Hush money trial: Prosecutors seek $3,000 fine against Trump over social media posts that ‘violate’ gag order

Trump used his Truth Social platform to call two important witnesses

Trump hush money trial Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court with his legal team ahead of the start of jury selection in New York | Reuters

Prosecutors in the New York hush money case against Donald Trump have asked a judge to fine the former president $3,000 over social media posts about key witnesses.

The request was made Monday ahead of jury selection, with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's office seeking a $1,000 fine for each of three posts that they say violate gag order that bars him from commenting on witnesses.

Last week, Trump used his Truth Social platform to call two important witnesses -- his former lawyer Michael Cohen and the adult film actor Stormy Daniels two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!

The day began with Judge Juan M Merchan ruling on a variety of procedural pretrial motions as Trump sat hunched over in his seat and stared into a monitor directly in front of him on the defense table while evidence was shown.

The judge denied a defense request to recuse himself from the case after Trump's lawyers said he had a conflict of interest. He also said prosecutors could not play for the jury the 2005 Access Hollywood recording in which Trump was captured discussing grabbing women sexually without their permission. However, prosecutors will be allowed to question witnesses about the recording, which became public in the final weeks of the 2016 campaign.

When jury selection begins, scores of people are due to be called into the courtroom to start the process of finding 12 jurors, plus six alternates. Trump's notoriety would make the process of picking a jury a near-herculean task in any year, but it's likely to be especially challenging now, unfolding in a closely contested presidential election in the city where Trump grew up and catapulted to celebrity status before winning the White House.

Merchan has written that the key is whether the prospective juror can assure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law.

No matter the outcome, Trump is determined to benefit from the proceedings, casting the case, and his indictments elsewhere, as a broad weaponization of law enforcement by Democratic prosecutors and officials. He maintains they are orchestrating sham charges in hopes of impeding his presidential run.

He's lambasted judges and prosecutors for years, a pattern of attacks that continued up to the moment he entered court on Monday, when he said: 'This is political persecution. This is a persecution like never before.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records that arose from an alleged effort to keep salacious and, he says, bogus stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.

The charges center on $130,000 in payments that Trump's company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He had paid that sum on Trump's behalf to keep porn actor Stormy Daniels from going public, a month before the election, with her claims of a sexual encounter with the married mogul a decade earlier.

Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely logged as legal fees in order to cloak their actual purpose. Trump's lawyers say the disbursements indeed were legal expenses, not a cover-up.

After decades of fielding and initiating lawsuits, the businessman-turned-politician now faces a trial that could result in up to four years in prison if he's convicted, though a no-jail sentence also would be possible. Trump would also be expected to appeal any conviction.

Trump's attorneys lost a bid to get the hush-money case dismissed and have since repeatedly sought to delay it, prompting a flurry of last-minute appeals court hearings last week.

Among other things, Trump's lawyers maintain that the jury pool in overwhelmingly Democratic Manhattan has been tainted by negative publicity about Trump and that the case should be moved elsewhere.

An appeals judge turned down an emergency request to delay the trial while the change-of-venue request goes to a group of appellate judges, who are set to consider it in the coming weeks.

Manhattan prosecutors have countered that a lot of the publicity stems from Trump's own comments and that questioning will tease out whether prospective jurors can put aside any preconceptions they may have. There's no reason, prosecutors said, to think that 12 fair and impartial people can't be found amid Manhattan's roughly 1.4 million adult residents.

The process of choosing those 12, plus six alternates, will begin with scores of people filing into Merchan's courtroom. They will be known only by number, as he has ordered their names to be kept secret from everyone except prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

After hearing some basics about the case and jury service, the prospective jurors will be asked to raise hands if they believe they cannot serve or be fair and impartial. Those who do so will be excused, according to Merchan's filing last week.

The rest will be eligible for questioning. The 42 preapproved, sometimes multi-pronged queries include background basics but also reflect the uniqueness of the case.

Do you have any strong opinions or firmly held beliefs about former President Donald Trump, or the fact that he is a current candidate for president, that would interfere with your ability to be a fair and impartial juror? asks one question.

Others ask about attendance at Trump or anti-Trump rallies, opinions on how he's being treated in the case, news sources and more including any political, moral, intellectual, or religious beliefs or opinions that might slant" a prospective juror's approach to the case.

Based on the answers, the attorneys can ask a judge to eliminate people for cause if they meet certain criteria for being unable to serve or be unbiased. The lawyers also can use peremptory challenges to nix 10 potential jurors and two prospective alternates without giving a reason.

If you're going to strike everybody who's either a Republican or a Democrat, the judge observed at a February hearing, you're going to run out of peremptory challenges very quickly.

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