Jury selection completed on day 4 of Trump hush money trial
Former President Donald Trump appeared in court for day four of his hush money payment trial on Friday. Twelve jurors and six alternate jurors have been seated after difficult proceedings during which two jurors were dismissed. The jurors were selected after a series of questioning from Trump attorneys and lawyers from the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Coverage for this event has ended.
Donald Trump sitting in court room during his criminal trial
A motion to delay former president Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial was denied on Friday, according to documents obtained by Fox News.
As Trump's defense team went before Judge Merchan, they also filed an emergency appeal to the NYS appellate division to delay the hush money trial while he appeals his motion to move the case out of Manhattan.
The trial will begin on Monday morning.
Donald Trump in court for hush money trial
During day four of former President Donald Trump's NY criminal hush money trial, he stated again that this is a "witch hunt."
"Everything you heard in there, this is a witch hunt by your worst judges, Democrat judges. You take a look at it. Engoron is a whack job. What he did was a disgrace, he's being reviewed by the appellate division and I hope they do justice," Trump said.
He added that his trial is a threat to democracy.
"Frankly, what took place with the A.G., a crooked A.G. Letitia James, who campaigned on the fact that "I'm going to get Trump, I'm going to get Trump." That's all she said for two years and it's people don't want to see this stuff," Trump said.
Trump continued by taking jabs at President Biden and the disaster facing his administration.
"This is a giant witch hunt to try and hurt a campaign that's beating the worst president in history. Biden is the worst president in the history of our country, beating him by a lot. And this is the only way they think they can win. But it's not going to work," Trump said.
Former President Trump said Friday that keeping him confined to a courtroom is "the only way" Democrats "think they can win" the 2024 election.
But the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declared that "it's not going to work."
Trump spoke to the press after the sitting in court for the fourth day of his criminal trial.
"This is really a concerted witch hunt very simple. Everything you heard in there, this is a witch hunt by your worst judges, Democrat judges. You take a look at it," Trump said.
Trump said there are "violent criminals all over the streets of New York" and said "nothing" happens.
Trump also railed against judges who have ruled against him in civil cases, like New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled Trump was liable for fraud after a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump has appealed the decision. Trump called Engoron "a whack job."
Trump also blasted federal Judge Kaplan, based in New York, who ruled he had to pay tens of millions of dollars to E. Jean Carroll for defamation earlier this year.
"What's happening here with the judicial system is an outrage and all over the world they're watching it. And all over the world they're seeing it," Trump said. "This is a giant witch hunt to try and hurt a campaign that's beating the worst president in history."
Trump blasted Biden, saying he "is the worst president in the history of our country," and said he is "beating him by a lot" in the polls.
"And this is the only way they think they can win," Trump said. "But it's not going to work."
Judge Juan Merchan slammed former President Trump's defense attorneys Friday for challenging each of his decisions during the first week of the historic criminal trial.
Merchan chastised Trump attorneys for filing pre-motion letters to challenge his rulings, and firmly stated that the trial would begin Monday with opening arguments.
Merchan said Trump's lawyers cannot continue to submit pre-motion letters for the court to reconsider every decision.
“The defense is literally targeting every singe decision…There comes a point where you have to accept my rulings. The court’s decision is clear," Merchan said. “We’re going to have opening statements on Monday morning. This trial is starting.”
Trump attorney Susan Necheles asked prosecutors to give the names of the witnesses they expect to call next week.
Merchan fired back saying: "Whether you get the name or not, you're not going to delay the trial."
Bragg's office said unless they are ordered to, they will not share witness names with Trump's defense. Prosecutors said they would agree to release one name to defense counsel Sunday night. They also warned that if Trump tweets or posts on social media about the name of the witness, they will not share the information with them for the remainder of the trial.
Before Merchan left the bench, former President Trump attempted to stand up.
"Sir, can you please have a seat?" Merchan said to the former president.
Trump sat back down.
