The Opening Days of Trump’s First Criminal Trial

it's the first day of the Trump trial. and just walking out the door of my. house it's a beautiful day 6:11. a.m. thing that keeps running through my. head is it's kind of amazing that. hundreds of. jurors are going to show up at the. Manhattan courthouse and some of them. are going to know what they're there for. probably talking to their friends their. relatives about it some of them are. going to learn this.

morning talking to other jurors in line. asking what all the fuss is about but I. really do imagine that there's going to. be at least one potential juror who you. know headphones on get into court here. they're going to be there for the first. criminal trial of Donald J Trump and. just I mean how would you. react from New York Times I'm Michael. Bavaro this is the daily.

today what it's been like inside the. Lower Manhattan courtroom where. political and legal history are being. made my colleague Jonah bramwit on the. opening days of the first criminal trial. of a US. president it's Thursday April. [Music]. 18th do is that his is M hi there hello.

how are you I'm doing. [Music]. good okay thank you for coming in Jonah. in the middle of a trial can you just. explain why you're able to even be here. sure so we happen to be off on. Wednesdays during trial so we being not. the New York Times but the courts that's. right which is why we're taping with you. and because we now have two full court. days of this history-making trial now. under our belts and the thing about this.

trial that's so interesting is that. there are no cameras in the courtroom. for The Wider world there's no audio. recordings so all we really have is you. and your eyes and your notebook maybe. your laptop and so we're hoping you can. reconstruct for us the scene of the. first two days of this trial and really. the highlights yeah I'd be happy to so. on Monday morning I left the subway it's. before 7:00 a.m. the sun is just rising. over these grandiose court buildings. Lower Manhattan I'm about to turn left.

onto Center Street I'm right in front of. the big municipal building and I turn. onto Center Street that's where the cour. houses are I'm. crossing and I expected to see a big. crowd and it was even bigger than I had. anticipated oh here we go here we go. here we go now I finally see the crowd. you have camera Banks you have reporters. you have the beginnings of what will. eventually become a protest and you have. have this most New York thing which is.

just a big crowd of people who just know. something is going on that's right and. what they know is going on is of course. the first trial of an American president. all right I'm passing the camera folks. camera camera camera camera here we go. let's start with Sharon crley live. outside the courthouse in lower man want. to get right to ABC's Aaron kki who's. outside of the courthouse Robert Costa. is following it outside the courthouse. in lower Manhattan Bob I saw the. satellite trucks lined up all in a row.

good morning talk to us how we got here. exactly so this is the case that was. brought by the Manhattan district. attorney so prosecutors have accused. Donald Trump of covering up the actions. of his former fixer Michael Cohen after. Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels. stormmy Daniels had a story about having. had sex with Donald Trump which Trump. has always denied Cohen paid her money. and then Trump reimbursed Cohen and. prosecutors say that Trump essentially. defrauded the American people because he.

hid this information that could have. been very important for the election. from those people when he reimbursed. Cohen right and as I remember it he also. misrepresented what that reimbursement. was claimed it was a legal fee when in. fact it was just reimbursing Michael. Cohen for a hush money payment exactly. yeah he definitely didn't say. reimbursement for hush money payment to. Stormy Daniels it's a coverup case it's. a case about hiding information you. don't want people to see.

right and of course the context of all. this is that it is in the middle of a. presidential election it's 2016 Trump. wants to keep this secret prosecutors. allege so that the American public. doesn't know about it and potentially. hold it against him right and. prosecutors are telling a story about. election interference they're saying. that Trump interfered with an election. and Trump himself is also using the. phrase election interference but he's. painting the trial itself as election. interference as he now runs again in. 2024 fascinating and because in.

Manhattan and because the jury pool is. going to be largely Democratic and the. judge is a Democrat and the district. attorney is a Democrat Trump keeps. claiming he cannot get a fair shake this. is Democrat Central and in Democrat. Central Trump doesn't have a chance okay. so what happens once you actually enter. the courthouse outside there's all this. Fanfare but inside it's a little bit. business as usual so I go up to the 15th. floor and I walk into the courtroom and.

