Jury selection begins in historic Trump criminal trial

WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - A monumental day in American history - for the first time a former president will stand trial in criminal court. Former president Donald Trump’s criminal trial began Monday in Manhattan with jury selection.

The case surrounds allegations Donald Trump falsified business records to send hush money payments, and the first order of business is selecting a jury from a large pool of New Yorkers.

The charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg were 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments sent to Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Trump is accused of trying to stop damaging information from coming out that might have influenced the general election.

“This is an assault on America. Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Trump. The former president continued, calling the case nonsense. “This is a persecution like never before. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And again it’s a case that should’ve never been brought,” he said.

Outside the courtroom in Manhattan was frenzied, with supporters and opponents of Trump clashing to mark the fraught historic moment.

Before beginning jury selection, the judge addressed pretrial issues: rejecting a request from the Trump team to recuse himself, and ruling on various evidence that can be used in the trial. Judge Juan Merchan also forced Trump to accept certain terms of the trial, like showing up each day or facing arrest.

After months of delays, jury selection finally began Monday afternoon. And with it came a process like never before. Total impartiality — a tall task for jurors in a case involving a defendant with nearly 100% name recognition. But the court will seek jurors who can approach this case with an open mind.

It’s unclear how long jury selection might take. It could be days or even weeks before one is empaneled. Once that jury is in place the trial will move on to the long-awaited opening arguments. The case is expected to take up to two months in total.

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