More jurors were dismissed on the second day of Donald Trump’s silent process – as he claimed outside court that the trial “should never have started”.
No one has yet been chosen for the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in the historic trial that started on Monday.
Several others were let go on Tuesday morning after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments.
Dozens of potential jurors have yet to be questioned.
It is the first of TrumpThe country’s four criminal cases are headed to trial and may be the only one that can reach a verdict before the presidential vote in November.
If convicted, Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – would become the first former US president convicted of a crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to stop salacious and, he says, false stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.
Trump has claimed the trial is the result of a politically motivated justice system working to deprive him of another term as president.
Donald Trump during the second day of jury selection. Photo: Reuters
Before entering the courtroom this morning, he stopped briefly to address a television camera in the hallway, repeating his claim that the judge is biased against him.
“This is a trial that should never have been started,” Trump said.
Among the potential jurors dismissed today was a woman who had already notified the judge that she had a trip planned around Memorial Day.
One man was dismissed after saying he could not be impartial.
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Another man, who works at an accounting firm, was fired after saying he feared his ability to be impartial might be compromised by “unconscious bias” resulting from growing up in Texas and working in finance with people who were “intellectually tend to lean Republican.”
Jury selection could take a few more days – or even weeks – in New York, which is a heavily Democratic city.
About a third of the 96 people on the first panel of potential jurors in court Monday remained after the judge dismissed some members.
Donald Trump outside Trump Tower. Photo: Reuters
More than half were let go after saying they could not be fair and impartial, and several others were fired for other reasons that were not disclosed.
The judgment centers on $130,000 (£104,400) in payments that Trump’s company made to his then lawyer, michael cohen.
He paid this amount in Trump’s name to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels to go public with her allegations of a sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.
The former president denied that the sexual encounter took place.
Read more: Who is Stormy Daniels?
Prosecutors say the payments — which they allege were falsely recorded as legal fees — were part of a scheme to bury damaging stories that Trump feared would help his opponent in the 2016 race, especially as his reputation was suffering at the time over the comments. that he had made about women.
Trump said the payments, for which he acknowledged reimbursing Cohen, were designed to prevent Daniels from going public with the alleged encounter.
The former president previously said he had nothing to do with the 2016 campaign.
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If convicted of falsifying business records, Trump could face up to four years in prison, although there is no guarantee he will spend any time behind bars.
Your three other legal casesinvolving allegations of electoral interference and accumulation of confidential documents, could lead to long prison sentences.
But those cases are tied to resources or other issues that make them increasingly unlikely to be decided before the election.
If Trump wins in November, he could order a new attorney general to dismiss his federal cases.
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
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