Trump hush money trial: Day 2 highlights

Donald Trump has arrived at a Harlem bodega for a campaign stop after his second day in court.

Hundreds of onlookers were waiting as his motorcade arrived outside the Sanaa Convenient Store, a location chosen for him to spotlight his campaign messages on crime and inflation.

Trump pumped his fist and shook hands with some supporters. He joined them as they chanted “four more years!” before heading into the bodega. He came out after a few minutes and said, “They want law and order.”

As he left court following the trial’s first day, Trump said of Merchan, “it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son.”

Trump furthered his criticism on his Truth Social platform, writing in one post both that he “will likely not be allowed to attend” and that “the Judge, Juan Merchan, is preventing me from proudly attending my son’s Graduation.”

Social media users quickly parroted Trump’s claims.

But Merchan has not yet ruled on the matter.

Trump’s lawyers requested on Monday that the trial not be held on May 17 so that the former president may be at the ceremony. A Trump lawyer also requested the trial not be held June 3 so that he can attend his own son’s graduation.

Merchan said he was not prepared to issue a decision on either request, but noted that if the trial proceeds as planned he’s willing to adjourn for one or both days. “It really depends on how we’re doing on time and where we are in the trial,” he said.

▶ Read the AP’s full fact check on Trump’s claims.

Only about 2 in 10 Americans are extremely or very confident that the judges and jurors in the cases against Trump can be fair and impartial, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A similar share say they’re confident that the U.S. Supreme Court can be fair and impartial in Trump-related cases.

This skepticism about whether the legal system can treat Trump evenhandedly extends to prosecutors, too -- the poll found that only 3 in 10 Americans think that the state or federal prosecutors are treating Trump fairly when it comes to the cases they’re bringing against him.

“It’s very obvious political persecution,” said Christopher Ruff, a 46-year-old political independent and museum curator from Sanford, North Carolina. “I’m no fan of Trump in any way, shape or form. Didn’t vote for him, never will. But it’s obviously all political.”

▶ Read more about our latest poll.

Asked what he thought about Trump, one potential juror appeared to reference the Central Park five — the five teens who were wrongly convicted of rape in 1989 and later exonerated.

“Going back to Central Park, I knew some of the kids, their cousins,” said the potential juror, who previously worked as a civilian for New York City law enforcement.

He added that he does know people have a right to purchase an advertisement in a newspaper. Trump took out full-page ads at the time calling for the five to receive the death penalty.

The man also suggested that he may have been asked to serve on a previous jury involving Trump and Merv Griffin, another TV host and entrepreneur. In the late 1980s, the two battled for control of Resorts, the company that was building what would become the Taj Mahal casino.

The prospective juror was later dismissed.

On his way out of the courthouse, Trump once again stopped in the hallway to rail against the case to reporters.

“We are going to continue our fight against this judge,” he said, accusing Judge Merchan of “rushing” the trial.

A lawyer originally from North Carolina was selected as the seventh juror for Trump’s trial. He’s married and has two children and enjoys spending time outdoors.

Nearing the end of a long day, Trump remained alert and engaged, whispering at length to his attorney, Todd Blanche, just before Blanche stood up to question three more potential jurors.

Blanche began with the same question he’d asked previous prospective jurors: What are your views about the former president?

Three of the last six prospective jurors from the first panel have been excused. Lawyers are now questioning the three remaining.

The last person excused was a man who said he’d love to serve as a juror for “our great city and one of our great presidents,” but that he couldn’t give up his job for six weeks.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that court officers and police officers were doing a good job of maintaining order outside the courthouse where jury selection for Trump’s trial was proceeding.

“Justice is going to take its course here in the city but the name of the game is to make sure we minimize our resources, and I think no one does it better than our law enforcement apparatus, knowing how to control big events, making sure it’s done right,” Adams said.

The Democratic mayor visited the area across the street from the courthouse and said he wanted to make sure that police resources were being allocated appropriately because “you have to inspect what you expect.”

Adams checked out the courthouse scene after a news conference nearby at City Hall.

Once he’s done with court for the day, Trump will head uptown to Harlem where he’ll stop by a bodega where a clerk stabbed a man to death after he was attacked over a bag of chips.

Jose Alba, a former clerk at the store, was initially charged with murder for the 2022 incident.

District Attorney Alvin Bragg eventually dropped the charges amid criticism. Critics said he should have done so sooner.

