With Trump Jury Selection Completed, Attorneys Prepare for Trial Next Week

NEW YORK — The full contingent of jurors and alternates needed for the hush money criminal trial of former President Donald Trump was reached Friday in a New York courtroom.

The jury selection procedure ended around 1:30 p.m., about the same time a protester set himself on fire outside the courthouse. 

Opening statements from attorneys are scheduled for Monday.

The dismissed jurors included a woman with a prior drug conviction and another woman whose father was a friend of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential primary election.

“I don’t want to waste the court’s time,” she told Judge Juan Merchan. “I thought I could do this. This is so much more stressful than I thought it was going to be.”

Other jurors were dismissed after acknowledging they would have difficulty being impartial for such a high-profile and controversial defendant.

Trump is accused of paying $130,000 to buy the silence of adult film actress Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter he allegedly had with her. He is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal the payments while he ran for president successfully in 2016.

Trump denies paying the money to Daniels. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“We have our full panel,” Merchan declared after the last alternate was chosen from among the 96 New Yorkers called to jury duty.

The jury of seven men and five women hold mostly white collar professions. They include a speech therapist, two corporate lawyers and an English teacher.

The jury foreman is a middle-aged salesman originally from Ireland. He described himself as an outdoorsman who, years earlier, worked as a waiter and gets much of his news from The New York Times.

Trump faces charges in three other criminal cases in Florida, Georgia and Washington, D.C. The New York trial, which is expected to last about six weeks, is the only one certain to conclude before the Nov. 5 election.

If the jury finds him guilty on any of the 34 counts, he would not be barred from the presidency. If elected, he could grant himself clemency on all civil and criminal charges.

Outside the courthouse, protesters gathered to either denounce or support Trump. 

One of them set himself on fire after throwing pamphlets into the air complaining about a global conspiracy involving a “ponzi scheme” with cryptocurrency.

Witnesses said the young man appeared calm as he doused himself with a liquid accelerant before setting himself ablaze. The fire burned for several minutes even as a police officer tried to douse the flames. 

The self-immolation was videoed on the cellphones of bystanders before the man, identified as Maxwell Azzarello of Florida, was taken away in an ambulance with severe burns. A New York Police Department spokesperson said he was in critical condition.

After the judge swore in the last of the alternates, he presided over a Sandoval hearing in the afternoon.

A Sandoval hearing is an informational hearing to inform defendants about the kinds of questions they are likely to face from prosecutors if they testify. It is intended to help them decide whether to take the witness stand.

Trump said last week he “absolutely” plans to testify despite having no obligation to do so.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg already revealed in court filings some of the evidence he and his staff plan to present during the trial.

The filings mention a series of court rulings against Trump, such as a $464 million civil judgment against him for fraud after incorrect valuations of his property and $88 million in compensation a court ordered him to pay after sexual abuse and defamation lawsuits filed by journalist E. Jean Carroll.

Although evidence from other court cases normally would not be allowed as hearsay, Bragg’s staff appears to be trying to prove a recurring pattern of behavior culminating in the Stormy Daniels criminal charges.

Trump is appealing the fraud and Carroll judgments.

Another judge imposed a gag order on the former president to prevent him from publicly criticizing judges, prosecutors, jurors or their families. Prosecutors say he has repeatedly violated the gag order, potentially leading to fines and jail time after a hearing scheduled for next Tuesday.

Despite the gag order, Trump lashed out again Friday against his accusers with a post on social media.

He said Merchan is “‘railroading’ me, at breakneck speed, in order to completely satisfy his ‘friends.'”

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