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On the Docket: ‘This trial is starting’
A full jury has been selected for former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial, which will start on Monday.
Five alternate jurors were selected and sworn in on Friday (read more about who was selected here). That means a full 12-member jury, with six alternates just in case, are in place. Judge Juan Merchan said that the trial itself will begin with opening statements on Monday morning.
The first few days will move fast. Merchan has decided to end court at 2pm Monday and Tuesday to allow Jewish participants to get to Passover services.
Here’s what else happened Friday:
A tragic event
As the trial broke for lunch, a man lit himself on fire outside the courthouse, and burned for some time before police could reach him to extinguish the flames and rush him to the hospital. He’d brought flyers laden with anti-government conspiracy theories, and police identified him as a man from Florida. His actions seem to have nothing to do with the case itself.
What will prosecutors be allowed to ask Trump if he takes the stand?
Court resumed Friday afternoon with what’s called a “Sandoval hearing” – a pre-trial meeting to discuss a list of things prosecutors want to ask the defendant should he choose to take the stand.
In this case, the main issues prosecutors want to bring up if Trump decides to testify are previous court cases that undercut his credibility. They include:
• Two recent court findings that Trump defamed E Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her.
• A recent court finding that Trump illegally inflated his business assets to get better loan terms, which led to a nearly half-billion-dollar penalty in a recent civil business fraud trial.
• Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, which was dismissed in 2022 as “frivolous” and “bad faith” by the judge.
• A 2016 campaign fundraiser held by the Donald J Trump Foundation that violated campaign finance law, forcing him to pay $2m for breach of fiduciary duty.
Trump attorney Emil Bove argued that to bring in the Carroll verdicts would push “the salaciousness onto another level” for the case. But prosecutors called it “critical, critical” evidence.
Merchan said he would announce what he’ll permit on Monday.
More failed delays
Trump’s team also tried to force another trial delay on Friday by going around Merchan and arguing to a state appeals court that he’d rushed jury selection, preventing Trump from receiving a fair trial.
Multiple attempts by Trump’s team to get appeals court judges to overrule Merchan have fallen flat on their faces in recent weeks. This one was rejected Friday afternoon as well, as was a separate application to try to get the trial delayed as his lawyers fight to get the trial moved out of Manhattan, another all-but-doomed effort.
Merchan told Trump’s attorneys that they needed to stop trying to re-litigate his every decision and insisted they stop fighting him on decided issues.
“That has to end. There comes a point when you accept my rulings,” he said. “This trial is starting.”
