Trump claims ‘political persecution’ as jury selection starts in Stormy Daniels hush money trial

Trump now faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to suppress the sex scandal – a felony that comes with a maximum penalty of four years jail for every charge. However, it is not expected that he would face such a sentence even if he were to be convicted, given he does not have a criminal history.

Before jury selection began, Trump’s legal team failed a last-ditch effort to remove Merchan from the case, partly because his daughter had worked as a Democratic political consultant.

“There is no agenda here,” Merchan said as he rejected Trump’s bid to recuse him, which would have further delayed the trial.

Prosecutors also asked the judge to fine Trump $US3000 for violating a gag order after he made a reference on social media to Cohen and Daniels as “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!”

Merchan will rule on that request next week, but spent the morning making a series of other rulings about what evidence could be brought into the case. This included rejecting a request by prosecutors to play the infamous Access Hollywood tape, but allowing them to ask questions about it.

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He also refused a request to include other allegations of sexual assault against Trump that have been raised over the years, describing them as hearsay.

Outside the court, satellite TV trucks and news crews lined the pavements of Lower Manhattan, stretching several blocks. Reporters and members of the public queued up for hours hoping to secure one of the few coveted spots inside to watch history unfold.

And protesters and counterprotesters gathered outside, some with flags saying “Trump or Death”, others holding giant signs branding the former president a “loser”.

Among the crowd was Joel Anderson, a serving police officer from Washington State, holding a sign that said: “Trump’s lies got cops killed on Jan 6.”

“The fact that we’re seeing cops posing with Trump and endorsing him is an absolute abdication of our duty and our oath,” he tells this masthead. “He’s a career conman, a career liar, a grifter and a fraud.”

On the other side of the park, Dion Cini, dressed in a blue shirt and dark blue Make America Great Again cap, took a much different view.

Asked if he thought the hush money payment made to Daniels was false, Cini replied: “I don’t know – I mean, I’ve been to Thailand a few times and I’ve got skeletons in my closet too,” – an apparent reference to the country’s seedy underbelly of go-go bars and prostitution.

“But a severance pay is not a crime. What Donald Trump does in his personal life is up to God to judge. Not me.”

The trial is expected to take about six to eight weeks, and is the first of four that Trump faces. The others include a trial in DC over his attempt to stop Joe Biden’s victory from being certified, another one in Georgia over election subversion in that state, and another in Florida over his handling of classified documents.

However, those cases are not yet firmly scheduled as Trump has gone to great lengths to delay them as he campaigns to return to power.

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