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The historic criminal trial of former President Donald Trump began on Monday on charges of falsifying business records to conceal payments in exchange for porn star Stormy Daniels' silence over an alleged extramarital affair with him.
The trial began with the difficult process of jury selection.
No member was selected on Monday and the selection is expected to resume on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump is the first former US President to face criminal charges and, if convicted, could face prison terms.
The trial comes as Donald Trump races to retake the White House.
The former President is obliged to be present during court hearings, except in cases where he requests exemption, which means that he will be in the role of the defendant while at the same time campaigning for the presidential elections.
He has combined these roles throughout the last year, appearing in front of supporters, in the campaign or on social media as the target of politically motivated investigations aimed at hindering his candidacy.
"It's a scam. It is a witch hunt for political purposes. It goes on and on," Mr. Trump said after leaving the courtroom as he sat in the dock with his lawyers.
Mr. Trump is accused of concealing a $130,000 payment made to movie star Stormy Daniels, shortly before the 2016 election, in order to ensure her silence over the latter's allegations of an extramarital affair.
Prosecutors have also cited the case of former Playboy magazine model Karen McDougal, who claims she had a 10-month affair with Mr. Trump in the mid-2000s. Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by her parent company. the "National Enquirer" tabloid, to ensure exclusivity in the publication of this story, which was never published anyway, allegedly at the request of Mr. Trump.
The former president has denied relationships with both women and all 34 charges he faces in the New York case, including that he instructed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to pay Ms. Daniels and then reimbursed her during the year the first year of his presidency in 2017. The money was recorded as monthly salary and legal fees for Mr. Cohen.
Each of the charges carries the possibility of a four-year prison sentence. Mr Trump is expected to appeal the decision if found guilty.
The guilty plea does not prevent him from taking office, but half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for him if convicted, according to a poll by Reuters news agency and polling company Ipsos.
Jury selection
The day began with preliminary arguments, including the possibility of Mr Trump being fined for violating an order barring him from speaking publicly about witnesses in the case, while in the afternoon the jury selection process began, where the parties will decide who will be tried for him. determine the legal fate of the former President, and potentially the next President of the United States.
96 people were in the courtroom today as part of the jury selection process.
Mr. Trump's fame would make the process of selecting the 12 jurors and six alternates a difficult task at any time, but it is likely to be especially challenging now, in an election year, in the heavily Democratic city where Mr. Trump rose to celebrity status decades before winning the White House.
Judge Juan Merchan called the 96 potential jurors to ask them whether they were biased, for or against Mr. Trump, and whether they could reach a fair verdict on the case, regardless of their views on the former president.
More than 50 people, an unusually high number, raised their hands to express that they could not be right in this matter, and therefore immediately left.
Judge Merchan was not expected to ask them specifically how they voted in Mr Trump's 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
Among the 42 questions, he planned to ask potential jurors what their reliable sources of information are, whether they have attended any of Mr. Trump's political rallies or rallies against him, or whether they are part of groups that oppose actions of the federal government.
It may take several days for the selection of the jury members. Judge Merchan adjourned the trial until Tuesday after questioning 10 potential jurors on Monday.
Former President Trump calls the case "political persecution"
Mr. Trump, who served as president from early 2017 until January 2021, has repeatedly criticized the criminal proceedings against him.
This Monday, while entering the Court, he said that the case constituted an "attack on America". "This is a political persecution. A persecution that has never happened before," he said.
The New York case is one of four criminal indictments facing former President Trump, involving 88 charges, all of which he has denied.
Some legal analysts see the case of the money paid to Ms. Daniels as one of the least consequential of the four cases he faces.
In two of the other lawsuits, Mr. Trump is accused of illegally trying to change the result of the 2020 election that declared him the loser, while in another lawsuit he is accused of illegally keeping hundreds of classified documents at the property in Florida and more after refusing requests to return them.
For all three of these cases, fixed dates have not yet been determined for the development of the judicial process, and Mr. Trump has asked to postpone them until after the November elections.
If he wins, he could seek to have the federal charges dismissed. In any case, if Mr. Trump wins the election, he would not be tried while in office. /VOA
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