Donald Trump has described his trial over alleged “hush money” payments to a porn star and a Playboy model as an “assault on America”.
He arrived at a Manhatten court for the first ever criminal case brought against a former US President on Monday.
Trump is accused of having a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels in 2006 while married to wife Melania, before allegedly being involved in a backroom deal to try to stop it becoming public in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
He is also accused of an affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal, together with a second alleged payment to buy her silence.
The day began with hours of pretrial arguments, including over a potential fine for Trump, before moving into the start of jury selection Monday afternoon.
The first members of the jury pool — 96 in all — were summoned into the courtroom, where the parties will decide who among them might be picked to decide the legal fate of the former, and potentially future, American president.
Earlier on, a female juror from Harlem was promptly dismissed after admitting she had strong opinions about him. As she left the courtroom, she was heard saying: “I just couldn’t do it.”
Trump's notoriety would make the process of picking 12 jurors and six alternates a near-herculean task in any year, but it's likely to be especially challenging now, unfolding in a closely contested presidential election in the heavily Democratic city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status decades before winning the White House.
Judge Juan Merchan denied a defense request to recuse himself from the case after Trump's lawyers claimed he had a conflict of interest.
He also said prosecutors could not play for the jury the 2005 "Access Hollywood" recording in which Trump was captured discussing grabbing women sexually without their permission.
However, prosecutors will be allowed to question witnesses about the recording, which became public in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office also asked Monday for Merchan to fine Trump $3,000 (2,400) over social media posts they said violated the judge's gag order barring him from attacking witnesses.
Last week, he used his Truth Social platform to call his former lawyer Michael Cohen and the adult film actor Stormy Daniels "two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!"Trump lawyer Todd Blanche maintained that Trump was simply responding to the witnesses' statements."It's not as if President Trump is going out and targeting individuals. He is responding to salacious, repeated vehement attacks by these witnesses," Blanche said.Judge Merchan did not rule on the request immediately and instead set a hearing for next week.Before the hearing on Monday, Trump spoke as he arrived outside Manhatten Criminal Court, Trump said "there has been never anything like this" case.
He claimed: "Every legal scholar said this case is nonsense, it should have never been brought, there is no case.
"This is an assault on America and that's why I'm very proud to be here."
Trump is casting the case, and his indictments elsewhere, as a broad "weaponisation of law enforcement" by Democratic prosecutors and officials. He maintains they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of impeding his presidential run.
Trump, a billionaire property tycoon and reality TV star, is the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, and set for a second showdown at the polls with Joe Biden in November.
However his campaign is set to be punctuated by court appearances, with the hush money trial just the first of four criminal cases against Trump.
Ms Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, broke a non-disclosure agreement to say that she had a sexual encounter with Trump, a year after he married third wife Melania.
She says she was paid $130,000 (£104,167) not to go public with the revelation during Trump’s successful run for president in 2016, in a deal allegedly struck by the tycoon’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, former vice-president of the Trump Organization, is said to have personally made the payment to the porn star - in a “catch and kill” strategy to keep damaging allegations about Mr Trump from becoming public - before allegedly being quietly reimbursed by Trump.
It is said a $150,000 (£120,193) payment was agreed for Ms McDougal.
Cohen was jailed for three years in 2018 for a variety of charges including tax evasion, and has since turned against his former boss.
Now one of Trump’s most vocal critics, he is set to be the star prosecution witness alongside Ms Daniels and Ms McDougal.
It is alleged that financial records were fabricated in order to hide the “hush money” payments from the electorate in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump has denied the charges, and has also previously denied extra-marital affairs.
The case has been brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, who announced a 34-count felony indictment in April last year.
He has faced a maelstrom of death threats and racist abuse for bringing the criminal case, and reportedly has been sent two packages containing white powder, while Trump himself has called the prosecutor a “thug” and a “degenerate psychopath”.
Trump is likely to continue his diatribes about the case as the criminal trial progresses, and tells supporters that he is the victim of a politically-motived “witchhunt”.
He has already faced a gag order from Judge Juan Merchan, barring him from publicly commenting on witnesses, jurors and others involved in the case – though he is not blocked from speaking about the judge and prosecutor.
If convicted, the charges against Trump could carry jail time. Trials over claims Trump illegally stored classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, allegedly interfered in the 2020 election, and a case focusing on the January 6 Capitol Hill riot are still to come.
