Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Juan Merchan for the second day of his criminal trial over falsifying business records connected to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
On Monday, Merchan ruled on several motions from each side and set a hearing date of April 23 for the issue of whether Trump is in violation of his gag order. Merchan kept up a brisk pace in the afternoon, bringing in the first 96 potential jurors before dismissing more than half of them with a single question over their ability to be fair and impartial in this case. The afternoon ended with the first 18 of the remaining potential jurors answering preliminary questions.
Merchan is expected to try to keep Tuesday centered on juror selection. With a reported 500 potential jurors to process, there should be no problem finding enough to fill the jury box, but just getting through them all is going to be an effort.
