Criminal Trump Trial Begins
The first day of Trump's criminal trial in Manhattan saw the dismissal of several potential jurors. Below is a summary of Day 1, including the 42 questions jurors were asked by questionnaire.
No one was chosen to serve as a juror on the first day of Donald Trump’s history-making criminal trial in Manhattan yesterday. Dozens of potential jurors were dismissed after telling the court they did not believe they could be impartial and fair with this verdict. While many more possible jurors will be individually questioned by the court in the days to come, all have been required to submit a finalized answer form, where each person answers the 42 questions presented by attorneys and approved by the Court. Ultimately, this trial will require 12 jurors to serve, with an additional six alternate jurors being chosen as back-ups.
The public will neither be able to watch a televised version of the proceedings, nor have access to any audio of what is happening in the courtroom due to current New York law. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan has denied courtroom access to television cameras, but has allowed those cameras to remain in the hallways just outside of the courtroom.
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) §29.3 provides that any media presentation of trial court proceedings is governed by the administrative court rules laid out in NY Consolidated Laws (NY CLS) §131. While this section of the law was updated in 2016 to allow for some instances of coverage, Section 131 states that cameras are permitted only by the express permission of the presiding judge.
Judge Merchan has determined that all jurors’ names will also be kept from the public, and will be known only to the prosecution and defense teams. During jury selection, prospective jurors will be referred as an assigned number rather than using their real names.
Each potential juror must complete a finished jury form in which they answer 42 questions that were previously submitted by the attorneys and approved by the Court. The jurors will also be individually questioned about the details provided in their questionnaires, including basic, standard information such as: “In what neighborhood do you live?” and “What do you do for a living?” or “Are you married?” The questionnaire also delves deeper by asking questions that may indicate partiality or bias, including “What media do you consume?” or “Have you ever attended a Trump rally?” or “Do you have any feelings or opinions about how Mr. Trump is being treated in this case?” Read the full questionnaire here.
This case is the first criminal trial we are seeing against Donald Trump, unlike the previous civil cases that have been held. Here, Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, which is a felony charge that is punishable by up to four years in prison. But there’s no guarantee that Trump would actually serve time behind bars if he’s convicted, and the judge is responsible for setting the sentence after a guilty verdict at the conclusion of the trial.
The State of New York deems falsifying business records to be a misdemeanor crime, but the act becomes a felony if the falsification was done to conceal another crime. Manhattan prosecutors allege that Donald Trump knowingly intended to falsify the documents in question. However, New York court records and newspaper archives suggest that defendants convicted only of felony falsifying business records seldom get prison time unless they are also charged with more serious felonies. This standard, combined with the possible difficulties of imprisoning a former president could factor into any sentencing decision Judge Merchan might make down the road.
The judge has explained to Donald Trump and his attorneys that he is legally required to attend every court session of this trial, and will face imprisonment if he does not comply. On Monday, after the potential jurors were dismissed from the courtroom, the Judge Merchan declined a request from Trump’s lawyers to take April 25 off from the trial so the former president could attend Supreme Court arguments on his claims of presidential immunity in another of his four criminal cases.
Trump Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued that Trump’s situation deserved a special accommodation saying, “It’s not very often that you have someone who has multiple criminal indictments at the same time.” Judge Merchan responded by saying that as a criminal defendant, Donald Trump “is required to be here — he is not required to be at the Supreme Court.” In response to this statement and decision, Trump rolled his eyes, scowled and stood up to leave after court went into a recess at the end of the day.
On the first day, DA Alvin Bragg requested Trump be held in contempt of court for violating the gag order that Judge Merchan established more than a week ago. Merchan has set an April 23 hearing date to discuss this issue separately and the resulting outcome of this motion could determine how strict we can expect the judge to be for the duration of the trial. There was also a lot of talk about Donald Trump appearing to nod off in court with a report that his mouth was “going slack and his head drooping onto his chest.”
While Trump falling asleep in court will not affect the procedural outcome of this case, it could have bearing with jurors in the future if it continues to happen. At this point, it appears that napping Trump has just provided some more bad optics for political critics rather than any substantive content that really needs to be analyzed at this point. Perhaps the best summary of this incident is when Rachel Maddow stated: “The wheels of justice grind slowly, I did not think they would grind so slowly that they would rock the defendant, apparently, to sleep.”
A new poll, published today by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that the American public is not entirely convinced that Donald Trump’s actions were unlawful. One-third of adults in the United States say Trump did something illegal in this hush money case, while close to half of those polled think he did something illegal in the other three criminal cases currently pending against him. Those surveyed are also unsure that Trump is getting a fair shake from the prosecutors in the case — or that the judge and jurors can be impartial in cases involving him.
While half of Americans who were asked would consider Trump unfit to serve as president if he is convicted of falsifying business documents to cover up hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, only 31% are confident/very confident that Donald Trump is being treated fairly by prosecutors in this case, while 44% are confident/very confident that he is being treated unfairly. Moreover, 43% of those surveyed are not very or not at all confident that the judge and jurors involved in this hush-money case can be impartial in cases involving Trump.
It is worth noting that while legal experts remain skeptical about the New York District Attorney’s ability to obtain a conviction against Trump in this case, the three other criminal cases Trump is facing in Florida, Georgia and Washington, DC, could lead to more lengthy prison sentences upon conviction. For example, in the 2020 election interference case in Washington, the most serious counts call for up to 20 years behind bars, which means the possibility of jail time following a conviction in that case is much higher.
Stay tuned to SHERO, where we will be breaking down all of the salient aspects of this long trial and connecting the political and legal dots while we analyze courtroom procedure and explains how this can affect the critical aspects of the trial. SHERO will also be made public to everyone, as we have decided to abandon the paywall in an effort to provide accurate independent journalism to everyone. Please consider supporting this new model today by upgrading your subscrition to “paid” now.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter, is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and an analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
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Excellent. Thank you. This is my latest perspective. I have many. https://creyna.substack.com/p/the-8th-circle
You are doing great reporting Amee. I love your newsletter and have given it multiple times as a gift.
Careful, though, when you quote polls. They are notoriously inaccurate and increasingly unreflective of voters' preferences. Here's my post about why: https://ellensilvers.com/f/ignore-polls-and-vote . Feel free to share/comment/subscribe.
Keep up the excellent work!