I sit down and it's the same old. courtroom and we're sitting and waiting. for the former president around 9:30. Trump walks in he looks thin he looks a. little tired kind of slumping forward as. if to say with his body like let's get. this over with here we go the judge. walks in a little bit after that and we. think we're all set for the trial to. start but that's not what happens here. and in fact there are a series of legal. arguments about what the trial is going. to look like and what evidence is going.

to be allowed in so for example. prosecutors ask that they be allowed to. admit into evidence headlines from the. national Inquirer that were attacks on. Trump's 2016 opponents on Ted Cruz on. Marco Rubio on Ben Carson why because. prosecutors are in some sense putting. Trump's 2016 campaign on trial these. headlines are a big part of that because. what prosecutors say they show is that. Trump had this ongoing deal with the. national Inquirer and the publish would. promote him and it would publish.

damaging stories about his opponents and. then crucially it would protect Trump. from negative stories and that's exactly. what prosecutors say happened with. Stormy Daniels that the national. Inquirer tipped Cohen off about Stormy. Daniels trying to sell her story of. having had sex with Donald Trump which. he denies and that led to the hush money. payment to her so what prosecutors are. doing overall with these headlines is. establishing a pattern of conduct and. that conduct they say was an attempt to. influence the election in Trump's favor. got it and the judge agrees he's going.

to admit this evidence and this is a. pretty big win for the prosecution but. even though they win that one they're. not winning everything they they lose. some important arguments here one of. them was that after the Access Hollywood. tape came out there were allegations of. sexual assault against Donald Trump. right and you know this Michael because. you reported two of them two of the. three in question at this very trial. prosecutors had hoped to talk about. those during trial in front of the jury. to show the jurors that the Trump.

campaign was really really focused on. pushing back against Bad press in the. wake of the Access Hollywood tape in. which Trump seemed to describe sexual. assault that was a big problem for the. campaign campaign did everything it. could to push back including against. these allegations that surfaced in the. wake of the tape M but the judge saying. that the allegations are hearsay that. they're based on the women's stories. says absolutely not that is incredibly. prejudicial to the defendant meaning. Donald Trump would not get a fair trial.

were those allegations to be mentioned. and so he will not let those in the. jurors will not hear about them so this. is a setback of course for the. prosecution of victory for Trump's legal. team it's a setback and it also just. shows you how these pre-trial motions. shape the context of the trial think of. the trial is a venue like a theater or. athletic contest of some sort and these. pre-trial motions are about what gets. led into the arena and what stays out. the sexual assault allegations out the. national inquir headlines in okay and. how is Trump sitting there at the.

defense table reacting to these. pre-trial motion rulings from the judge. well as I've just said this is very. important stuff for his trial right. hugely important but it's all happening. in legal language and I'm decoding it. for you but if you were sitting there. listening to it you might get a little. lost and you might get a little bored. and Trump who is not involved in these. arguments seems to fall asleep.

seems to fall asleep you're seeing this. with your own eyes what we're seeing. overall including our colleague Maggie. hman who's in the Overflow room and has. a direct view of Trump's face I'm. sitting behind him in the courtroom so I. can't see his face that well you guys. are double teaming this that's right I'm. sitting behind him but Maggie sitting in. front of him and what she sees is not. only that his eyes are closed that. wouldn't get you to he is asleep and we. have to be really careful about. reporting that he's asleep even if it. seems like a frivolous thing but what. happens is that his head is dropping. down to his chest.

and then it's snapping back up so you've. seen that when a student I've done that. yeah we all kind of know that feeling of. snapping awake suddenly and we see the. head motion and it happens several. times lawyers kind of bothering him not. quite shaking him but certainly trying. to get his attention and that head. snapping motion we felt confident enough. to report that Trump fell asleep during. his own criminal trials opening day. that's right.

does someone eventually wake him up he. wakes up he wakes up and in fact in the. afternoon he's much more animated it's. almost as if he wants to be seen being. very much awake right so once these. pre-trial motions are ruled on and Trump. is you know snapped back to attention. what happens well what happens in the. courtroom is that the trial Begins the. first trial of an American president is. now in session and what marks that. beginning. is jurors walking into the room one by.

one many of them kind of craning their. necks over at Donald Trump giggling. raising their eyebrows at each other. filing into the room and being sworn in. by the judge and that swearing in marks. the official beginning of the trial the. beginning is jury selection and it's. often overlooked it's not dramatized and. are kind of courtroom dramas in the same. way but it's so important it's one of. the most important parts of the case cuz.

whoever sits on the jury these are the. 12 people who are going to decide. whether Trump is guilty or whether Trump. is. innocent so how does jury selection. actually look and feel and go so jury. selection is a winnowing process and in. order to do that you have to have these. people go through a bunch of different. hurdles mhm so the first hurdle is after. the judge describes the case he asks the.

group and there are just short of a. hundred of them MH whether they can be. fair and impartial and says that if they. can't they should leave and more than. half the group is instantly gone whoa so. after we do this kind of big Mass. excusal we're left with a smaller group. and so now jurors are getting called in. smaller groups to the jury box and what. they're going to do there is they're. going to answer this questionnaire and. this part of the process is really. conducted by the judge the lawyers are. involved they're listening but they're.