People eager to catch a glimpse of the former president have been gathering outside the tiny Convenient Store where Trump is expected to address reporters once court lets out.

The last six prospective jurors from the first panel are now moving through the questionnaire. The first, a medical doctor, was dismissed because she said she couldn’t commit to a lengthy trial. The second, a high school history teacher living in Harlem, was dismissed as well after acknowledging she had strong beliefs about Trump that could prevent her from being neutral. “As I’m sitting here reflecting deeply, I do have concerns, yes your honor,” she said.

He gave a quick wave and thumbs up as he walked back into the court.

Trump left the courtroom after Judge Merchan called a recess for about 10 minutes. Trump held numerous file folders and papers in his hands as he left the courtroom with his legal team. Attorneys in the case are expected to question additional potential jurors when the court session resumes.

Some in the set of 96 people looked around curiously as they passed the half-dozen journalists and a sketch artist in the back row.

“Ma’am, ma’am put your cell phone away,” a court security officer told one panelist after she saw Trump and tried to pull out her phone.

They were sworn in, vowing to truthfully answer all questions. They were then sent home for the day.

“I know that you’ve been sitting around all day, waiting for something to happen, and I want you to know that that wasn’t lost on us,” Judge Merchan said, telling them that things would start right away when they return Thursday morning.

The rest of the afternoon will pivot to the questioning of six people from the first panel.

One of the three posts included a link to a satirical piece in The New Yorker with the headline “Republicans Projected to Pick up Seventy Seats in Prison.”

Following a pattern that has defined the afternoon, the woman was called into the courtroom and asked to confirm the posts belonged to her, which she did. She acknowledged having “big disagreements” with the former president, but said it would not impact her ability to be impartial.

Merchan agreed, characterizing the three posts as satire. “None of them expresses the sentiment we saw in some others, a desire to see your client locked up or beheaded or something or other of that nature,” he tells Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche, adding that the prospective juror was forthcoming about her political disagreements with Trump.”

The question is not whether someone agrees with your client politically or not. The question is whether or not they can be fair and impartial,” the judge said

“This will be your permanent seat for the duration of the trial,” Judge Merchan told the jurors as they took their places in the jury box.

The jurors stood up and all raised their right hands. The panelists selected are an IT worker, an English teacher, an oncology nurse, a sales professional, a software engineer and a corporate lawyer.

Another three jurors have been added, bringing the total to six.

The jurors are picked by process of elimination in a system that will repeat until a full jury is selected: Eighteen prospective jurors are brought to the jury box, then lawyers move to have certain prospective jurors eliminated “for cause.” They then eliminate some with peremptory challenges, which don’t require a reason.

Those remaining become jurors for the trial.

Fifteen more jurors still need to be selected.

Judge Merchan has dismissed a potential juror after Trump’s attorneys raised concerns about a 2017 Facebook post, which they said was shared by the man, celebrating a court decision against one of the Republican’s presidential policies.

Part of the post read, “Get him out and lock him up!”

The man was called into the courtroom and acknowledged the post was from his account, though he said he didn’t remember sharing it.

If Trump is found guilty in the hush money case, a potential sentence could include jail time, the judge said.

“I don’t think I can allow this juror to remain,” Merchan said.

Trump’s attorney had said one post showed the prospective juror celebrating Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, but the woman said it was just of people she come across people dancing in the street that night while moving her car.

“It seemed like a celebratory moment in New York City,” she said, noting it reminded her of the 7 p.m. cheer for health care workers during the pandemic.

“I don’t see anything here that’s offensive,” Merchan said. “More importantly the juror stood here right in front of me, I was able to see her demeanor … I was able to form an opinion as to her credibility.”

Judge Juan Merchan admonished Trump for speaking loudly and gesturing while a prospective juror was being questioned about Facebook posts she made regarding his 2020 election loss.

“Before we continue, I just want to put something on the record. Mr. Blanche, while the juror was at the podium, your client was audibly uttering something,” Merchan said after the prospective juror left the courtroom, referring to lawyer Todd Blanche.

“I don’t know what he was uttering, but it was audible and he was gesturing and he was speaking in the direction of the juror. I won’t tolerate that. I will not tolerate any jurors being intimidated in this courtroom.”

Merchan then instructed Blanche to “take a minute and speak to your client about it.”

With prospective jurors not yet back in the room, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche tells the judge that he has found a number of social media posts he says come from possible jurors that are “very much contrary to the answers they gave.”

