Trump's hush money payment trial gets underway as jury selection begins

Former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial kicked off Monday, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

The historical trial began with jury selection, where a pool of more than 500 potential jurors will be peppered with questions to determine if they can fairly weigh in on the charges. 

The case revolves around payments made by Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. The $130,000 payment was to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump in 2006. 

This is an excerpt of a story by Fox News Digital's Emma Colton. Click here to read the full report.

Former President Donald Trump spoke outside the Manhattan courthouse Monday after the close of the first day of jury selection in his hush money criminal trial. 

“It's a scam. It's a political witch hunt," Trump said Monday after court adjourned for the day.

The 45th president lamented over the judge's apparent decision to not let him attend the high school graduation ceremony for his son Barron Trump on May 17th. Trump just be present in the courtroom every day of the trial.

"It looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son who's worked very, very hard. He's a great student and he's very proud of the fact that he did so well. And was looking forward for years to have graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks the judge isn't going to allow me to escape this scam - it's a scam the trial," Trump said.

Trump also said Judge Juan Merchan would not let him attend oral arguments in his presidential immunity case at the U.S. Supreme Court later next week

"We've got a real problem with this judge... a real problem with a lot of things having to do with this trial," Trump said, adding a swipe at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

"You go right outside and people are being mugged killed all day long, and he's sitting here all day with 10 or 12 prosecutors over nothing, over what people say shouldn't be a trial."

The former president and 2024 GOP presumptive nominee went on to say that the trial precludes him from certain campaign stops.

"That I can't go to my son's graduation and I can't go to the United States Supreme Court. that I'm not in Georgia or Florida or North Carolina and campaigning like I should be. It's perfect for the radical left Democrats. That's exactly what they want. This is about election interference. That's all it's about," Trump said.

Crowds gathered Monday afternoon to protest outside the Manhattan courtroom in protest and support of the former President Donald Trump on the first day of his hush money trial.

Some opponents of the former president held signs that read "no one is above the law," and "Trump's deceit is beyond a reasonable doubt."

Others held flags with the words "Trump 2024" and "save America" imprinted. Another with a flag featuring the 45th president's mugshot and the words "never surrender."

Nearing the close of the first day of what is expected to be several days of jury selection, 3 possible jurors remained out of 96 that were sorted. Judge Juan Merchan must whittle the jury pool down to 12.

Trump has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree during his successful 2016 presidential campaign. The dozen ultimately selected will become the first Americans ever to sit in judgment of a former president charged with a crime.

The judge presiding over former President Trump's hush money trial in New York City announced he will hear arguments this month on whether Trump violated a gag order amid the case and should pay $1,000 fines for each violation. 

Judge Juan Merchan said he will hear arguments on April 23 at 9:30 a.m. regarding whether Trump violated a gag order that prevents him from making public statements about witnesses and their anticipated testimony in the trial. 

The district attorney's office argued Monday that Trump has violated the order three times in social media posts and should pay $1,000 for each violation of the gag order. The prosecutors said Trump should remove the posts and requested that he be held in contempt. 

The defense team has until April 19 to file a written response to the prosecutors' claims Trump violated the gag order. 

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Emma Colton.

At least 50 potential jurors in former president Donald Trump's hush money trial were released Monday after admitting they couldn’t be fair and impartial.

Judge Juan Merchan presiding over the jury selection brought 96 potential jurors into the courtroom to be sworn in for questioning Monday after noon.

The judge told the prospective jurors that his role is to help ensure a fair trial. 

 "You alone are the judgers of the facts…you alone will determine if the defendant is guilty," he said.

He added that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that their decision must be guided on “a full and fair evaluation of the evidence.” 

Merchan also said “as judgers of the facts,” the jurors must decide of the witnesses are “truthful and accurate.”

When Merchan asked the group if they could be fair and impartial, over half said no. At least 50 were let go from the jury pool for that reason.

There are a total of 200 possible jurors present at the New York City courthouse.

Fox News' Grace Taggart and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

96 potential jurors in former president Donald Trump's hush money trial have been sworn in for questioning as part of the jury selection process.

There are a total of 200 possible jurors present at the New York City courthouse. Judge Juan Merchan, just before 3 p.m. on Monday, greeted the prospective jurors and gave them a summary of the case, The People of the State of N.Y v. Donald J. Trump. 

The identities of the jurors will remain anonymous. Earlier in the day, Merchan said he was concerned about questioning individual jurors in the jury room with a large amount of people present, fearing it would be “overly intimidating.” 

He decided he will excuse other jurors from the room and question the individual juror at the podium.

The judge told the prospective jurors that his role is to help ensure a fair trial.  "You alone are the judgers of the facts…you alone will determine if the defendant is guilty," he said.

He added that the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that their decision must be guided on “a full and fair evaluation of the evidence.” 

Merchan also said “as judgers of the facts,” the jurors must decide of the witnesses are “truthful and accurate.”

Fox News' Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

During the opening day of the hush money trial against former president Donald Trump, Judge Juan Merchan presiding over the courtroom said it was "too early" for him to decide whether to honor Trump's request to skip a trial day to attend his youngest son's high school graduation.

