Judge warns Trump against intimidating potential jurors in court

A judge in Donald Trump’s secret trial has warned the former president against “intimidating” potential jurors in the case.

Judge Juan Merchan warned he would not tolerate Trump speaking while potential jurors were questioned in court Tuesday.

He said the former president was saying something audibly while his lawyers questioned potential jury members, and warned: “I will not let any juror be intimidated in the courtroom.”

The first seven jurors were selected to serve on the historic trial’s panel of 12 jurors and six alternates Tuesday afternoon.

They include an oncology nurse, a lawyer, an IT consultant, a teacher and a software engineer.

Several others were excused Tuesday morning after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments.

Others hesitated when asked what they thought of Trump, including one who said his personal opinion of the former president “has absolutely no bearing on the case you present or defend. That’s another thing.”

Dozens of potential jurors still need to be interviewed.

The judge also ruled Tuesday that attorneys were allowed to question potential jurors about their social media posts.

The move came after Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, told the judge he found several social media posts that he said came from potential jurors and were “very contrary to the responses they have given”.

Potential jurors were also asked about where they consume their news, their opinions on Trump and whether they follow politics.

The secret money affair is the first in a series AssetAll four criminal cases are up for trial and could be the only one that could reach a verdict before the November presidential vote.

If convicted, Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – would become the first former US president convicted of a crime.

He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to keep salacious and, he says, false stories about his sex life that emerged during his campaign from 2016.

Trump claimed the trial was the result of a politically motivated legal system aimed at depriving him of another term as president.

Before entering the courtroom this morning, he briefly stopped to speak to a television camera in the hallway, reiterating his assertion that the judge was biased against him.

“This is a trial that should never have happened,” Trump said.

Among the potential jurors dismissed Tuesday was a woman who had previously informed the judge that she had planned a trip around Memorial Day.

A man was excused after saying he could not be impartial.

Learn more:
All the terms you might hear in Trump’s court cases
The key figures of the monetary silence affair

Another man, who works at an accounting firm, was fired after saying he feared his ability to be impartial was compromised by “unconscious bias” from growing up in Texas and working in finance with people who “intellectually tend to be Republican.”

Jury selection could take several more days, or even weeks, in New York, a heavily Democratic city.

About a third of the 96 people making up the first panel of potential jurors in court Monday remained after the judge excused some members.

More than half were excused after saying they could not be fair and impartial, and several others were fired for other reasons that were not disclosed.

The lawsuit involves $130,000 (£104,400) in payments Trump’s company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen.

He paid this amount on behalf of Trump to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels to go public with her claims about a sexual relationship with Trump a decade earlier.

The former president has denied that the sexual relationship ever took place.

Read more: Who is Stormy Daniels?

Prosecutors say the payments – which they say were falsely recorded as legal fees – were part of a plan to bury damaging stories that Trump feared could help his opponent in the 2016 race, all the more so as his reputation was suffering at the time from the comments he had made about women.

Trump said the payments, which he acknowledged reimbursed Mr. Cohen, were intended to prevent Ms. Daniels from making the alleged encounter public.

The former president previously said it had nothing to do with the 2016 campaign.

If convicted of falsifying business records, Trump faces up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee he will spend time behind bars.

His three other legal casesinvolving allegations of election interference and hoarding of classified documents, could result in lengthy prison sentences.

But those cases are tied to appeals or other issues that make it increasingly unlikely they will be decided before the election.

If Trump wins in November, he could order a new attorney general to dismiss his federal cases.