Donald Trump’s historic trial begins with jury selection

Former US President Donald Trump will become this Monday the first in the history of his country to sit on the bench for a criminal trialL. The trial will soon begin with jury selection, a moment that in other cases usually appears as a mere procedure although in this case it already has a strong political charge.

Trump risks prosecution for some irregular payments of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels to buy her silence during the 2016 election campaign and not to report an extramarital affair that the tycoon had with her in 2006, when he had not yet entered politics. Her trial comes at a time when the Republican leader is his party’s candidate for the upcoming elections on November 5.

The twelve members of the jury, as happens in every judicial trial, must prove it They literally have no prejudices about the defendants or preconceived ideas that might cloud his verdict, which is difficult with a personality as controversial as Trump’s.

Jury selection can take up to two weeks, during which potential members must pass the scrutiny of the defense and the prosecutor’s office, which will investigate, for example, whether any of them participated as volunteers in campaigns for or against the tycoon for more difficult questions to evaluate such as whether his feelings towards the defendant may influence his decisions.

The newspaper The New York Times He had assured a few days ago that the Prosecutor’s Office prefers jurors with university studies, those who take progressive views and closer to the Democratic Party, and therefore more severe towards the former Republican president.

Instead, the defense will rely on citizens from security forces such as police and firefighters – where conservative sensibilities abound – and also on cleaners, as well as people who have had negative experiences with the justice system.

Jaw

It is no coincidence that on March 28, the same day the Democratic Party brought together Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton in New York for a fundraising event, Trump chose to contrast them with his presence at the funeral of police officer Jonathan Dillerkilled with a point-blank shot in yet another armed incident in the Big Apple.

In a city initially disaffected by Donald Trump – the Democratic Party still dominates New York – the issue of insecurity is widely exploited by the Republican candidate, who does not hesitate to link gun violence with the wave of immigration and the city’s political wave and the country – of tolerance towards newcomers.

The judge who will deal with the most media case of the decade, Juan Merchan (of Colombian origins), did not tremble when it came to issue a gag order against Trump himself, a relatively common tool in the American justice system that involves prohibiting a defendant from making public comments about the people involved in his or her trial. The measure requires Trump to refrain from commenting on witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court personnel, as well as their families. The same order was expanded on April 1 to include the judge himself and his family, as well as prosecutor Alvin Bragg.

The former president had played with fire by attacking Loren Merchan, the magistrate’s daughter, on his Truth Social network, which -he writes- “earn money working to ‘catch Trump’” and said of his father that he was “a real and certified ‘hater’ (someone who hates) opposed to Trump and that he suffers from a serious syndrome of insanity” towards him.

Merchan, like other judges who have ruled against Trump, are part, according to him, of a radical left-wing conspiracy unleashed against Trumpism a “witch hunt””, the favorite expression with which Trump presents himself as a victim of the system.

The judicial pressure on Trump also has repercussions on his assets, since he has to face huge costs in lawyers and has already suffered two failures in civil court in a trial for defamation and another for fraud in his company, in which only the securities It cost him more than $300 million to appeal.