/p>\n
If he wins, he could seek to have the federal charges dismissed. In any event, if he assumes power again, he would not be tried during his presidency. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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