Without a jury formed and with a dazed Donald Trump, the first day of the “porn trial” against the tycoon ended

Flanked by his lawyers and with a serious face, at 9.30 in the morning in New York, Donald Trump entered court this Monday, with his classic dark suit and red tie, for the start of a historic trial that could decide his future politics.: for the first time a former president of the United States is criminally prosecuted and, moreover, he is a candidate aiming to return to the White House in November.

On the fifteenth floor, in courtroom 1530 of the Manhattan Supreme Court, the 45th president sat in the dock and faced Colombian judge Juan Merchan, who accused him of falsifying his company’s accounting records. to hide a payment to a porn actressStormy Daniels, during the 2016 campaign, with whom he allegedly had an affair.

He could be sentenced to up to four years in prisonalthough according to the US Constitution he could still be elected and even govern from prison.

The Republican candidate, shortly before the start of the trial, said that the trial is an “attack on the United States” and a “political persecution”. “The country is governed by an incompetent man, who was very involved in this issue. It is an attack against a political opponent. That’s why I feel very honored to be here,” Trump, 77, added.

Minutes later, five photographers captured a historic image of a former American president sitting on the bench.

The judge began the trial after reading the charges. The hearing began with the selection of the jury, made up of 12 citizens, plus 6 other substitutes, who will have the task of listening to the parties and all the witnesses in the case and will decide whether Trump is guilty or innocent.

“The name of this case is State of New York v. Donald Trump,” the judge told jurors. “We want justice done, that’s all we want,” he added. Shortly before, the magistrate had rejected a final request from the tycoon to withdraw from the case because his daughter is a consultant who works for the Democratic Party.

What’s coming

They began to file along the nearby stage a hundred New Yorkers who had been subpoenaed by letter, as usually happens in jury trials in the United States. Half of them were quickly discarded after claiming they could not be impartial.

The process it will last for several weeks, when they answer about 45 questions about their political leanings, their cultural consumption, etc. For example, they will be asked about their affiliation with groups such as Proud Boys, QAnon, or Antifa; their presence or that of someone close to rallies for or against Trump, or if they read books by the former president or others involved in the case. They can also check their social networks.

Trump’s lawyers are trying to recruit police officers, firefighters and security force members, who are more likely to vote Republican in a city like New York that is largely Democratic.

Trump was seen tarnished during the hearingspeaking to his lawyers, and smiled wryly when the judge said he wanted a fair trial.

The tycoon, who could be called to testify, denied having had sexual relations with the porn actress Stormy Daniels, now 45, whose real name is Stephanie Gliffords.

But prosecutors say that while he was president, Trump allowed his company to falsify documents to hide disbursements made to Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and confidante, who was who paid Daniels $130,000 so that he wouldn’t talk about the relationship during the campaign.

She says she met Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe and that he invited her into the room where they had sex. Daniels provided details of the encounter and went so far as to describe the mogul’s penis as “a mushroom.” They saw each other a few more times, although she never said their relationship was “romantic.”

The meetings took place in 2006, when Trump was married to Melania and together they had a young son, Barron. But in 2016, in the midst of the electoral campaign, he wanted to publish the story and there the tycoon apparently decided to silence her with money which he then did not liquidate accordingly.

The prosecution claims that it was a pattern of crime on the part of the tycoon: when there was an issue or a story that could influence him in his campaign, He silenced them with payments that he then did not record accounting. There is another woman, former playboy bunny Karen McDougal, who may testify to something similar to Daniels.

This is one of four criminal cases the president faces, as he has others for judicial interference in the 2020 Georgia election, for stealing White House documents and for inflating his company’s assets. With various strategies, Trump has sought to postpone the trials so that they do not affect his election campaign.

However, this process, which began this Monday and could end in Junehe may be the only one to have a conviction before the November 5 presidential election.

So far the cataract of evidence Trump faces doesn’t appear to be affecting him much in the polls. His followers remain very firm towards their leader who considers everything as a “witch hunt”.

But his rival, President Joe Biden, has made up ground in the polls, especially among moderates, and are now virtually tied. Trump will have to be present throughout the trial which ends in June and, beyond the immeasurable costs of his lawyers and the hit to his image in court, the trial will undoubtedly also affect his campaign travel schedule.