On Monday, Trump's defense team asked the judge for a few scheduling exceptions including the first two and the last two days of Passover -- which starts on April 22 -- and Barron Trump's high school graduation on May 17.

Merchan said he would not yet make a decision on the defense's request. “It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan said Monday.

As of Monday afternoon, jury selection for the trial is still in process. Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Fox News' Maria Paronich contributed to this report.

Former President Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges are related to alleged hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has alleged that Trump "repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election."

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

In 2018, Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges, including tax evasion, lying to Congress, and campaign finance violations. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging payments to Daniels and former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal in order to prevent them from going public with alleged affairs with Trump, which Trump has repeatedly denied.  

Cohen has said Trump directed the payments – which the former president has denied for years. 

Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump's company, which logged the payments as "legal expenses." McDougal received $150,000 through the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer.

The Trump Organization "grossed up" Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels' payment for "tax purposes," according to federal prosecutors who filed the 2018 criminal charges against Cohen for the payments. 

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made to Daniels and McDougal, and has repeatedly said the payments were "not a campaign violation," but rather a "simple private transaction."

Those payments had been investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York and by the Federal Election Commission.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Daniels payment in 2019. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Former President Trump's legal team and prosecutors with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg officially began the jury selection process after returning from lunch recess on Monday.

Trump's lawyers have predicted that the jury process will take several weeks, as finding non-biased jurors in deep-blue Manhattan could prove difficult. Judge Juan Merchan is overseeing the trial and the selection process.

Trump gave a thumbs up to reporters as he returned to the courtroom.

Merchan hashed out final details regarding the trial with both the defense and prosecution throughout Monday morning. The judge ruled that prosecutors may reference the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape as it relates to the trial, but he said they cannot play the recording for the jury.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records, and he has pleaded not guilty on all counts. The case relates to hush money payments he made to pornography actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.

The key witnesses in the trial will be Daniels, Trump, as well as Michael Cohen, who served as Trump's lawyer at the time and handled the payments to Daniels.

The case is one of four indictments Trump is facing in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election. He also faces election interference accusations in both Washington, D.C. and Georgia.

Former President Trump's campaign labeled President Biden as "democracy's greatest threat" in an aggressive statement on Monday.

The campaign blast came as Trump began the first day of his hush money payments trial in New York City. Trump's war room accused Biden of removing his Democratic rivals from the ballot, calling for journalists to be removed from social media, as well as being financially reliant on foreign countries.

"Crooked Joe Biden is building the most sophisticated censorship and information control apparatus in the world to crush free speech in America," the campaign alleges. "Joe Biden and the Deep State are weaponizing government agencies designed to protect our country against foreign threats in order to systematically censor the lawful speech of American citizens."

"Journalists who raised questions about the unconstitutional vaccine mandates were de-platformed from social media at the request of the Biden Administration," the campaign added. Biden administration officials pressured Big Tech companies to 'stop allowing' Americans to question the Administration’s climate change narrative and Green New Deal agenda."

The campaign also echoed Trump himself in accusing Biden of trying to imprison his rivals. Trump claimed Biden is involved in the four cases arrayed against him, of which Monday's case is the first.

Even if he is convicted, Trump is not required to end his presidential candidacy, and he doesn’t appear likely to. 

The Constitution doesn’t prevent people from running for, or serving as president if they have been convicted of a felony. Trump has frequently referred to the various criminal cases against him as election interference or politicized attempts to persecute him. He has referred to it often on the campaign trail, to a positive reception from his supporters.

New York prosecutors are pushing to fine former President Trump $3,000 for allegedly violating a gag order from Judge Juan Merchan on Monday.

Prosecutors with Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's office argued three separate posts Trump made on social media violated Merchan's gag order. The order prohibits Trump from discussing the family members of those involved in the proceedings.

Merchan imposed the order just days after Trump criticized his daughter, Loren Merchan, for raising money for Democrats.

“We think it is important for the court to remind Mr. Trump that he is a criminal defendant,” prosecutor Christopher Conroy told the judge.

Trump's legal team pushed back on the move, saying Trump was only responding to attacks he had received.

“He is responding to salacious, repeated, vehement attacks by these witnesses,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said, referring to pornography star Stormy Daniels and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Merchan sent the court to lunch recess before ruling on the issue.

During his "My Take," Monday, "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney discussed Donald Trump's trial for alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, arguing the case is another "spectacle" that makes New York City look worse than it already is.

STUART VARNEY: Visitors to New York City these days have to wade through dirty streets, wandering lunatics high on heaven knows what, migrant children hustling candy and random acts of violence. 

This city is not doing well, and the problems are largely self-inflicted. 

Today, another spectacle that makes this city look even worse.

Donald Trump is going on trial. 

It's a show trial, cobbled together by Trump haters eager to put him in prison in the middle of a presidential election. 

They want to slime him, and they want to tie him down in court, so he can't campaign.

In 2016, right before the presidential election, Trump had his fixer, lawyer Michael Cohen, pay a porn star $130,000 to keep quiet. 

