Trump claims ‘political persecution’ as criminal trial in New York opens

“This is political persecution, this is a persecution like never before, nobody has ever seen anything like it and again it’s a case that should have never been brought. That’s why I am very proud to be here, this is an assault on our country and it’s a country that’s failing.” Those were the only words Donald Trump said on Monday upon his arrival at the Manhattan courthouse where he will stand trial — the first of the four criminal cases he faces — for allegedly paying a bribe to a porn actress; his statement added nothing new to his usual litany of grievances: he claims to be the victim of a political witch hunt. Apart from the fact that the Stormy Daniels case (the actress’s stage name) presents some differences from the other three criminal proceedings, the event is in itself historic: it is the first time that a former US president — who has already emerged unscathed from two impeachments — has been tried criminally.

At 9:30 a.m. local time, Trump arrived promptly on the 15th floor of 100 Centre Street. In the access corridor, he did not accept questions from the journalists assembled there, limiting himself to presenting his own argument: it was an irresistible opportunity to turn the trial into a political campaign event. Of the four criminal proceedings he is facing, this is the case Trump dislikes the most, as it mixes personal dirty laundry; the recording of the $130,000 payment as “legal expenses” to hide its dubious nature and, even worse, an alleged violation of campaign finance rules, as the alleged bribe to buy Daniels’ silence had the sole objective of preventing the affair from coming to light in the final stretch of the campaign that ultimately brought him to the White House in 2016.

Presided over by Judge Juan Merchan, the trial has begun with jury selection. The questionnaire for the potential candidates — a hundred on Monday, out of a total of 500 — has been made public, and it is expected that in the process those who do not respond adequately will be automatically excluded, according to the scale of prosecutors and defense. The fact that all the candidates are residents of Manhattan, an eminently Democratic district, may be a factor that leads to numerous disqualifications by Trump’s lawyers. As it was, there was little need for the former president’s legal team to rise from their seats: of the 96 prospective jurors who entered the courtroom after the lunch break, more than 50 raised their hands to say they could not be impartial in the trial and were immediately dismissed. Nine others gave undisclosed “other reasons” for excusing themselves from the jury. More than two dozen of the excluded candidates were white women.

The defense can reject anyone “for cause” when potential jurors’ answers on the questionnaire suggest the applicant may not be impartial. Each side can also reject 10 for almost any reason through peremptory challenges. The process will end when the 12 regular jurors and up to six alternates are selected. This procedure will last between one and two weeks, depending on the number of objections to suitability to serve as a juror raised by either side.

To the extent possible, Trump plans to attend not only the hearings, but also the jury selection process, defense attorney Todd Blanche has said. “Mr. Trump wants to be present at everything,” the counsel has stated. But the judge has warned him that if the former president interrupts the proceedings, he could be jailed, and the trial would continue in his absence.

Although Trump is under a gag order that Merchan imposed in March and subsequently extended, on Monday one of the prosecutors indicated that they will ask that the former president be held in contempt for his attacks on witnesses. Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who allegedly received the bribe, and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen — the prosecution’s key witnesses — were lambasted Wednesday on Trump’s social media page. On Saturday he went back on the attack against Cohen, who allegedly managed the payment of the bribe to Daniels and even fronted the money, before being reimbursed by his then boss, calling him a “disgraced lawyer and criminal.” Trump was also on the verge of crossing the red line of contempt with his attacks on Judge Merchan’s daughter.

This is not the first time that Trump has come dangerously close to crossing the line of contempt. The judge in the civil fraud case for his business dealings, for which he has been ordered to pay $464 million, fined him on a couple of occasions for violating that trial’s gag order. But thus far Trump has avoided any sanctions for violating identical restrictions in the two criminal cases in which he is subject to them, the one in New York and the one in Washington, for election interference.

Before jury selection began, Judge Merchan spent over an hour on preliminary, or procedural, matters in discussions with the prosecution team and defense counsel. One of the main issues concerned permission to show the transcript of the Access Hollywood tape — an embarrassing audio recorded in 2005 in which Trump denigrated women — at trial. Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, had wanted the tape itself to be one of the main exhibits, but on Monday Judge Merchan ruled that only the transcript, not the recording, could be used. He has also refused to incorporate subsequent revealing — and damning — evidence of Trump’s customary treatment of women. In theory, Merchan’s decision is a victory for the defense.

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