Trump back in NYC court for hush money trial, slams ‘unfair’ gag order

Trump back at court, complains gag order is ‘unfair’

NEW YORK — Jury selection at Donald Trump’s historic hush money trial is expected to enter the home stretch Friday, with only five alternates to be seated before prosecutors make their case against the former president to a panel of his peers.

Trump returned to the lower Manhattan courthouse for the fourth day of proceedings after a jam-packed first week searching for a jury. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has told jurors to plan on coming back Monday for opening arguments.

Trump spoke to the cameras just before 9 a.m., complaining how the gag order that requires him to stay mum on witnesses, the jury and court staff and their family makes the trial “unfair.”

“The gag order has to come off,” the former president said. “People are allowed to speak about me and I have a gag order, just to show you how much more unfair it is.”

He did not enter the courtroom, but went back through the back doors.

The latest batch of potential jurors summoned in the case is expected to face more questions on Friday about whether they can be fair and impartial.

Jury selection went faster than expected

By the end of Thursday’s proceedings, the entire jury and one alternate had all been seated. The seven men and five women among more than 150 people surveyed this week are poised to make history as the jurors who will consider the first-ever criminal charges filed against an American president and determine whether Trump is a felon before voters head to the polls in November.

Two of seven panelists chosen Tuesday were excused Thursday after one said she was uncomfortable serving on the high-profile case and another was found to have provided conflicting information to the court.

The New Yorkers who made the cut were in the minority who said they could judge his case with an open mind, regardless of what they knew about how they felt about him.

One member of the mixed-bag jury is among Trump’s Truth Social followers, and another admitted she didn’t “like his persona.”

Trump, who was unaccompanied by family during the first week of his trial, landed himself in hot water again for no less than eight apparent violations of a gag order prohibiting him from publicly remarking on trial participants like Michael Cohen and the jury. Merchan is expected to consider the prosecution’s requests to hold him in criminal contempt and issue monetary sanctions at a hearing next week.

The background on the trial

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies alleging he repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to cover up a hush-money scheme intended to hide damaging information from the voting public in 2016.

The charges relate to a $130,000 payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels that he allegedly reimbursed him for in 2017, as well as payoffs to former Playboy model Karen McDougal and Trump Tower doorman.

Daniels and McDougal, who are expected to testify, both allege they slept with Trump at a Lake Tahoe charity golf tournament in 2006, less than two years after he wed Melania and they became parents to Barron Trump. McDougal claims they were involved for several months; Daniels says it was a one-time tryst, testifying in a lawsuit the year before last that she didn’t “consider getting cornered coming out of a bathroom to be an affair.” Trump denies both women’s claims.

As he seeks the White House once again, the presumed GOP nominee is also facing three other criminal cases and a total of 88 felonies, containing allegations of criminal conduct dating from the year before he took office to the year he left. The allegations run the gamut from falsifying records to plotting to overthrow democracy. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all his cases.