Lawyers try to choose a panel of 12 Manhattan residents to impartially hear the criminal case of the former president of the United States. According to local press reports, this Tuesday six people were chosen to be part of the jury.
Chosen by lottery, Candidates answer a number to hide their names for security reasons and have to complete a thorough questionnaire about their political sympathies.the media in which they are reported, and about their impartiality and ability to define the fate of one of the most influential politicians of recent times, both in the United States and in the world.
The first day of the trial against Donald Trump
The first day on Monday showed the challenges of the task. About half of the 96 potential jurors questioned were discarded after stating that they could not impartially judge the polarizing businessman-turned-politician, who is preparing his return to the White House while facing four separate criminal cases.
Thirty-two members of the jury They remained on the initial list on Tuesday. They began reading responses to a questionnaire on topics ranging from what media they follow to what they like to do in their free time.
He Judge Juan Merchan excused a member of the jury who said that many of his family, friends and colleagues in finance were Republicans and that it would be difficult for him to be impartial. “Being in the world of finance and accounting, a lot of people intellectually tend to lean Republican,” said the juror, who grew up in Texas. “Although I feel that “I can be impartial, there may be some implicit bias around that.”.
Trump, the defendant who has better things to do than be at his trial
His gestures, his attitude and his statements make it clear: Donald Trump would give anything to be somewhere else and not in a New York courtroom that prevents him from campaigning. In a suit and blue shirt, with a striped tie of the same color and his tense face, he settled back into his chair this Tuesday, behind a wooden table, for the second consecutive day of his criminal trial.
After some brief exchanges with his lawyers, sOnly the photographers’ lenses seem to bring him out of his reverie. who were able to access the room at the beginning of the hearing.
“He should be right now in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states, in North Carolina, in Georgia campaigning,” Trump said to the press upon arriving at the court, denouncing once again a “trial that should never have existed.”
The evereproached the judge of Colombian origin Juan Merchan, who forced him to attend all hearings (four days a week), which would not have allowed him to attend the presentation of his son’s diplomas or follow a hearing that affects him in the United States Supreme Court next week.
Donald Trump’s accusation of covering up a hush payment for porn actress Stormy Daniels
Born in New York and resident in Florida, Trump was a fixture of the tabloid press of the city for decades before winning the presidency as a Republican in 2016. But as a politician, He could never count on the votes of New York, strongly democrat.
He Manhattan district attorney, Democrat Alvin Bragg, accused Trump of 34 crimes serious for falsify business records to conceal a payment of money in exchange for his silence porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies that a meeting took place.
To prove a serious crime, prosecutors must show that the former president concealed the payment to conceal a crime such as an illegal campaign contribution.
He Republican candidate said the payment was personal. His lawyers said there could be reasons beyond his campaign for making the payment, such as saving himself and his family embarrassment.
The accusations against Donald Trump
In other cases, He is accused of mishandling classified information and trying to reverse his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. But the surreptitious money case may be the only one that goes to trial before Trump faces Biden again in the Nov. 5 election.
If convicted, Trump could still run for office and serve as president if he wins. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that half of independents and a quarter of fellow Republicans would not vote for him if he is found guilty.
Trump pleaded not guilty in all four criminal cases and says that They are a plot by Biden’s Democrats to neutralize him politically.
Source: Ambito
