Procedures that played out in New York courtroom were banal, but their significance was historic: the first US president facing a criminal trial
Jury duty in America can often be a banal affair, a day spent in a courthouse filling out forms and telling lawyers when you scheduled your next vacation.
But for those New Yorkers summoned to the state courthouse on Monday it was a day when the ordinary had become extraordinary. They arrived to a frenetic scene of loud protest and high security in downtown Manhattan – a sure sign that Donald Trump is yet again in court.
Though the procedures that played out in the courtroom at 100 Centre St were banal, their significance was pure history: the first US president facing criminal charges at trial. And not only that, but at a time when Trump is all but guaranteed to be his party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
Police closed off the block in front of the courthouse to pedestrians, requiring people to show press or court badges to get onto the street to the building. That didn’t stop passersby, including double-decker tour buses heading downtown, from stopping to ogle at the spectacle.
The scene inside the courtroom was much calmer than the crowds that gathered outside the building. Security getting into the building was tight. Trump briefly gave remarks to the small pool of reporters who were allowed to stay in the hallway outside the courtroom.
“This is political persecution, persecution like never before,” Trump said, standing in front of a police barricade, his lawyer Todd Blanche standing beside him.