It was hush money disguised as payment for legal services. 

D.A. Alvin Bragg, said that was, "falsifying business records," and slaps Trump with 34 criminal charges.

This is an excerpt from Varney's full remarks

Judge Juan Merchan prohibited prosecutors from showing the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape during former President Trump's hush money trial on Monday.

Merchan will allow prosecutors to discuss the contents of the tape, but he does not want jurors to hear Trump's voice from the recording. Prosecutors are discussing internal Trump campaign communications when the tape was first made public prior to the 2016 election, when both Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon were advised to "deny, deny, deny."

They want to introduce evidence showed how damaging the Access Hollywood tape was in hopes to establish that the campaign believed it was necessary to prevent pornography actress Stormy Daniels’ story from coming out in turn.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the case. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts.

Both Daniels and Trump are expected to testify in the trial, as well as former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

While proceedings for the trial began Monday, lawyers for Trump expect the jury selection process to last several weeks.

If Trump is found guilty at trial, he could face up to four years in prison for each felony charge – or alternatively, a sentence of probation. 

Since Trump has not been previously convicted, making him a hypothetical first-time offender, it’s likely he would be considered a candidate for probation. The felonies Trump is charged with are class E, which is the least severe under New York law. In the case that Trump is sentenced to prison, sentences for class E felonies are between one and four years.

Trump Media & Technology Group's (TMTG) stock price plunged by more than 15% on Monday after the parent company of former President Donald Trump's Truth Social platform filed to sell millions more shares.

TMTG, which trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol "DJT," said in an SEC filing it could issue an additional 21.5 million shares in the coming months.

The drop comes the same day Trump's hush money payments trial began in New York City. He is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to payments he allegedly made to pornography actress Stormy Daniels.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts. He derided the trial as an "assault on America" in a brief statement to reporters before entering the courthouse on Monday.

Presiding over the case is Judge Juan Merchan, who already has a contentious relationship with Trump. Trump has called the trial "rigged" and criticized Merchan as biased, citing his daughter's history of raising funds for Democrats.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Breck Dumas

Former President Trump has consistently denied the accusations in his New York City hush money case, denouncing the investigation as a “witch hunt” on multiple occasions.

He’s denied ever having an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels and pleaded not guilty to the 34 counts linked to accusations he falsified business records to cover up repaying his ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, for giving Daniels $130,000 to not discuss their alleged intimate encounters.

His attorneys have tried to delay the April 15 trial start date several times, and to no avail – a New York appeals court rejected his third request to delay just last week.

The former president has also criticized nearly all the top players involved in his prosecution, including Daniels, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and Juan Merchan, the judge tasked with overseeing the trial.

“Judge Juan Merchan, a very distinguished looking man, is nevertheless a true and certified Trump Hater who suffers from a very serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” Trump recently wrote on his Truth Social app.

Former President Donald Trump officially arrived to a Manhattan court Monday as the hush money case kicks off, where he will face trial over 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before," Trump said at the courthouse Monday. "This is political persecution ... it's a case that should have never been brought."

"This is an assault on America and that's why I'm very proud to be here," he added. 

The 45th president left Trump Tower early Monday morning, where he was seen waving to supporters before heading to Manhattan Criminal Court. 

The trial marks the first time a former president will stand trial over criminal charges. 

Dubbed the "hush money" case, the trial focuses on payments made by Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to former pornographic actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. The $130,000 payment was to allegedly quiet her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with the then-real estate tycoon in 2006.

Trump has denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the 34 charges against him.

This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News' Emma Colton

Former President Trump will appear before Judge Juan Merchan in a Manhattan court Tuesday for his arraignment after being formally charged for crimes related to hush-money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

Merchan, who has previously handled cases involving Trump and his business dealings, was born in Bogota, Colombia, and emigrated to New York City when he was 6 years old. He was raised in Queens as the youngest of six children.

Merchan began his legal career in 1994 as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan after graduating from Hofstra University School of Law. After five years conducting trials and prosecuting financial fraud cases, he moved to the State Attorney General’s Office, where he held positions overseeing civil cases on Long Island, according to a profile in the New York Times.

Then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed Merchan to be a family court judge in the Bronx in New York City. In 2009, Merchan was appointed by Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau to be an acting judge in the state Supreme Court, where he presided over felony criminal trials.

Merchan was the judge overseeing the civil-fraud case and trial involving the Trump Organization and its former CFO, Allen Weisselberg. During that trial last year, Merchan shot down assertions from Trump lawyers that the case was politically motivated, according to CBS News.

"I will not allow you in any way to bring up a selective prosecution claim or claim this is some sort of novel prosecution," Merchan said, later adding that he "will have very little patience at trial any questions that are not in a good-faith basis."

Merchan ultimately sentenced Weisselberg to five months in prison and ordered Trump's companies to pay a $1.6 million fine, the maximum amount under New York state law.

Merchan is also the judge presiding over the fraud case against Steve Bannon in relation to the "We Build the Wall" organization.

Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this update.