April 16 (UPI) — The second day of Donald Trump‘s trial over alleged hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels got underway Tuesday in New York.
Jury selection continued throughout the morning and into the afternoon in a Manhattan courtroom for the hush-money trial in which the former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
According to reports, in the early afternoon Trump signed a form to waive his own right to be present at sidebars — which are meetings between legal teams of both the prosecution and defense to discuss non-public issues in the case.
Arriving at court ahead of Tuesday’s trial proceedings, Trump called the trial a “disgrace” while speaking to reporters outside Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom.
He had, Trump said, paid “a lawyer and he marked it down as a legal expense, I didn’t know” as he spoke about why he believes he did nothing wrong.
He added that, instead of being on the campaign trail in “Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states,” he now must be in court because, he falsely said, President Joe Biden is bringing charges against him.
“This is all coming from the White House, because the guy can’t put two sentences together. He can’t campaign, he’s using this in order to try to win an election, and it’s not working that way,” Trump said.
On Monday, more than half of the 96 potential jurors were quickly dismissed, with many signifying that they would be unable to be “fair and impartial” in their deliberations about Trump.
Tuesday morning, jury selection got underway for its second day. A prosecutor from the district attorney’s office told potential jurors: “Everyone and their mother has an opinion about this case, and what the right outcome should be,” as he explained the court’s expectation that jurors remain open-minded and not discuss details of the case with any other person.
Before 12 p.m. local time, nine of the 23 potential jurors had identified TikTok as a source of news during juror questioning on social media and online-related activities. Potential jurors also faced questions about their overall thoughts and feelings about Trump, the ongoing election and the former president’s multiple legal trials.
One potential juror was excused from serving on the jury when he said that his ability to be impartial was “probably going to be tough,” noting his Texas roots and a circle of friends of whom he said identify as registered Republican voters.
Likewise, multiple other jurors issued similar sentiments on bias both Democrat and Republican.
“A lot of people tend to intellectually slant Republican … so there could be some unconscious bias,” the dismissed potential juror, an accounting firm partner who was married and had no children, said to Merchan without offering proof of his beliefs.
According to election website Ballotpedia, Democrats are the largest share of registered voters in the United States, representing 38.35% of the electorate. Republicans make up 30.32% of registered voters.
Trump is accused of making hush-money payments totaling $130,000 to adult film actress Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, in an attempt to cover up an alleged affair. He also is charged with allegedly falsifying records to hide the payments made when he campaigned for the presidency in 2016 and into his first term as president.
Trump is required to be present at the trial, which could last as long as eight weeks.
On Monday, the prosecution had also asked Merchan to sanction Trump over an alleged gag order violation.
Next week, Merchan will rule on the gag order sanction request that seeks for Trump to be fined $1,000 for each post that allegedly violates the gag order. A hearing over the request was set for April 24, but Merchan moved it up a day to April 23.
The second day of the former president’s hush-money trial happened the same day the Supreme Court heard a separate case on a Jan. 6 rioter’s obstruction challenge, and that case could have possible legal ramifications for Trump, as well.