As an example, he shows the judge a Facebook post that he said was from a prospective juror’s account and described going to a Manhattan dance party to celebrate Trump’s loss in the last election.

Judge Merchan says he’s going to ask the juror to come in and allow attorneys to ask her questions about it.

The former president flashed a thumbs up as he walked past a camera in the hallway.

“The president is going to Pennsylvania today and he’s going to do a three-stop tour,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as Biden flew to Scranton. “He’s going to focus on how he’s continuing to help the American people and you’ll hear directly from him today. That’s his focus. His focus is on the American people.”

Court has broken for lunch for an hour. Just before the break, Trump and his lawyers went to a nearby courtroom to begin deciding which prospective jurors they’d want to remove using peremptory challenges.

Upon returning to the courtroom a short time later, lawyer Todd Blanche said they needed more time. Judge Merchan said they’d have until after the lunch break to decide.

Court resumes at 2:15 p.m.

Trump briefly stepped out of the courtroom with his lawyers. Just before exiting, he briefly huddled with aide Jason Miller, who whispered in Trump’s ear. He returned to the courtroom with this legal team minutes later.

When asked about his personal views of Trump, a Manhattan bookseller said it “has absolutely no bearing on the case that you’re presenting or defending. That is a separate thing.”

“What I think of President Trump outside this room has nothing to do with what goes on in this room.”

Blanche again asked the man to divulge his views of Trump, this time suggesting he imagine himself sitting at a bar with friends. The man demurred, getting a laugh out with his response: “If we were at a bar, I would.”

“You’re asking me to imbue my political views into a criminal case,” the man continued, calling them apples and oranges.

Finally, he offered: “I’m a Democrat, so there you go.”

Another man, a criminal prosecutor in the Bronx, said he had at least some positive views toward the former president.

“There’s things associated with him that I agree with, things I don’t really agree with him on,” the man said. He added, “I have a lot of friends in law enforcement who are pro-Trump.”

Under questioning from Trump lawyer Blanche, one prospective juror said she’s not into politics and doesn’t have an opinion about Trump, but she knows that some people are critical of his treatment of women.

“I’m a female, he’s targeted some females, so I would say some of my friends have strong opinions on him,” said the woman, who works in social media marketing for a sports betting company.

“I know there’s been opinions on how he doesn’t treat females correctly,” she said, but added, “I don’t really know the stories, so I don’t have an opinion on that.”

After acknowledging that every juror undoubtedly has their own views on the former president, Blanche honed in on the “extraordinarily serious” nature of the case, saying that Trump needs “to know that he’s going to get a fair shake.”

He gave a thumbs up to the press when asked how things were going.

His legal team will now get its first opportunity to question prospective jurors.

A day after Trump insisted that he be present during one-on-one sidebar questioning of prospective jurors, the former president has changed his mind. Before an early afternoon break, Trump’s lawyers informed Judge Merchan that he no longer wished to exercise his right to be present for all sidebars.

No such questioning has taken place, yet. The judge Monday said that instead of in a side room, he’d conduct such questioning in his courtroom — with other jurors ushered out — to accommodate the logistical challenges of having his Trump and his Secret Service detail present.

“Mr. Trump, yesterday we discussed whether you wanted to be present at sidebars. You indicated you did. Your attorney indicated to me that you have changed your mind,” Merchan said, noting that Trump had signed a form waiving that right, known as Antommarchi Rights.

Leaving the courtroom, Trump walked past a camera stationed in the hallway. He did not stop to talk.

In court filings, Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly argued that the entire Manhattan jury pool has been tainted by what the defense sees as an onslaught of adverse publicity about the case.

But one prospective juror said that she’d spent all February and half of March “living on a lake, with no wi-fi, no anything.” When she realized her mid-April jury duty date might coincide with Trump’s trial, she blocked off two days a week to avoid listening to any news, said the woman, who retired from an office job at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York metro area’s transit system.

“So I do try … I really haven’t followed this exact case,” she said, adding that she felt she could “give this man a fair shake.”

The remaining jury pool is through answering the questionnaire and now lawyers will be able to question the prospective jurors. This process will repeat until the 18 jurors are selected.

“Let’s talk about the obvious: The defendant in this case is both the former president and a candidate for that office. No one is suggesting that you can’t be a fair juror because you’ve heard of Donald Trump,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told the group. “We don’t expect you to have been living under a rock for the last eight years or the last 30 years.”

