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Jury complete for Trump hush money trial in NYC; opening arguments begin Monday

Molly Crane-Newman and Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News on

Published in Political News

“The gag order has to come off,” the former president said. “People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order, just to show you how much more unfair it is.”

Prosecutors have requested Trump be fined up to $1,000 for each post violating the gag order and that he be held in criminal contempt of the court. On Thursday, prosecutors said he’d violated the gag order seven times since Monday, when they first brought up the issue.

Merchan scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to settle the issue.

“The conflict has to end with the judge. The judge has a conflict, the worst I’ve ever seen,” Trump said — likely a reference to Merchan’s daughter, as he possibly toed the line of yet another possible violation of the gag order. He did not respond to a follow-up question on this.

He entered the courtroom seven minutes later.

Meanwhile, a New York appeals court judge denied another effort by Trump — the fourth in less than two weeks — to upend the planned timeline of his Manhattan trial on Friday afternoon.

First Department Associate Justice Marsha Michael denied a request by Trump’s lawyers to pause his trial until his request to move it to another location is decided.

 

On Thursday, by the end of proceedings, the entire jury and one alternate had all been seated, with the full pool rounded out Friday.

The seven men and five women among more than 150 people surveyed this week are poised to make history as the jurors who will consider the first-ever criminal charges filed against an American president and determine whether Trump is a felon before voters head to the polls in November.

Two of seven panelists chosen Tuesday were excused Thursday after one said she was uncomfortable serving on the high-profile case and another was found to have provided conflicting information to the court.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies alleging he repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to cover up a hush-money scheme intended to hide damaging information from the voting public in 2016.

Daniels and McDougal, who are expected to testify, both allege they slept with Trump at a Lake Tahoe charity golf tournament in 2006, less than two years after he wed Melania and they became parents to Barron Trump. McDougal claims they were involved for several months; Daniels says it was a one-time tryst, testifying in a lawsuit the year before last that she didn’t “consider getting cornered coming out of a bathroom to be an affair.” Trump denies both women’s claims.

As he seeks the White House once again, the presumed GOP nominee is also facing three other criminal cases and a total of 88 felonies, containing allegations of criminal conduct dating from the year before he took office to the year he left. The allegations run the gamut from falsifying records to plotting to overthrow democracy. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all his cases.


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