New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard (C) speaks at a press conference alongside NYPD officals after a man reportedly set himself on fire in the park across from Manhattan Criminal Court during the trial of US President Donald Trump, in New York City on April 19, 2024. (Getty Images)
The New York Police Department has identified the man who lit himself on fire outside of the courthouse of former President Donald Trump's ongoing trial.
The individual, identified by the NYPD as Maxwell Azzarello, was captured lighting himself on fire about 30 feet from the courthouse on Friday afternoon.
The NYPD held a press conference immediately after the shocking incident occurred, revealing Azzarello used an "alcohol based substance thats used for cleaning" to ignite the fire. Officials also confirmed that no other bystanders, including the individuals who attempted to extinguish the flames, were seriously injured.
Azzarello was reportedly moved to a burn unit where he remains in "critical condition," NYPD officials said.
Officials described a manifesto that appears to be written by Azzarello where he wrote about researching a global "ponzi scheme."
In the document published online before the incident, Azzarello also alleges a "totalitarian con" and apologized to "friends and family, witnesses and first responders" for "inflicting this pain upon you."
A man set himself on fire at a protest outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Trump is on trial for alleged hush money payments.
Fox News' Eric Shawn reported live on the air as the man self-immolated in the protest area about 30 feet from the courthouse. The protest took place in a small park across the street.
Police threw blankets over the man in an attempt to extinguish the flames. Sirens were heard as Shawn reported live from the scene.
"There was panic and screaming, obviously, when this happened," Shawn reported.
The man appeared to be moving his arms as he was attended to by EMT and paramedics. His identity and condition are currently unknown.
Police were seen engaging with the man as he was lying on the ground receiving medical attention. He was pulled onto a stretcher and placed in an ambulance to take him to the hospital.
Shawn described the scene as one of "shock and horror" with flames reaching as tall as 15 ft. into the air.
A courtroom sketch of former President Trump and his attorney, Todd Blanche. (Christine Cornell)
Five more alternate jurors have been seated in former President Trump's hush money payments trial on Friday, completing jury selection.
The individuals join the other 12 jurors and first alternate who were sworn in during jury selection proceedings on Thursday.
An alternate juror listens to the testimony, just like all the other jurors, but doesn’t join in the deliberations unless one of the main jurors needs to drop out or is removed.
Judge Juan Merchan said that opening statements in Trump's historic criminal trial can begin as early as Monday once jury selection was completed.
The judge instructed jurors not to discuss or research the case before sending them home for the weekend.
Fox News' Maria Paronich and the Associated Press contributed to this update.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announces his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
A potential juror who said she had connections to both former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen has been excused.
The woman said her father is a lifelong friend of Christie, who ran against former President Trump in the 2016 and 2024 Republican primaries, and that she works at the same company as Cohen's son, although they've never crossed paths. The juror said she initially thought she could remain impartial but realized she could not.
“I feel so nervous and anxious right now," the juror told the court, becoming emotional and starting to cry.
“I don’t want to waste the court’s time," she said. "I thought I could do this. This is so much more stressful than I thought it was going to be.”
The judge called her to the bench. After a brief exchange, she was excused.
Cohen is expected to testify as a witness against Trump. The payments he made to former pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 are the basis of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's indictment, which alleges Trump falsified business records to cover up payments to keep Daniels quiet about their previous sexual affair ahead of the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair took place.
A pro-Trump demonstrator waves a flag outside of the Manhattan Criminal Court building as former US President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, in New York City on April 19, 2024. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Attorneys and others in the courtroom appeared emotional after a potential juror in Trump's hush money trial broke down into tears as she disclosed her previous criminal conviction on drug-related charges.
The woman, who was disqualified from serving on the case, previously lived in Massachusetts and is a mother to four adult children with three grandkids. She said she doesn't pay attention to or watch the news, had no political views, and believes people should be held accountable for their actions because off what she went through.
When it was her turn to speak, the woman told the court, "I'm sure I'm going to be disqualified," before she talked about serving 2.5 years in prison on a drug-related conviction about 10 years ago.
