NEW YORK – Judge Juan Merchan, who is leading the case against former President Donald Trump for alleged bribery of former porn film actress Stephanie Clifford, concluded this Thursday the selection process of the 12 members of the jury.
The Prosecutor’s Office accuses Trump of 34 crimes for alleged document falsification, within a plot with which he would have tried to “hide” the payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence and not talk about an alleged extramarital relationship before. of the 2016 elections.
“We have our jury,” announced Merchan, who has “the hope” of concluding the selection of the six substitutes this Friday after interviewing nearly two hundred candidates and overcoming some setbacks such as the replacement of two recused members of the first seven selected on Tuesday. .
A group of 22 candidates returns to the room this Friday to answer the 42-question questionnaire about their profession, workplace, newspapers they read and social networks they use, which both the defense and the prosecution scrutinize with a magnifying glass to determine their political inclinations.
Merchan asked the press not to give details about those selected, whose identity remains hidden for security reasons and to avoid harassment.
Obstruction of the electoral campaign
And “impartiality” and anonymity are fundamental conditions in a jury that has the enormous responsibility of judging, in the middle of the electoral campaign, the virtual presidential candidate of the Republican Party.
At the end of the session, Trump complained to the press that the trial is taking him away from the election campaign. He also protested the temperature of the Manhattan Supreme Court courtroom, where he is attending this “unfair trial.”
“I’m supposed to be in a lot of places campaigning,” he said, and instead, “I’ve been sitting here for days, from morning to night in that freezing room,” he lamented.
Merchan, a registered Democrat
Trump has said that this trial, like all the others he faces, is a witch hunt by Democrats, and that Merchan hates him.
Trump’s lawyers sought to change judges by noting that during the 2020 presidential campaign, Judge Merchan, a registered Democrat, had donated $15 to the campaign of his party’s candidate Joe Biden and $10 to a group called “Stop Republicans.” ”.
Likewise, the former president’s legal team pointed out that the judge’s daughter, who is president of the digital agency Authentic Campaigns, worked on several Democrats’ campaigns, including Biden’s.
The Manhattan prosecutor’s office accuses the magnate of 34 falsifications of accounting documents from the Trump Organization family business to supposedly buy the silence of a former porn film actress for an extramarital relationship so that she would not interfere in his 2016 campaign, which he won against the Democrat. Hillary Clinton.
Among the prosecution’s witnesses is the magnate’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was the one who allegedly paid the former actress out of his pocket.
The 77-year-old Republican magnate has pleaded not guilty to the Manhattan prosecutor’s charges. Only the unanimity of the jury can convict him.
Merchan hopes that the arguments in the case will begin on Monday, prior to the parade of witnesses, although he will adjourn the session at 2:00 p.m. local time to accommodate people celebrating Passover, a schedule that will be maintained on Tuesday.
Locks
Subject of a gag ban imposed by the Democratic judge so that Trump does not speak about people related to the case, the judge has scheduled a hearing for next week to “analyze” whether the former president should be held in contempt alleging that he has repeatedly violated said order. Trump accuses the judge of violating his rights established in the United States Constitution on freedom of expression.
The prosecution denied the former president’s defense the list of the first three witnesses even though it is a common “courtesy.” “Mr. Trump has been tweeting about witnesses,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass alleged.
“I can’t blame them for it,” the judge reacted to that refusal.
Judge must face five other trials promoted by Democrats in an attempt to remove him from the race for the White House.
The Democrats’ persecution of a former president is unprecedented.
Source: With information from AFP and Europa Press
