He scoffed. He collapsed. He seemed to be sleeping.
And the whole time he was basically stuck.
When former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial began jury selection on Monday, he was something he never wanted to be: a criminal defendant scowling alongside his lawyers and bound by the rulings of a judge against whom he railed against pedestrian planning requirements for the court system.
“This is an attack on America, nothing like it has ever happened before,” Trump said before going to court on Monday morning. He accused his political rivals of orchestrating the trial but provided no evidence. Trump claimed that allegations that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal involving porn star Stormy Daniels amounted to political persecution.
Still, he added, “It’s a great honor to be here.”
Later this month, another group of Trump’s lawyers will appear before the Supreme Court to argue that he should be protected from prosecution in another of his criminal cases, the federal case in which he is being charged in connection with his efforts to undermine 2020 immune is choice. They are expected to essentially tell the nation’s highest court that Trump’s status as president during the events in question means he cannot be tried as a “citizen Trump,” appeals court judges had ruled.
But on Monday in New York, Trump was just that – an ordinary citizen, often referred to in court simply as “the defendant,” facing a criminal trial in his hometown. Trump has long sought to use the justice system to his own advantage, taking a cue from his combative former lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn.
“He learned in Roy Cohn’s lap that if you had enough money and enough raw will, you could weaponize the court system against your opponents, critics and enemies without it prevailing against you,” Tim O said ‘Brien. a Trump biographer who was himself the subject of a Trump defamation lawsuit that was dismissed.
“He does not want to be in a public forum where evidence and facts are presented that contradict his version of events,” O’Brien added.
“This is not a sprint”
Trump’s lawyers have successfully delayed the two federal lawsuits he faces over his alleged withholding of classified documents and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Prosecutors in Georgia have scheduled his trial in the latter case to begin on August 5.
But in New York the spectacle began on Monday. His campaign sent fundraising emails in advance and created hype: “72 hours until all hell breaks loose,” it said in an email on Friday. On Truth Social on Monday, he boasted that he had “200 million supporters” behind him.
My colleague Charles Homans stopped by the courthouse on Monday morning. Members of the New York Young Republican Club protested across the street, drawing about 100 protesters and a few counter-protesters late in the morning.
“We will be here at key moments,” Viswanag Burra, the club’s chief executive, told him, apparently acknowledging that the mood was calmer than the clash between Trump’s supporters and opponents outside his impeachment last year. “It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”
Nearby, Laura Loomer, a right-wing media personality who was covering the trial for Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, was doing her best to create a circus. With megaphone in hand, she lambasted the mainstream media — which made up perhaps half of those in attendance at the time — for its coverage of the trial.
Under the bright, cold lights
Trump has tried to project strength and confidence through this process, but it may not be easy.
As my colleague Maggie Haberman sat in the courtroom on Monday watching Trump, she pointed out how difficult it is to project an image of grandeur in such an environment: a dingy, slightly foul-smelling courtroom in which he was “an island in the middle “ is a sea of people.”
The trial will not be televised. But the public got a glimpse of the scene Monday when a photo showed Trump leaning forward at the wooden defense table, his hands clasped, his face frozen and stone in the bright, cold light.
Trump had previously told reporters that he did not want to be impeached, even if it had boosted his poll numbers. And on Sunday evening, he lamented on his social media page Truth Social that four years ago he was “a very popular and successful president of the United States who received more votes than any sitting president in history,” saying the Fact ignored Joe Biden got more.
Trump often sees himself as a martyr and a hero, said Ty Cobb, a lawyer who worked in the White House when Trump was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and who has paid close attention to his public statements since then.
“He has kind of integrated that into his political approach at this stage of the game,” he said. “It plays a role in his victimization thing that was constructive for him with his supporters.”
through the numbers
Trump is on trial. And yes, voters care.
Between four criminal trials and civil suits related to his business practices and a sexual assault allegation, the deluge of legal news about Trump may make your head spin. Many voters view the New York trial as the least serious of the four criminal cases. But a Times/Siena College poll conducted last week showed many voters are still paying attention. I asked my colleague Ruth Igielnik, Times survey editor, to explain what we know.
JB: How seriously do voters take these allegations?
RI: 58 percent of voters consider the allegations against Trump in the New York case to be very or somewhat serious. Democrats are most likely to think the allegations are serious — nearly 90 percent say that — and large majorities of women, young voters and black voters think the allegations are serious. But around one in four Trump supporters also believe that the allegations against him are serious.
JB: How much attention are voters paying to the cases – and who is paying the most?
RI: Just under a quarter of voters say they pay a lot of attention to Trump’s legal cases, and 62 percent say they pay at least some attention to them. Democrats pay much more attention to the trials than Republicans. Independents are the least likely to say they pay attention to Trump’s legal battles.
JB: Does the public think Trump is guilty?
RI: Nearly half of the public believes Trump should be found guilty in this particular trial. Not surprisingly, there is a partisan divide here: 84 percent of Democrats say he should be found guilty, while 71 percent of Republicans say he should be found not guilty. Still, 13 percent of Republicans believe he should be found guilty. Importantly, 18 percent of all voters say they are unsure whether he should be found guilty or not – a relatively high proportion by our polling standards. This group is disproportionately made up of Trump supporters, and about half believe the allegations against Trump are serious.
Into the answers
Your questions about the process
The case against Trump in New York is cheesy, consequential and deeply confusing.
There are 34 complex charges. A group of witnesses. Some extraordinary political implications.
To help you understand the whole thing better, I ask readers questions about the process. Tell me what you want to know and I’ll track down the answers and bring them to you in a future edition of this newsletter.
If you would like to participate, you can fill out this form here.
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2024-04-15 22:22:13
www.nytimes.com