She started to cry as she discussed her crimes and said, "you guys keeping calling me back for jury duty and I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be here."
Her emotional outburst prompted Judge Merchan to call a sidebar at the bench. After coming back, she apologized for crying.
When the potential jurors were dismissed for a 10 minute break, the judge reminded reporters that the woman was very brave and shared deeply personal things about her life. He specifically asked, "please be kind."
When the court reconvened, the judge said the woman who had been convicted of a crime would be disqualified from serving on the case. She was called back into the courtroom and the judge thanked her for being brave and open. He said that being convicted of a crime does not preclude her from serving on a jury, but that she needs a certificate and could not serve on this case because she does not have one.
If the woman obtains the certificate, she may serve on a future jury depending on the nature of the crimes, the judge said.
As the judge explained why the woman cannot serve, Trump was seen craning his neck over his shoulder to look at her.
On her way out of the courtroom, the woman said, "thank you ... good luck."
Fox News' Maria Paronich and Brendan McDonald contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump waves as he enters Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday, April 19, 2024 in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
As a Manhattan courtroom braces for the unprecedented trial of former President Donald Trump, legal minds examine how the case — considered by some experts to be legally weak and politically motivated — could erode trust in America’s justice system.
The 45th president and presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
The charges are related to alleged hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign to adult actress Stormy Daniels to conceal their alleged extramarital affair.
But experts tell Fox News Digital that the "overtly political" nature and hollow legal grounds of the case could erode "respect and trust" in the rule of law that could take "a very long time" to restore.
"In my view, the prosecution that is currently underway against former President Trump in New York City is the most overtly political of the four criminal cases pending against him," John Malcolm, former Assistant U.S. Attorney in Georgia, told Fox News Digital.
He noted that Bragg had run for office touting the number of times he had sued Trump and vowing to go after him if he was elected as DA.
Malcolm said Bragg had taken a relatively minor record-keeping charge that usually results in a civil fine or, at most, a misdemeanor – or which the statute of limitations ran a long time ago – and "ginned up" a 34-count felony indictment, claiming that the alleged false business entries had been intended to cover up the existence of another crime.
John Shu, a constitutional law expert who served in both Bush administrations, agreed with that sentiment, telling Fox News Digital that the prosecution "is particularly egregious because he…never would have twisted the law in this way in order to bring a similar case against a Democrat former president, and also because Bragg repeatedly either has refused to prosecute violent criminals or retail store thieves who hurt innocent New Yorkers or allowed them to plead out to minor charges."
Fox News Digital's Brianna Herlihy contributed to this update.
President Biden took a jab at his presumptive Republican rival for the presidency while campaigning in Pennsylvania.
Biden made the remark while speaking at the United Steelworkers headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.
"Under my predecessor, who’s a little busy right now, Pennsylvania lost 275,000 jobs," Biden said while boasting of his economic policies' benefit to blue collar workers.
United Steelworkers endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket last month, applauding the president's investments in "worker-centered trade policy."
"President Biden proved time and again during his first term that he stands with working families," USW International President David McCall said in the March announcement.
He added, "His vision and leadership allowed our nation to strengthen workers’ access to collective bargaining, grow the middle class, and embark on a path to widespread prosperity."
While Biden is on the road campaigning, Trump is currently stuck in New York City for his criminal trial surrounding alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels during his successful 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. It is the first ever criminal trial of a former president.
Fox News Digital's Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this update.
Constitutional law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley reacted to the jury selection process for former President Donald Trump's hush money payments trial on Thursday.
Turley warned that the jury pool in Manhattan may be "heavily weighted, obviously, with people who have strong opinions against Trump."
"Only about 12% of the people in this area voted for Trump. The jurors you have to worry about are the ones who are sort of Trojan horse jurors. They're the ones who are hiding bias that doesn't appear on social media or are involved in any formal charges," Turley said on "America Reports."
