April 15, 2024 01:48 PM UTC

Trump Hits Snooze Bar As Stormy Daniels Trial Begins

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Washington Post is tracking developments today in the first criminal trial against ex-President Donald Trump, this being the alleged falsification of business records to conceal a “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels over an extramarital affair, getting underway with jury selection:

Donald Trump is in a Manhattan courtroom, where his hush money trial — the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president — got underway Monday with the start of jury selection. Jurors will be asked to determine whether Trump broke state law by falsifying business records connected to a 2016 hush money payment meant to keep an adult-film actress quiet about an alleged sexual tryst.

Seating a jury could take a week or more. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the closely watched case, spent much of Monday morning and early afternoon addressing other issues. He summoned the first pool of nearly 100 potential jurors inside just after 2 p.m.

A number of observers have taken note of Trump apparently having difficulty staying awake during today’s hearing, NBC News:

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times:

Even as a judge was hearing arguments on last-minute issues in a criminal case that centers on salacious allegations and threatens to upend his bid for the presidency, Mr. Trump appeared to nod off a few times, his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest.

The former president’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, passed him notes for several minutes before Mr. Trump appeared to jolt awake and notice them.

Not an auspicious beginning to a trial expected to take weeks and for which Trump is obligated to be physically present every day, forcing Trump to juggle his busy campaign schedule and potentially lose even more beauty sleep. Just the jury selection process is expected to take a week or more as hundreds of candidates are whittled down to the “perfect” jury with just enough but not too much knowledge of the case and impartiality at one of the most divided moments in American history to serve on the jury. This is not the case trying the weightier matters of insurrection and espionage, but a more sordid matter of bad character and a cover-up worse than the crime.

Could you do this case, in a word, justice as a juror? This is the first and least consequential of several opportunities to ask yourself.