Donald Trump trial LIVE: Ex-president leaves Trump Tower ahead of the second day of jury selection as daughter-in-law Lara reveals HUGE fundraising haul while he was stuck in court

From Senior U.S. Political Reporter Emily Goodin:

While Donald Trump is stuck in a New York courtroom this week, his rival Joe Biden will be on the campaign trail, courting voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Biden is spending three days in the critical state. On Tuesday, he’ll be in his birth place of Scranton, where he’ll pitch his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy.

As he emphasizes his blue-collar roots, Biden will repeat his argument that Trump, a billionaire, only wants to help the wealthy.

The president will spend Tuesday night in Scranton and then head to Pittsburgh on Wednesday morning. He then returns to the White House, only to turn around and go back to Pennsylvania on Thursday, this time visiting Philadelphia.

Those later stops include fundraisers for his re-election campaign.

Trump won the state from Democrats in the 2016 election, which helped put him in the White House. But Biden took it back in the 2020 contest, although he only won by a mere one point.

Each candidate needs the state if he wants to return to the White House next year.

Trump was last in the state on Saturday, when he held a rally in Schnecksville. The former president’s campaigning has been limited to weekends as he fights off criminal charges in New York.

Donald Trump was in high spirits as he strolled out of his Manhattan residence on Monday morning as he prepared for the trip downtown to court.

Wearing a striped blue tie and light blue shirt, he waved to the crowd before joining the motorcade ahead of the second day of jury selection.

On Monday he was warned by the judge that he could be jailed for misbehaving and slammed warnings that he may have to skip son Barron’s high school graduation

Donald Trump’s nemsis Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg arrived in court on Monday for the second day of jury selection.

The prosecutor, who was sat in the court on the first day, entered the downtown building with two cups from Dunkin Donuts and a banana.

Trump has frequently targeted Bragg and claims he is spearheading the political ‘persecution’ into him.

Donald Trump raised more than a $1million in donations during the first day of the Manhattan criminal trial, is daughter-in-law Lara said.

The co-chair of the Republican National Committee said the average contribution was $28, and ripped into the hush-money case.

‘The people of America spoke up yesterday in support of Donald Trump to the tune of a million and a half dollars raised for his campaign,’ she told Fox and Friends on Tuesday morning.

‘The average donation was $28, so even here, in the abysmal Biden economy, people are coming out and they are financially supporting this president’.

Donald Trump lambasted the judge in his historic hush money trial for potentially refusing him permission to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation next month.

The former president also castigated the judge for stopping him going to the U.S. Supreme Court next week for a hearing related to January 6.

Trump let loose outside court after day one of jury selection as he became the first U.S. ex-president to stand criminal trial.

Barron, 18, graduates from high school on May 17 and the trial is set to still be going on by then.

Hundreds of potential jurors will return to the court this morning to go through the gruelling process of getting on the banner.

Of the more than 50 prospective jurors who initially raised their hands when asked if they felt they couldn’t be fair or impartial:

• More than two dozen were white women
• 14 were white men
• One was a Hispanic woman
• Four were women of Asian descent
• One man was of Asian descent
• Six were ‘unknown’. 

Those who didn’t then were given a list of 42 questions by the judge in the jury box.

Here is what they asked.

Trump is accused paying Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 in order for her to keep silent about the pair’s alleged extra marital affair.

Five months before the 2016 presidential election, American Media Inc, the publisher of the National Enquirer, paid McDougal, 53, $150,000 in exchange for her tell all story. The interview was never published.

The alleged affair became public knowledge in a subsequent interview that McDougal did with The Wall Street Journal in 2016.

Trump denies McDougal’s allegations. Her payment is not subject to criminal investigation but prosecutors say it will establish a pattern of behavior on Trump’s part, something Trump lawyer Todd Blanche attempted to argue against.

Judge Merchan said that the jury did not need to hear about the timing of the alleged McDougal affair, which according to the former model, occurred at the time Melania Trump was pregnant with Barron Trump.

Donald Trump returns to a Manhattan court this morning for the second day of jury selection in the hush money trial.

No jurors have so far been selected for the panel in what could be a lengthy process to find a group of impartial Manhattan residents.

More than 50 of the first group of 96 candidates admitted they couldn’t be impartial, and were dismissed by the judge.

Here is what happened as the dramatic first day drew to a close, and where we stand today.