"Those are the ones you have to worry about, that they're so motivated by their dislike for Trump that they're willing to lie on the stand. Now, we have seen jurors who have later been found to have misrepresented their histories in a couple of prior cases involving Trump associates. In both those cases, the judges in Washington, DC refused to reconsider the verdict. And so this is a very important stage to try to filter out these types of jurors."
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Friday, April 19, 2024. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)
Two potential alternate jurors were excused Friday morning after they admitted they'd have trouble remaining impartial during former President Trump's trial for alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
One woman told the judge and attorneys present she has severe anxiety and may not be able to be fair and impartial. She said the longer the trial continues and the more people who know she is a juror could exacerbate her anxiety. A second woman said that after introspection, she "can't be impartial."
"I want to be … but after listening to the questions posed to prospective jurors, and asking those questions to myself, I don't think I can be impartial," she said.
Two other women were questioned as the court seeks to fill positions for five alternate jurors.
Twenty-two possible jurors are being brought in to court as jury selection continues. As many as five alternate jurors must be selected before jury selection is over. One alternate was already sworn in at the end of the day Thursday.
Fox News' Maria Paronich and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower en-route to Manhattan Criminal Court on April 19, 2024 in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Judge Juan M. Merchan took the bench and said "good morning" to former President Donald Trump, who is seated in a Manhattan courtroom as day four of his first criminal trial begins.
Yesterday, 12 jurors and one alternate juror were selected for Trump's hush money payment trial. Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office on Friday asked for five additional minutes for juror questioning as they pick the remaining alternates. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys will have 35 minutes to question potential jurors this morning.
Judge Merchan, who appeared to be in a jovial mood Friday morning, granted the request and joked, "we're also still working on the temperature." Trump had complained about the "freezing" courtroom earlier this week and reporters noted the room feels even colder today.
Trump did not look at prospective jurors as they entered the courtroom. He appeared stoic and stared down at papers on the defense table as photographers snapped photos before the proceedings began.
Fox News' Brendan McDonald and Maria Paronich contributed to this update.
Former US President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower for Manhattan Criminal Court to attend his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs, in New York City on April 19, 2024. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Former President Trump on Friday demanded that the judge in his hush money payments case remove a gag order that prevents him from speaking publicly about witnesses in the trial.
"I am not allowed to speak," Trump said in brief remarks before he entered the Manhattan courthouse. He asserted his constitutional rights were stripped away by the judge and that he cannot respond to "lies" told about him in the press during his trial.
"The gag order has to come off. People are allowed to speak about me, and I have a gag order just to show you how much more unfair it is. And the conflict has to end with the judge. The judge has a conflict. The worst I've ever seen," Trump said.
Judge Juan Merchan last month imposed a gag order on Trump, due to his "prior extrajudicial statements." Merchan said they established "a sufficient risk to the administration of justice."
Merchan ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about witnesses concerning their potential participation or about counsel in the case — other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff.
Merchan also ordered that Trump cannot make or direct others to make public statements about any prospective juror or chosen juror.
Bragg filed a motion Tuesday to hold Trump in contempt of court for allegedly violating the gag order with a series of social media posts relating to two known witnesses in his criminal trial — Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels.
Bragg is urging Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan to also warn Trump that "future violations" of the gag order can be punished "not only with additional fines, but also with a term of incarceration of up to thirty days."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this update.
"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary slammed Trump's hush money trial in New York City, arguing the case is based on "sheer stupidity" and hurts the "American brand."
O'Leary addressed his take on the validity of the criminal case during "Outnumbered" as jury selection continues.
"I have a different take on this case. And I just want to preface my words saying before I comment, I've talked about these cases in New York now for months... Every time I bring this up, I get all this Trump stuff. Forget about Trump, okay? We don't do this in America, but we don't go after the office of the president with porn star cases. We give a broad swath of latitude. If you're an ex-president and you murdered somebody, I get it, or been accused of murder... But what is this? This hurts the American brand. I keep saying that," O'Leary said.
