Trump hush money trial day 3: Live updates | AP News

Here’s what to know:

• Where the trial stands: Jury selection has entered a pivotal and potentially final stretch. The judge has suggested that opening statements could start on Monday.
• 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 to follow along: TV cameras aren’t allowed in the courtroom, but some reporters are, including those from the AP. Read their latest updates below.

The first prospective juror of the day was an attorney who mentioned having attended the Women’s March and reading a book by former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz. Pomerantz previously oversaw the investigation into the allegations at the center of this trial, and his book detailed his work on the case.

“I’ve discussed the legal merits of this case with many coworkers,” she added. When asked whether she could still be a fair and impartial juror despite that, she let out a deep sigh before responding, “Yes.”

As she spoke, Trump sat sideways in his chair, looking intently in her direction.

Fifty-seven out of the second round of 96 potential jurors have been excused after saying they can’t serve.

Some 48 people indicated that they could not serve fairly and impartially. An additional nine said they couldn’t serve for some other reason, which they were not asked to state.

“PRESIDENT TRUMP: I JUST STORMED INTO COURT!” reads an email solicitation sent shortly after jury selection resumed Thursday morning. (Trump did not actually storm into the building.)

The former president has raised many millions of dollars off of his legal cases, including a record haul after his mug shot was taken in Georgia.

No protesters or supporters were seen around the lower Manhattan building. The only people gathered were members of the media, many huddled under umbrellas as a light rain fell.

The scene was a stark contrast from the first day of jury selections Monday, when the streets were filled with sunlight and a colorful array of characters — including “The Daily Show” host Jordan Klepper, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and a protester repeatedly playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” on a flute.

Because the large pool of prospective jurors is taking up much of the main courtroom, most of the reporters covering the trial are seated in an adjacent overflow room where video of the trial is piped in through three video monitors.

The jurors are not visible to reporters, but their voices can be heard. A rotating group of six reporters are inside the main courtroom, sharing observations by email with the larger press.

As with the first big group, the judge will explain the basics of jury service along with the case, then ask for a show of hands from any panelists who don’t believe they can serve fairly and impartially. After, he’ll ask for a similar indication from any who don’t believe they can serve for another reason.

More than half of the 96 potential jurors in the first group were dismissed after they said they couldn’t be fair and impartial.

Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass said that some of the juror’s answers in court on Tuesday may not have been accurate.

Prosecutors found an article from the 1990s about a man with the same name as the juror being arrested for tearing down political advertisements in suburban Westchester County. The posters were on the political right, Steinglass said.

Steinglass also disclosed that a relative of the man may have been involved in a deferred prosecution agreement in the 1990s with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Trump’s case.

Judge Merchan had instructed the man to come to court at 9:15 a.m. Thursday to answer questions and verify whether the people involved were him or his relative.

Merchan noted the juror’s apparent “reluctance to come in” and asked both sides if they’d consent to having him removed without further inquiry. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche declined, saying he wanted to first hear what the man had to say.

Under questioning earlier this week, the man had said he hadn’t been convicted of a crime.

By JENNIFER PELTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK

They told the judge they wanted the former president held in contempt and sanctioned for seven more posts they said violated his gag order.

The former president’s new posts came after the prosecutors initially sought a $3,000 fine on Monday for three other Truth Social posts.

Prosecutor Christopher Conroy said several of the new posts involved an article that referred to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as a “serial perjurer” and another from Wednesday that repeated a claim by a Fox News host that liberal activists were lying to get on the jury.

Trump lawyer Emil Bove said Cohen “has been attacking President Trump in public statements,” and that Trump was just replying.

Judge Merchan had already scheduled a hearing for next week on the prosecution’s request for contempt sanctions over Trump’s posts.

By JENNIFER PELTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK

After dismissing a seated juror, Judge Merchan admonished the media for reporting details about the seated and potential jurors that could be used to identify them, ordering them not to report prospective jurors’ answers to questions about their current and former employers.

“As evidenced by what’s happened already, it’s become a problem,” he said.

He also directed reporters to “abide by common sense” and avoid writing about the physical characteristics of the people called to serve.

“We just lost what probably would have been a very good juror,” the judge continued. “She said she was afraid and intimidated by the press, all the press.”

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JENNIFER PELTZ

A nurse who had been selected for Trump’s criminal trial was dismissed Thursday after she told the court she’d become concerned about her ability to be impartial. Although the jurors’ names are being kept confidential, the woman “conveyed that after sleeping on it overnight she had concerns about her ability to be fair and impartial in this case,” Judge Merchan said before calling her into the room for questioning.

The woman said her family members and friends were questioning her about being a juror.

Trump looked sternly ahead while being photographed, a stark contrast from a moment earlier when he was casually chatting with lawyer Todd Blanche before the photographers arrived.

While the trial cannot be televised, Judge Juan M. Merchan is allowing a handful of still photographers to shoot photos of Trump before each day’s proceedings start.

Harvey Weinstein was famously admonished for playing with his phone by a different judge during his trial in the same courtroom four years ago.

Trump’s cell phone usage happened while court was not in session and before the judge had taken the bench.

Generally, cell phone usage — and certainly making or taking calls — is prohibited in New York courtrooms.

The process of picking a jury is a critical phase of any criminal trial but especially so when the defendant is a former president and the presumptive Republican nominee.

Prospective jurors have been grilled on their social media posts, personal lives and political views as the lawyers and judge search for biases that would prevent them from being impartial. Inside the court, there’s broad acknowledgment of the futility in trying to find jurors without knowledge of Trump, with a prosecutor this week saying that lawyers were not looking for people who had been “living under a rock for the past eight years.”

To that end, at least some of the jurors selected acknowledged having their own opinions about Trump.

“I find him fascinating and mysterious,” one juror selected for the case, an IT professional, said under questioning. “He walks into a room and he sets people off, one way or the other. I find that really interesting. ‘Really? This one guy could do all of this? Wow.’ That’s what I think.”

▶ Read more about how jury selection works.

The first of Donald Trump’s four criminal trials is underway in New York on April 15. Here is a look at some of the key figures in the case. (AP Video: Ted Shaffrey)

Donald Trump’s legal team says it tried serving Stormy Daniels a subpoena as she arrived for an event at a bar in Brooklyn last month, but the porn actor, who is expected to be a witness at the former president’s criminal trial, refused to take it and walked away.

A process server working for Trump’s lawyers said he approached Daniels with papers demanding information related to a documentary recently released about her life and involvement with Trump, but was forced to “leave them at her feet,” according to a court filing made public Wednesday.

“I stated she was served as I identified her and explained to her what the documents were,” process server Dominic DellaPorte wrote. “She did not acknowledge me and kept walking inside the venue, and she had no expression on her face.”

▶ Read more about what’s in the court filings.

Jury selection in the hush money trial of Donald Trump enters a pivotal and potentially final stretch Thursday as lawyers look to round out the panel of New Yorkers that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former president.

Seven jurors have been picked so far, including an oncology nurse, a software engineer, an information technology professional, a sales professional, an English teacher and two lawyers. Eleven more people must still be sworn in, with the judge saying he anticipated opening statements in the landmark case to be given as early as next week.

The seating of the Manhattan jury — whenever it comes — will be a seminal moment in the case, setting the stage for a trial that will place the former president’s legal jeopardy at the heart of the campaign against Democrat Joe Biden and feature potentially unflattering testimony about Trump’s private life in the years before he became president.

▶ Read more about where the trial stands.