not yet asking questions of the jurors. themselves MH and what's on the. questionnaire well it's 42 questions and. the questions include their education. their professional histories their. Hobbies what they like to do whether. you're a member of huanan or antifa. you're whether you're far left or far. right that's right whether you've read. the art of the deal Trump's book which. some perspective jurors have why it was. a bestseller in its time that's right. and some of it can be answered in yes no. question. but some of it can be answered more at.

length so some of the perspective jurors. are going very very fast yes no no no. yes right CU this is an oral. questionnaire that's right but some of. them are taking their time they're. expanding on their Hobbies so the. potential juror in seat three for. example is talking about her hobbies and. she says some you know running hiking. and then she said I'd like to go to the. club and it got a huge laugh and you get. that kind of thing uh in jury selection. which is one of the reasons it's so fun. it's the height of normality in the.

situation that is anything but normal. right the most banale answer possible. delivered in front of the former. president and current Republican nominee. for president well that's one of the. fascinating Parts about all this right. is that they're answering in front of. trump and they're answering questions. about Trump in front of trump he doesn't. react all that much but whenever someone. says they've read the art of the deal. and there are a few of those he kind of. nods appreciatively Smiles he likes that. it's very clear right but because there. are so many questions this is taking.

forever especially when people are. choosing to answer and elaborate and. digress this is when you fall asleep. this is when I would have fallen asleep. if I were a normal person and by the end. of the day where does jury selection. stand well the questionnaire is another. device for shrinking that jury pool and. so the questionnaire has almost these. little obstacles or roadblocks including. in fact a question that jurors have seen. before whether they would have any. problem being fair and impartial and.

they asked it again they're asked it. again and they're asked it in this more. individualized way the judge is. questioning them they're responding so. remember that woman who said she liked. to go to the club got a big laugh she. reaches question 34 and question 34. reads 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 she. said yes she does have an opinion that. would prevent her from being fair and. impartial and and she too is excused H.

so that's how it works people answer the. question there and they get excused in. that way or they have a scheduling. conflict once they reach the jury box. and so to answer your question Michael. at the end of day one given all these. problems with the questionnaire and the. length of time it's taken to respond to. and people getting dismissed based on. their answers there is not a single jur. seated for this. [Music]. trial and it's starting to look like.

this is going to be a really hard case. for which to find an impartial jury. that's the feeling in the room. [Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. yeah we'll be right. back so J let's turn to day two what. does jury selection look like on Tuesday.

so when the day begins it looks almost. exactly like it looked when the day. ended on Monday we're still with the. questionnaire getting some interesting. answers but even though it feels like. we're going slow we are going and so. we've gone from about a 100 people to. now there's about 24 in the room there's. 18 in the juror box and by the time we. hit lunch all those people have answered. all those questions and we are ready for. the next step in the process which is.

V and what it is is the heart of jury. selection this is the point where the. lawyers themselves finally get to. interview the jurors and we get so much. information from this moment because the. lawyers ask questions based on what they. want out of the jurors so the. prosecution is asking all these. different kinds of questions the first. round of wer is done by a guy named. Joshua Stein glass very experienced. trial lawyer with the Manhattan District. Attorney's office and he's providing all. these hypotheticals. I'll give you one example cuz I found.

this one really really interesting he. provides a hypothetical about a man who. wants his wife killed and essentially. hires a Hitman to do it and what he. asked the jurors is if that case were. before you would you be able to see that. the man who hired the. Hitman was a part of this crime and of. course what he's really getting at is. can you accept that even though Michael. Cohen Trump's fixer made this payment. Trump is the guy who hired him to do it.

that's right if there are other people. involved will jurors still be able to. see Donald Trump's hands behind it all. fascinating and what were some of the. responses people mostly said yes we. accept that so that's how the. prosecution did. it but the defense had a totally. different method of. wader they were very focused on their. client and people's opinions about their. client so what kind of questions do we. get from them so the lawyer Todd blanch. is asking people what do you make of. president president Trump what do you. think of President Trump and what are.

some of the responses to that well there. is this incredible exchange with one of. the jurors who absolutely refuses to. give his opinion of Donald Trump they go. back and forth and back and forth and. the juror keeps insisting you don't need. to know my opinion of him all you need. to know is that I'm going to be fair and. impartial like I said and blanch pushes. and the guy pushes back and the only way. the guy budges is he finally kind of. confesses almost at the end that yes I. am a Democrat and that's all we get and. what ends up happening to this potential.