"I was in Geneva last week. 150 countries represented there. Everybody is talking about this saying, 'What is this porn star thing?' This is an American president. This is the office of the United States of America's highest office, and we're doing this? This is sheer stupidity," he continued.
"And I'll tell you what should happen. This should be pushed until after he wins or doesn't win. This should not be part of this election cycle at all. And this is not a Trump-loving comment. This is about the American brand, where I bring capital from all around the world to invest here. We look like clowns. I hate this."
On Tuesday, after the second day of Trump's hush money trial ended, the former president made a campaign stop at an Upper Manhattan bodega, where he vowed to "straighten out New York."
Trump visited the bodega after spending hours in downtown New York City courtroom for the second day of his criminal trial stemming from charges brought against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The presumptive GOP presidential niminee declared his trial for alleged hush money payments is having a "reverse effect" as a large crowd chanted "Trump, Trump, Trump" and "Four more years."
Trump blasted the trial and charges against him, saying it is "rigged," "all politics," and "coming out of the [Biden] White House."
"It makes me campaign locally, and that's okay," Trump said. "We're doing better now than we've ever done, so I think it's having a reverse effect."
"We're going to come in – Number one, you have to stop crime and we're going to let the police do their job. They have to be given back their authority. They have to be able to do their job," Trump said. "And we're going to come into New York. We're making a big play for New York, other cities, too. But this city, I love this city."
Trump said New York has "gotten so bad in the last three years, four years."
"And we're going to straighten New York out. So running for president, we're putting a big hit in New York – we could win New York," Trump said.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, 61, is presiding over Trump's hush money case.
Merchan, originally from Colombia, has served on the New York Supreme Court since 2009, overseeing felony criminal cases. He previously served as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office in the 1990s and worked in the New York State Attorney General's office, among other roles.
Merchan has previously overseen high-profile cases, including in 2012 the case of the "soccer mom madam," when a woman named Anna Gristina was charged with running a high-end prostitution ring in Manhattan. He also presided over the Trump Organization's 2022 criminal trial involving charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records, and he is currently overseeing a case involving Trump-supporter Steven Bannon on charges that he defrauded donors to build a wall along the nation’s southern border.
Trump has railed against Merchan on Truth Social, including last month when he called on the judge to recuse himself and cited Merchan’s daughter and her work as a political consultant for Democratic politicians.
"Judge Juan Merchan, who is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome (whose daughter represents Crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff, and other Radical Liberals, has just posted a picture of me behind bars, her obvious goal, and makes it completely impossible for me to get a fair trial) has now issued another illegal, un-American, unConstitutional ‘order,’ as he continues to try and take away my Rights," Trump posted on Truth Social last month after he was given a gag order limiting what he could publicly say about the case.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.
Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor violation in New York, but prosecutors are set to argue that former President Trump falsified his business records to cover another crime, which upgrades the charges to a felony.
Legal experts have weighed in that prosecutors will argue that Trump's alleged actions were to conceal campaign finance crimes.
Some who spoke to Fox News Digital expressed skepticism over the DA's office linking the case to campaign finance crimes, with the Heritage Foundation’s senior legal fellow Zack Smith saying that prosecutors are trying to "bootstrap essentially what would ordinarily be misdemeanor charges into felony offenses."
"Some of the charges he's trying to bring are false records charges against Donald Trump. Which are ordinarily misdemeanors, unless they were done in furtherance of another felony — simply to cover up another felony. And in this case, as I understand it, Alvin Bragg is saying that the other felony was a federal campaign finance violation. So, you simply have a state prosecutor pursuing a state case against Donald Trump, based on a federal felony offense that the federal government, the Justice Department itself, declined to pursue," Smith told Fox News Digital in an interview earlier this month.
The Justice Department in 2019 "effectively concluded" its investigation into Trump’s payments. In 2021, the Federal Elections Commission, the agency dedicated to enforcing campaign finance laws, announced that it had dropped a case looking into whether Trump had violated election laws for the payment to Daniels.
