Donald Trump said he is facing “persecution” as he walked into the courtroom for the start of his hush money trial in New York, the first criminal trial for a former president.
“There’s never been anything like it,” Trump said as he walked into the courthouse. “This is really an attack on a political opponent. This is all this is.”
“When I walk into that courtroom, I know I will have the love of 200 million Americans behind me, and I will be FIGHTING for the FREEDOM of 325 MILLION AMERICANS!” Trump posted to his Truth Social account before walking into the courtroom, where prosecutors were already seated.
In a separate post, he wrote U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland “corruptly said that he wants to ‘speed up’ the Witch Hunt against me,” adding that Garland’s legal actions against him are “election interference” by the Biden administration.
The trial begins on Monday with jury selection, in which up to 500 New Yorkers must be whittled down to 12 jurors and six alternates. That process is expected to last at least several days before opening arguments begin and star witnesses take the stand.
The core of the case features allegations of various alleged sex scandals that prosecutors say Trump attempted to conceal with the help of his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen and ranking executives at the National Enquirer. Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels in the final days of the 2016 election to keep her silent about her allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006, which Trump denies ever happened.
Trump will make history as the first former or current U.S. president ever to face a criminal trial. He is facing this trial as the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
His lawyers have argued he cannot receive a fair trial in the deeply Democratic borough of Manhattan. Defense counsel tried and failed at three separate junctures to delay his case through an appeals court process last week.
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And it’s far from the only legal problem Trump faces. He is also charged in three other criminal indictments: one in Georgia over an alleged effort to overturn his 2020 election loss there, a federal indictment also involving the 2020 election and Jan. 6, and another federal case in Florida involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the Oval Office.
After the court is able to narrow down the jury pool in the forthcoming days, opening arguments will commence.