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Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money trial, started off with a strong warning to former President Donald Trump: to attend the trial or risk detention. According to Mediate, this marked the dramatic beginning of the criminal case, and the judge’s words have added to the gravity of an already historic occasion, given that this is the first time a former U.S. president has been tried as a criminal defendant. According to MSNBC’s Vice President of Editorial and Booking, Jesse Rodriguez, Merchan told Trump, “If you do not show up, there will be an arrest.”
The prosecution and defense teams were busy figuring out how to pick a jury when the proceedings started. Judge Merchan was presented with 96 potential jury members for screening, but almost half of them were excused because of doubts about their impartiality. Merchan made crucial decisions about acceptable evidence, laying the groundwork for how the trial would go.
As mentioned by CNN, the jury selection procedure plays a major part in the story of the trial because of his previous trial in NY; every potential juror’s history and prejudices were closely examined.