One would-be juror shared her reaction on seeing former President Trump in person for the first time after being dismissed from the pool.

“Hilariously, my first thought was, ‘Oh, he looks exactly like he does on TV,’” Kara McGee recalled to reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse.

McGee, who works in cybersecurity, said she made eye contact with Trump after she told the judge that it would be hard for her to be a juror due to her work schedule.

McGee said that when she received her jury duty letter, her mom pointed out the date coincided with Trump’s trial, and she responded, “That sounds fascinating. I really hope I get to be on it.”

With the trial expected to last for six weeks or more, multiple potential jurors have brought up plans they have for Memorial Day and beyond. One parent even was excused Monday because of a child’s wedding in late June.

But when a prospective juror asked Tuesday whether her sister’s wedding in September would pose a problem, the judge gave her some reassurance.

“If we’re still here in September, that would be a big problem,” he said. The woman answered the questionnaire and remains in the mix of possible jurors.

In the interest of saving time, Judge Merchan has now asked the prospective panelists to raise concerns about their ability to serve before going through the entire questionnaire, which includes 42 questions, some with multiple parts.

But not everyone who does so is being dismissed outright. One Upper West Side resident who works for a senior living company said she has her own court date April 30.

“We can work around that,” Merchan said.

Trump’s most striking courtroom reaction of the morning came in response to one of his readers. Asked whether he’d read any of the former president’s books, a prospective juror said that he’d read “The Art of the Deal” and “How to be Rich.” (The actual title is “How to Get Rich.”) Trump broke into a grin, nodding his head in an exaggerated manner.

The potential juror, who works in sales for a software company, also described himself as an NPR listener and ACLU member with a generally favorable view of the legal system. He’s the first to say he’s read one of Trump’s books.

The former president has been paying attention to the proceedings, jotting down notes and raising sheets of paper to his face as jurors rattle off answers to the lengthy questionnaire.

After one prospective juror said she would be unable to serve impartially, the former president twisted in his chair, looking in the direction of the box.

One would be panelist, an Upper East Sider who works at a financial services firm, was excused after worrying that spending four days a week in court, for an estimated six weeks, would load him down with work at night. He said the concerns might affect his ability to concentrate on the case.

“Honestly, I think it would put a strain on my personal life. I’d probably be leaving here and working to get by,” said the man, who is engaged to be married.

Six prospective jurors have been excused so far on Tuesday.

Following up on a request made in court Monday, prosecutors filed court documents outlining why they believe Trump should be fined $3,000 for violating a gag order barring him from disparaging prosecution witnesses.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office highlighted three social media posts from Trump on Truth Social that name Michael Cohen and/or Stormy Daniels — in one case calling them “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly” — saying he should be fined a thousand dollars a pop, admonished and ordered to take the posts down.

“It is absolutely critical that defendant immediately halt any conduct that would violate the April 1 order’s narrow restrictions to protect the integrity of the ongoing trial,” the filing reads.

Judge Merchan has set a hearing on the matter for April 23.

“As I was thinking yesterday, I don’t think I can be impartial and unbiased,” the person said and was dismissed.

A partner in an accounting firm, the man said he feared his ability to be impartial could be compromised by “unconscious bias” from growing up in Texas and working in the finance world with people who “intellectually tend to slant Republican.”

“A bunch of family and friends are Republicans, it’s probably going to be tough to be impartial.”

The initial group of 96 prospective jurors has now been winnowed down to 30. No jurors have been chosen.

As the second day of jury selection began Tuesday, Judge Merchan announced that one prospective juror who was due to answer the questionnaire had come down with flulike symptoms.

He said she duly showed up in a mask, but said she didn’t feel well enough to go ahead with the day. Merchan excused her.

The court is waiting for two other potential jurors who had answered the questionnaire Monday but were late to arrive this morning.

After he entered the courtroom at 9:30 a.m., reporters inside saw Trump wink at one of the court officers and mouth, ‘How are you?’ while he walked down the aisle.

Trump then took his seat at the defense table. He is joined by attorneys Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles and Emil Bove. Also in the room: senior adviser Jason Miller.

As has been his habit during his New York court appearances, the former president stopped briefly to address a TV camera stationed in a hallway to denounce the proceeding and the judge.

“This is a trial that should have never been brought,” he said. “‘I was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense … and you get indicted over that?”