An intense fourth day of Donald Trump's trial unfolded as potential jurors cried and a man set himself on fire outside the New York court.
A man reportedly lit himself on fire outside the New York court hearing ex-President Donald Trump ‘s historic hush money trial – moments after the full jury was finally selected.
At least one individual used a fire extinguisher to put out the fire, according to CNN’s Laura Coates who was at the scene outside Manhattan Criminal Court.
Early into the court day on Friday morning, Trump reportedly seemed to fall asleep again – four days after first being observed nodding off in the first-ever criminal trial for a former US president.
‘Trump appears to have fallen asleep in court again. It happened several times just now,’ wrote New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on a live blog.
‘His eyes were closed for extended periods and his head dropped down twice.’
About an hour later, Haberman wrote that ‘Trump appeared to doze off in court’ while his Trump Social social media feed sounded off ‘describing himself as being victimized by the proceedings and insisting he’s entitled to immunity in a federal case charging him with illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election’.
Beside several apparent moments of dozing off, Trump appeared to follow along as the process continued to finish picking alternate jurors. His ‘attention piqued’ when a prospective juror who was born and raised in New York began answering a questionnaire, according to Haberman.
Trump also watched as several potential jurors broke down in tears during the intense court day.
Among them was a woman who said she served prison time in another state and said she keeps getting summoned for jury duty. Trump turned around and looked at her as her voice cracked, Haberman reported. The woman said people should be held accountable ‘because that’s what I went through’.
Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the trial, dismissed her and she said, ‘good luck’ drawing laughter in the overflow room.
All six alternates were selected around 1.45pm, completing the jury selection process that had ended with 12 jurors seated on Thursday.
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