Donald Trump’s hush money trial took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when the judge presiding over the case, Juan Merchan, sternly rebuked the former president for potentially intimidating a juror. Merchan warned, “I won’t have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom,” after Trump’s team discovered a video on a possible juror’s social media showing a street celebration over his loss in the 2020 election.
The judge’s warning marked a sharp diversion from what was otherwise a relatively routine jury selection process. Trump had arrived at the Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday morning for the second day of jury selection in his historical criminal trial involving hush-money payments to a porn star. When Trump walked into court around 9.30am, the ex-president winked at a court security officer and took his seat at the defense table.
The trial is unfolding amid a presidential contest in which Trump is all but guaranteed to be the Republican nominee facing Joe Biden in November. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, brought the case against the former president over payments purportedly aimed at keeping secret his alleged affairs with the adult film star Stormy Daniels and the Playboy model Karen McDougall.
Trump’s former consigliere, Michael Cohen, wired $130,000 to Daniels’s then attorney less than two weeks before the election. Cohen funneled these funds via a shell company. After Trump won the presidential election, he repaid Cohen with a smattering of monthly checks, initially from the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which was set up in New York to hold the president’s company’s assets during the 2016 presidency.
The company, however, framed the payments as legal expenses, which prosecutors say indicate that Trump was liable for making false business records “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime” – specifically, violating campaign finance laws in an effort to influence the outcome of the US election.
Trump’s team has been working to find 12 jurors and six alternates who do not have strong biases either for or against Trump, a challenging task given the polarizing nature of the former president. The trial is expected to focus intensely on the Manhattan courtroom where Trump’s trial is set to begin, with potential implications for the 2024 presidential race.
In response to the judge’s warning, Trump’s team will need to ensure that their client adheres to the court’s rules and avoids any behavior that could be perceived as intimidating or influencing the jury. The trial is expected to continue with jury selection and could potentially lead to a conviction, which would have uncharted territories in terms of the Constitution and the implications for a presidential candidate.