juror believe it or not he got. dismissed I can believe. it and of course it's worth saying that. this guy and everybody else is being. asked that question just feet from Trump. himself that's right and you might think. you were going to get a really kind of. spicy like popcorn emoji type exchange. from that but because these are now. jurors who have said they can be fair. and impartial who to some extent want to. be on this jury or at least wouldn't. mind being on this jury they're being.

very restrained mostly what they are. emphasizing much like that guy I just. described did is that they can be fair. they can be impartial there's one woman. who gives this really remarkable answer. she says you know I thought about this. last night I stayed up all night I. couldn't sleep thinking about whether I. could be fair it's really important to. me and I can what ends up happening to. that particular J she's also dismissed H. and she's dismissed without any reason. at all the defense besides it doesn't. like her doesn't want her on the jury.

and they have a certain number of. chances to just get rid of jurors no. questions asked other jurors are getting. dismissed for cause I'm doing air quotes. with my hands which means that the. lawyers have argued they actually. revealed themselves through their. answers or through old social media. posts which are brought up in the. courtroom to be either non-credible. meaning they've said they can be fair. and they can't or somehow too biased to. be on the jury H wait can I just dial. into that for a second are lawyers. researching the jurors in real time.

going online and saying I'm I'm making. this up but Jonah bramwit uh is a. potential juror and I'm going to go off. into my little corner of the courtroom. and Google everything you've ever said. is that what's happening in the room. yeah there's a whole profession. dedicated to that it's called jury. consultant and they're very good at. finding information on people in a hurry. and it certainly looked as if they were. in play did a social media post end up. getting anybody kicked off this jury yes. there were posts from kind of 2016 era. internet you'll remember that time as a.

very heated one on the internet Facebook. memes are a big thing and so there's all. kinds of lock him up type memes and. rhetoric and some of the potential. jurors here have used those and those. jurors are dismissed for a reason. fasinating so we have these two types of. dismissals right we have these. peremptory dismissals no reason at all. given and we have four cause dismissals. and the process is called jury selection. but you don't actually get selected for. a jury the thing is to make it through. all these obstacles you're kind of.

you're left over right and so when. certain jurors are not dismissed and. they've made it through all these stages. by the end of the day we've gone from. zero jurors seated to seven jurors who. will be participating in Donald Trump's. trial got it and without going through. all seven just give us a little bit of a. sketch of who so far is on this jury. what stands out well not that much. stands out so we've got four men we've. got three women you know one lives on. the Upper East Side one lives in Chelsea. obviously they're from all over.

Manhattan they have these kind of very. normal Hobbies like spending time with. family and friends they have somewhat. Anonymous jobs we've got two lawyers. we've got someone who's worked in sales. so there's not that much identifying. information and that's not an accident. one of the things that often happens. with jury selection whether it be for. Donald Trump or for anyone else is the. most interesting jurors the jurors that. kind of catch your attention during the. process they get picked off because they. are being so interested. that they interest one or the other side.

in a negative way and soon they're. excused so most of the jurors who are. actually seated are not memorable are. not that memorable save one particular. jur okay all right I'll bite what do I. need to know about that one particular. jur so let me tell you about a. prospective juror who we knew as 374 who. will now be juror number five she's a. middle school teacher from Harlem and. she said that she has friends who have. really strong opinions about Trump but. she herself does not and she insisted. several times I am not a political.

person and then she said this thing that. made me quite surprised that the. prosecution was fine with having her on. the jury she said quote president Trump. speaks his mind and I'd rather that than. someone who's in office who you don't. know what they're thinking H so she. expressed approval of President Trump. yeah it was mild approval but the thing. is especially for the defense in this. trial all you need is one juror one. juror can tie up deliberation in knots. and you can end with a hung jury and.

this is actually something that I saw. firsthand in 2019 I was a four person on. a jury how do you like that yeah and the. trial was really complicated but I had. thought while we were doing the trial oh. this is going to be a really easy. decision I thought the defendant in that. case was guilty so we get into. deliberations but there's this one juror. who keeps gumming up the works every. time we seem to be making progress. getting a conversation started this. juror proverbially throws up his hands.

and says I am not convicting this man is. innocent and we talked and we talked and. as the four person I was trying to use. all my skills to mediate but anytime we. made any progress this guy would blow it. up and long story short hung jury big. victory for the defense lawyer and we. come out of the room and she points at. this juror the guy the defense lawyer. the defense lawyer points at this juror. who blew everything up and she said I. knew it I knew I had my guy okay I don't. want to read too much into you said. about that one juror but should I read.

