US Election 2024: Grumpy Old Men

[Solauren]

He's only saying that because he thinks they might alienate people that would otherwise vote for Trump.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Trump calls historic hush money case 'political persecution' as trial gets under way

Former President Donald Trump said he is "proud" to be at a New York court as the trial over the hush money case began on Monday.

It is the first of Trump's four indictments to reach trial and makes him the first former US head of state to stand trial for a serious crime.

"This is an assault on America, nothing like this has ever happened before, there’s never been anything like it. Every legal scholar said this case is nonsense, it should have never been brought, it doesn’t deserve anything like this," Trump told reporters as he walked into court.

"This is political persecution, this is a persecution like never before, nobody has ever seen anything like it and again it’s a case that should have never been brought," he said.

"That’s why I am very proud to be here, this is an assault on our country and it’s a country that’s failing ... This is really an attack on a political opponent, that is all it is, so I’m very honoured to be here, thank you very much.”

This trial is to see whether Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified business records to conceal crimes in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors say he was trying to conceal an alleged effort to keep salacious stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.

On the first day of the trial, the judge selected the jury and lawyers for both sides of the case haggled over what evidence could be permitted.

The prosecution also asked the judge to fine Trump for three social media posts they say broke the judge's gag order that bans him from making public comments about some of the people related to the case.

As Trump is the presumptive nominee for the Republican party, he is expected to split his time between days in court and, as he has said, "campaigning during the night" ahead of the US presidential election set to take place in November.

The jury selection for the case has been extraordinarily difficult, with a jury having to be able to assure judges that they will be able to set aside any personal feelings or biases during the trial and come to a decision that is based entirely on the evidence and the law.

This makes jury selection particularly challenging in the case of Donald Trump, who is very well-known and an extraordinarily divisive figure.

Many of the details of this case have been public since 2018, when federal prosecutors charged Trump’s ex-lawyer Michael Cohen with campaign finance crimes in connection with a scheme to bury claims by porn star Stormy Daniels, as well as other potentially damaging stories from Trump’s past.

There are allegations that Mr Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£104,000) to not disclose her claims of an affair and a sexual encounter with Trump.