Day 2: Six jurors have been selected in Trump’s criminal case

On Tuesday, six individuals were selected to serve as jurors presiding over former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York City.

The first six were chosen after “lawyers grilled members of the jury pool about their social media posts, political views and personal lives to decide whether they can sit in fair judgment of the former president,” per The Associated Press.

The panel of 12 jurors and six alternates hasn’t been filled to completion yet due to the inability to find New Yorkers without bias for or against Trump. Still, according to CNN’s live report, a new panel of 96 potential jurors have entered the courtroom and are being addressed by Judge Juan Merchan.

“I know that you’ve been sitting around all day, waiting for something to happen, and I want you to know that that wasn’t lost on us,” he said, adding that more information would be given to them Thursday morning.

They were dismissed, and the remainder of the afternoon in court will focus on questioning the six selected jurors from the initial panel.

Until Tuesday afternoon, no jurors had been assigned.

Tuesday morning in court

During Tuesday’s jury selection, eight potential jurors were excused, while “eighteen potential jurors made it through the questionnaire phase in which they were questioned by the district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers,” according to CNN.

On Monday, 96 jurors were initially brought into the courtroom, but as the day wore on, few remained after Merchan questioned each of them on whether they could be fair and impartial.

This is the first criminal trial ever of a former U.S. president. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

The hush money case accuses Trump of 34 state felony counts regarding the falsification of business records. The documents are related to payments made before his 2016 presidential election to adult film actress Stormy Daniels by his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, who is a prosecution witness in the case.

Each charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in state prison. The judge can determine the duration of any sentence and whether they can be served one after the other. Merchan may also opt to sentence Trump to probation.

Following the court adjournment on Monday, Trump spoke to reporters outside the courtroom, saying that the judge wouldn’t let him leave for his son Barron’s high school graduation and adding that this was a “scam trial,” per The New York Times.

He added, “If you read all of the legal pundits, all of the legal scholars today, there’s not one that I see that said this is a case that should be brought or tried. It’s a scam. It’s a political witch hunt.”

Before jury selection began, Trump’s legal team tried and failed three times to delay the case, remove Merchan and change the location to outside of Manhattan, which his attorneys believe is too biased.

The jury selection is ongoing.