between the lines to think that if. there's a hung jury you wonder if it. might be that juror that's what everyone. in the courtroom is wondering not just. about this juror but about every single. person who was selected is this the. person who swings the case for me is. this the person who swings the case. against me these juries are so complex. it's 12 people who don't know each other. at the start of the trial and by the end. of the trial have seen each other every. morning and are experiencing the same. things but are not allowed to have. talked about the case until.

deliberations start in that moment when. deliberations start you're going to. learn a whole lot about each other. that's right there's this alchemical. moment where suddenly it all matters. every personality selected matters and. that's why jury selection is so. important and that's why these last two. days are actually one of the most. important parts of this trial okay so by. my math this trial will require five. more jurors to get to 12 I know also. they're going to need to be alternates. but from what you're saying what looked. like a really uphill battle to get an.

impartial jury or a jury that said it. could be impartial and Trump was very. doubtful one could be found has turned. out to not be so hard to find that's. right and in fact we went from thinking. oh boy this is going awfully slowly to. the judge himself saying we could be. doing opening arguments as soon as. Monday morning and I think that. highlights something that's really. fascinating both about this trial and. about the jury selection process overall.

one of the things that lawyers have been. arguing about is whether or not it's. important to figure out what juror's. opinions about Donald Trump are and the. prosecution and I think the Judge have. really said no that's not the key issue. here the key issue is not whether or not. people have opinions about Donald Trump. right who doesn't have an opinion about. Donald Trump exactly they're going to. automatically they're going to the. question is whether or not they can be. fair and impartial and the seven people. we already have SE. and presumably the five people that.

we're going to get over the next few. days and however many alternates we. expect six are all going to have. answered that question not I hate Trump. I love Trump but I can weigh in on the. former president's innocence or guilt. and I can do it as fairly as humanly. possible now Trump is not happy about. this that he said after court yesterday. quote we have a highly conflicted judge. and he's rushing this trial and I think. that he is going to see these beats of. the system the criminal justice system. as it works on him as he is experiencing.

it as unfair that is typically how he. talks about it and how he views it but. what he's getting is what defendants get. this is the system in New York in the. United States this is its answer to how. do you pick a fair jury well you ask. people can you be fair and you put them. through this process and the outcome is. 12 people and so I think we're going to. see this over and over again in this. trial we're going to see Trump. experience the criminal justice system. and its routines yeah openings Witnesses.

evidence closings he's going to go. through all of it and I think at every. turn it makes sense to expect him to say. well this is not fair well the judge is. doing something wrong while the. prosecutors are doing something wrong. while the jury is doing something wrong. but at the end of the day he's going to. be a defendant and he's going to sit. mostly silently if his lawyers can make. him do that and watch this process play. itself out. so the system is going to try and treat.

him like any other defendant even though. of course he's not he's not and he is. going to fight back like no other. defendant would like no other defendant. could and that tension him pushing. against the criminal justice system as. it strives to treat him as it would. anyone else is going to be a defining. quality of this. trial well Jonah thank you very much we. appreciate it of course thanks so much. for having.

[Music]. me PS have you ever fallen asleep in a. [Music]. trial I have not I. [Laughter]. [Music]. figured we'll be right. back here's what else you need to. another day it's clear the Israelis are.

making a decision to act we hope they do. so in a way that does as little to. escalate this as possible and in a way. that as I said during a visit to. Jerusalem on Wednesday Britain's foreign. secretary left little doubt that Israel. would retaliate against Iran for last. weekend's aerial attack despite pressure. from the United States and Britain to. stand down the question now is what form. that retaliation will take the times.

reports that Israel is weighing several. options including a direct strike on. Iran a Cyber attack or targeted. assassinations and look history judges. us for what we do this is a critical. time right now critical time in the. world stage in a plan that could. threaten his job Republican house. Speaker Mike Johnson will put a series. of foreign aid bills up for a vote this. weekend the bills especially for Aid to.

Ukraine are strongly opposed by farri. House Republicans at least two of whom. have threatened to try to OU Johnson. over the plan you know I can make a. selfish decision and and and do. something that that's different but I. I'm doing here what I believe to be the. right thing um I think providing lethal. Aid to Ukraine right now is critically. important I really do I really do. believe. today's episode was produced by Ricky.

neski will Reed Lindsay Garrison and Rob. zco it was edited by paig cow contains. original music by Baran Lozano aliciaa. and Dan Powell and was engineered by. Chris Wood our theme music is by Jim. brunberg and Ben Lanser of. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the Daily I'm. Michael abaro see you.

tomorrow all done.