Donald Trump has faced a Manhattan courtroom on allegations he illegally paid off a porn star
The atmosphere was icy in the Manhattan courtroom as Donald Trump’s infamous ‘hush money’ trial has finally begun in a case that could last six weeks.
Donald Trump has made history again, as the first current or former US president to face a criminal trial.
The former president, and putative Republican presidential nominee, turned up to court in southern Manhattan on Monday (Tuesday AEST) to face 34 felony charges for falsifying business records to pay off a porn star.
A throng of supporters no more than 100 waived and cheered as Mr Trump’s motorcade approached the court complex at 100 Center Street on a perfect sunny spring day.
Mr Trump, who derides the accusations as a politically orchestrated witch hunt, entered the court at 9.30am local time, wearing his trademark red tie and suit.
This is a trial expected to last up to six weeks. That’s up to six week that Trump will be derailed from campaigning for his re-election as president in November. Under New York law he must attend in person.
“He walked into the courtroom behind lawyer Todd Blanche, paused for a split second, licked his lips, then began walking up the courtroom’s centre aisle, past nine rows of wooden benches to either side,” the pool journalist reported. “Trump was hunch-shouldered, but chin up, his expression stern, on his 10-second walk up the aisle of the largely empty courtroom,” she said.
In April last year Democrat New York district attorney Alvin Bragg charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, which, if convicted, attach jail terms of up to four years.
Mr Trump has long derided what became known as hush money allegations as a political witch-hunt built on obscure and untried legal theories pushed by a Democrat Attorney-General who had campaigned for office on a platform of inditing Trump.
The former president will face a jury in Manhattan, a jurisdiction where more than 86 per cent of voters supported Joe Biden in 2020, in a trial expected to last between four and six weeks. Trump’s legal team have been successfully in delaying beyond the election his other three federal and state indictments. But not this one, despite numerous attempts.
The former president, expected to clinch the Republican presidential nomination, could take a significant political hit if convicted of any criminal charges, according to some polls. Courts from Manhattan only recently convicted Trump in two separate civil trials over sexual assault allegations that could cost him as much as US$500 million in fines.
Mr Trump, 77, didn’t answer any questions but gave brief remarks to reporters before entering the court, which he will have to attend in person every for the length of the trial.
“This is an assault on America, nothing like this has ever happened before, there’s never been anything like it. Every legal scholar said this case is nonsense, it should have never been brought, it doesn’t deserve anything like this. There is no case and I’ve said it people that don’t necessarily follow or like Donald Trump said this is an outrage that this case was brought,” Mr Trump said.
The former president has used his indictments to argue the Biden administration and Democrats were out to get him.
In 2016 Donald Trump’s then lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to the porn star Stormy Daniels over an alleged affair she and Trump had in 2006. The state’s lawyers are expected to argue Trump ultimately made these payment to conceal a federal campaign finance law.
500 jurors were waiting to begin whittled down to 12, Judge Juan Merchan told the court on an otherwise perfect New York spring morning. The will be asked questions about the political affiliations and media consumption patterns among other probing questions.
“Good morning, Mr Trump,” he said after the lawyers introduced themselves.
Trump’s legal team have had tried and failed to have Merchan, a veteran judge who Trump has repeatedly insulted in public, kicked off the case for alleged bias.
The atmosphere was icy in the courtroom as Trump sat largely motionless.
Merchan said he will not yet rule on Trump’s request to skip the trial on May 17 for Trump to attend his son’s high school graduation. “It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan said.
“There is no agenda here,” Justice Merchan said, adding, “we want to follow the law, we want justice to be done.”
The Judge also pushed back on Mr Trump’s argument that his daughter’s work at a firm that works with Democratic candidates meant the judge should recuse himself.
Crowds of supporters and critics outside the court waiving banners were well down on April last year, when Mr Trump drew southern Manhattan almost to grid lock as the former president was arraigned. One F150 truck festooned with Trump flags periodically circled the court, blaring.
Donald Trump planned to be involved in court conferences and the jury selection process as much as possible, defence lawyer Todd Blanche said.
“Present Trump wants to be present at everything,” Blanche said in court.
Jury selection could last as long as two weeks.
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