Donald Trump is due in Manhattan court on Thursday as lawyers continue searching for jurors to decide the former U.S. president’s fate in a historic criminal trial just months before his upcoming rematch with President Joe Biden.
Seven jurors have already been selected after two days of grilling by prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers, who are tasked with finding New Yorkers who can be fair to the Republican presidential candidate in heavily Democratic Manhattan, where the businessman-turned-politician made his name as a real estate tycoon decades ago.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The hush money trial kicked off on Monday. Jurors selected so far include a nurse, a software engineer and two corporate lawyers. The judge has said the identities of the 12 jurors and six alternates will remain anonymous except to Trump, his lawyers and prosecutors.
Opening arguments are expected to take place on Monday.
A guilty verdict would not bar Trump from office, but half of independent voters and one in four Republicans say they would not vote for him if he were convicted, according to a popular poll that closed on April 8.
The same poll found that 64% of registered voters thought the hush money charges were at least “somewhat serious.”
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, and Trump could potentially be convicted and sentenced before the election.
Editor Oloyede Oworu
