The criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump got underway in Manhattan Criminal Court at 100 Centre St. this morning with the beginning of jury selection. About 500 prospective jurors are expected to be interviewed each day for as long as two weeks until 12 jurors and six alternates are chosen.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts related to alleged falsification of business records and buying the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual relationship. This is the first time in the history of the U.S. that a former president or president has faced a criminal trial.
Trump arrived at the courthouse after having spent the night at his Trump Tower apartment. Before going into the courtroom he repeated his claims that the trial is a political prosecution.
“Every legal scholar says this case is nonsense. It never should have been brought,” Trump said outside of the courtroom. “There is no case. This is a persecution like never before. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. It’s a case that should have never been brought. It’s an assault on America and that’s why I’m very proud to be here. This is an assault on our country and it’s a country that’s failing.”
Judge Juan Merchan denied a motion by Trump’s attorneys for him to recuse himself from presiding at the trial. Merchan said there was no basis for him to do so. He said that Trump’s attorneys were relying on innuendo and unsupported speculation in calling for his recusal. They had argued that because Merchan’s daughter works for a company that has done work for some Democrats, Merchan can’t be fair.
A new poll from the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie that was released today shows that 51% of New Yorkers think Trump engaged in illegal activity to cover up the alleged affair with Daniels. However, 47% said they are not convinced that Trump broke the law. In addition, 27% think he did something unethical but not illegal, and 20% say Trump did nothing wrong.
The Marist Poll found that 60% of New Yorkers think, in general, the investigations into Trump are fair and intended to find out if Trump broke the law, while 39% say they are unfair and are intended to get in the way of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
When broken down by party affiliation, 71% of Democrats believe Trump broke the law while 17% of Republicans believe he did. In addition, 47% of independents believe he broke the law.
Marist interviewed a representative sample of 1,408 New Yorkers between April 8 and April 10.