Former FEC member Hans Von Spakovsky underscored to Fox News Digital in another interview that both the FEC and DOJ had declined to pursue the case, yet a local DA is working to prove that Trump violated federal law.
"The [FEC] looked at this and said that this settlement was not a violation of federal law. The Justice Department also has criminal enforcement authority over federal campaign finance laws, and the Justice Department has also not considered this a crime," Von Spakovsky said.
"And so you have this local DA claiming there's a violation of federal law, when the two federal agencies with enforcement authority over that law say, ‘Well, no, there there was no violation of federal law.' And look, I say that as a former commissioner on the FEC. My job as a commissioner was to enforce federal campaign finance law, and this is simply not a violation of federal law," he added.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a press conference following the arraignment of former U.S. President Donald Trump April 4, 2023 in New York City. (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Trump’s indictment in April of 2023 on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
The charges stem from checks reimbursing Michael Cohen over a roughly 12-month period for paying Stormy Daniels in 2016. Cohen was separately arrested in 2018 and pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress. He was sentenced to three years in prison and has since been released.
Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor, but prosecutors are working to prove that Trump falsified records with an intent to commit or conceal a second crime, which would be a felony.
The charges against Trump carry more than a decade in prison, if he is convicted on the counts.
Legal experts across the nation have weighed in that it is unlikely Trump would face a long prison sentence, if convicted, speculating that the 45th president would instead be given probation or up to four years in prison if found guilty by the jury, Fox News previously reported.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.
Stormy Daniels poses during her visit to The Cambridge Union on June 12, 2022 in Cambridge, England. (Photo by Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union)
The origins of former President Trump's hush money case data back to October of 2016, when Trump was still just a candidate running against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The case is based on a $130,000 payment Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen made to former pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006. Trump has denied having an affair with Daniels.
The case is also expected to feature two other payments, including a $30,000 payment to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock, and arranged a $150,000 payment through a tabloid publisher to a former Playboy model named Karen McDougal, who also claimed she had an affair with Trump and sold her story to the tabloid. Trump has also vehemently denied these allegations.
Prosecutors allege that the Trump Organization reimbursed Cohen, and fraudulently logged the payments as legal expenses.
"During the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged last year. "TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws."
"Catch-and-kill" schemes are understood as tactics used by media and publishing companies to buy the rights of a person’s story with the intention of burying the information.
Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this update.
A court sketch depicts the third day of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Jury selection for the alleged hush money case remains ongoing after two seated jurors were dismissed on Thursday. (Christine Cornell)
Defense attorneys and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office will question a third panel of potential jurors Friday in former President Trump's hush-money case to select the remaining alternates.
On Thursday, 12 jurors and one alternate juror were seated after a long and arduous process that saw two jurors dismissed. At least one more alternate is needed before the historic criminal trial of a former U.S. president can begin. Those selected must attest that they can set aside their personal views and impartially weigh the charges against Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts. He has blasted the trial as pure politics, a "political persecution," and maintains his innocence. The former president is expected to testify during his trial.
"I tell the truth," Trump said last week, when asked about his possible testimony.
Trump is the first president in United States history to stand criminal trial.
Former President Trump declared it is President Joe Biden who "should be in jail" and "be on trial," while blasting the case against him and saying "the whole world is watching this New York scandal," as he left court after the third day of his historic and unprecedented criminal trial.
The former president, shortly after a full jury was selected to hear arguments from his defense attorneys and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as he seeks to make his case, stood in the hallway of the courthouse and addressed the press.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, held a thick stack of news articles from a range of different news outlets and media organizations.
Trump said "every one of them" knows the case is "very unfair" and a "very bad thing."
"The whole world is watching this New York scandal," he said, calling it a "spectacle."
"It is political and it is a shame—it is a shame," he said. "And I am sitting here for days now from morning until night in that freezing room—everybody was freezing in there—and all for this."
The former president blasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as "out of control" and said Judge Juan Merchan who is presiding over the case is "highly conflicted."
"The whole thing is a mess," he said.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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