The former US president Donald Trump appeared before a court in Manhattan on Monday for an unprecedented criminal trial.
Trump faces charges related to reimbursements made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for hush-money payments he made before the 2016 presidential election to adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from speaking in public about her alleged affair with Trump a year earlier.
The former president is accused of falsifying business records to hide information that could have hurt his campaign and influence the election outcome. Trump has pleaded not guilty and has denied having an affair with Daniels.
Trump is the first former president in US history to go on trial for criminal charges. The hush-money trial is one of four criminal cases facing Trump, but it could be the only one to take place before the election day in November.
Although Trump has used his court appearances to rally supporters, the stakes for him are high this time. According to CNN, the former president is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to probation or a maximum sentence of 4 years on each count in a state prison. This would make Trump the first major-party nominee to run for president as a convicted felon. However, no laws prevent him from doing so.
The former president has warned that if he wins in November, he will dedicate his second presidency to “retribution” and will use his powers as a president to go after his foes, including the Biden family.
But the trial is hindering Trump’s presidential campaign. The former president is required to attend the trial, which is in session four days a week, while his main rival, President Joe Biden, is free to tour swing states.
So, Trump brought his campaign to the courthouse, by delivering statements before and after the proceedings. He described the trial as a “political persecution”, reported the Associated Press. He added, “This is an assault on our country.”
One of the complex challenges in this trial is selecting a jury. Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the trial, brought in 96 New Yorkers as potential jurors. But more than 50 of them were quickly dismissed because they said they could not be fair and impartial.
This quick dismissal underscores the difficulty of picking a jury because the defendant is a former president who evokes strong feelings on both sides of the political aisle. The selection process is set to resume on Tuesday.
Trump’s defense team is trying to slow down the legal proceedings as November elections approach. His attorney, Todd Blanche, requested more time to question potential jurors, and attempted to raise problems with the current motion system, which requires submitting a letter 48 hours before filing a motion.
These tactics is part of a larger legal strategy, which involved months of appeals to delay the start of the trial. And now Trump’s legal team tries to make the legal proceedings, expected to last six to eight weeks, move at a slow pace.
With other 3 other criminal cases in Georgia, Washington, DC, and Florida, the former president is now facing at least 88 charges. Those cases involve keeping highly classified national defense documents in his home at Mar-a-Lago; federal election interference and attempting to reverse the 2020 election results; and trying to overturn election results in Georgia.
