How will the attorneys and judge overseeing the trial of Donald Trump find a “fair and impartial” jury to sit in judgement of a former and possibly future president charged with a crime? A New York criminal justice professor breaks down the process. (AP Video: Joseph B. Frederick)
Published [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
Donald Trump will make history as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges when his hush money case opens today with jury selection.
Here’s what to know:
- What this case is about: Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to bury stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.
- How jury selection will work: The court’s goal is to select 12 New Yorkers who are willing to put their personal opinions aside and make a decision based on the evidence and the law. The process could take days.
- How to follow the trial: TV cameras won’t be allowed in the courtroom, but some reporters will, including those from the AP. For the big picture on Trump’s legal troubles, follow our trial tracker.
What charges is Trump facing?
The indictment against former President Donald Trump is photographed Tuesday, April 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The charge carries up to four years in prison, though whether he will spend time behind bars if convicted would ultimately be up to the judge.
To win on the felony charge, prosecutors must show that Trump not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely — which would be a misdemeanor — but that he did so with intent to commit or conceal a second crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has said that Trump was trying to conceal violations of federal campaign finance laws — an unusual legal strategy some experts argue could backfire.
What is today’s case about?
The former president is accused of falsifying internal Trump Organization records as part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign, particularly as Trump’s reputation was suffering at the time from comments he had made about women.
The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.
Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 and arranged for the publisher of the National Enquirer supermarket tabloid to pay McDougal $150,000 in a journalistically dubious practice known as “catch-and-kill” in which a publication pays for exclusive rights to someone’s story with no intention of publishing it, either as a favor to a celebrity subject or to gain leverage over the person.
Prosecutors say Trump’s company reimbursed Cohen and paid him bonuses and extra payments, all of which were falsely logged in Trump Organization records as legal expenses. Cohen has separately pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law in connection with the payments.
Jury selection is set to begin in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial
FILE – Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of a pre-trial hearing with his defense team at Manhattan criminal court, Monday, March 25, 2024, in New York. A dozen Manhattan residents are soon to become the first Americans ever to sit in judgment of a former president charged with a crime. Jury selection is set to start Monday in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool)
Donald Trump’s history-making criminal trial is set to start Monday with a simple but extraordinary procedural step that is vital to American democracy. A group of regular citizens — Trump’s peers, in the eyes of the law — will be chosen to decide whether the former president of the United States is guilty of a crime.
The process of picking a jury could take days. Lawyers on both sides of the case will have limited opportunities to try and shape the panel in their favor, but the court’s goal won’t be to ensure that it has a partisan balance between Democrats and Republicans, or is made up of people oblivious to previous news coverage about the trial.
The idea is to get people who are willing to put their personal opinions aside and make a decision based on the evidence and the law.
▶ Read more about how jury selection will work in Trump’s first criminal trial.