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Trump to return to court today for Day 3 of his New York criminal trial
Prosecutors and attorneys for former President Donald Trump will meet a new cohort of Manhattan residents Thursday, as they enter the third day of jury selection in Trump’s New York criminal trial.
Seven New Yorkers were selected on Tuesday, or Day Two, to serve as jurors in the first criminal trial of a former president in U.S. history. They were part of an initial batch of 96 residents who were first asked, in bulk, to identify themselves and they were asked if they believed they could be impartial while deciding a case involving Trump. More than half of that group said they could not and were immediately excused. The remaining people were whittled down through questioning from lawyers and the judge, Juan Merchan.
Some had scheduling issues that might conflict with serving on a trial that could last up to two months, while others later concluded — after spending hours in the room with Trump and hearing about the case — that they, too, couldn’t be impartial. More than two dozen answered, one at a time and out loud, a 42-question assessment designed to help the lawyers glean their feelings about Trump and ability to fairly decide the case.
Finally, a smaller group was questioned individually as consultants for the lawyers pored through their online lives. Some were confronted by Trump’s attorneys with social media posts dating back years before they were excused. Each side in the case is allowed 10 peremptory challenges, enabling them to excuse a potential juror without explanation, and there are an unlimited number of “for cause” challenges, which call for a person to be excused if there’s a clear conflict.
Michael M Santiago / Getty Images
With a new batch of 96 Manhattanites set to be considered Thursday, there are five jurors yet to be seated, and each side has six peremptories remaining. The attorneys will also select up to six alternate jurors, and the two sides will receive five more peremptory challenges during that process.
Trump entered a not guilty plea after he was indicted more than a year ago on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records. He denies all allegations in the case, which revolves around reimbursements to former attorney Michael Cohen, for a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Prosecutors say Trump covered up the reimbursements in order to distance himself from the payment, which days before the 2016 presidential election temporarily bought Daniels’ silence about an alleged affair. Trump has also denied having the affair.
Trump has raged against the case, accusing prosecutors of charging him for political reasons. He has also frequently lashed out at the judge on social media, accusing Merchan of bias. But in the courtroom, Trump has been largely quiet and reserved, even appearing to nod off from time to time.
Still, Merchan had to warn Trump on Tuesday about “audibly uttering something….speaking in the direction of the juror” under questioning at the time about one of her social media posts.
“I won’t tolerate that. I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom. I want to make that crystal clear,” Merchan said.
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Sen. Thom Tillis says “the scope” of Helene damage in North Carolina “is more like Katrina”
As recovery missions and repairs continue in North Carolina more than a week after Hurricane Helene carved a path of devastation through the western part of the state, the state’s Republican Sen. Thom Tillis called for more resources to bolster the relief effort and likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina’s mark on Louisiana in 2005.
“This is unlike anything that we’ve seen in this state,” Tillis told CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday morning. “We need increased attention. We need to continue to increase the surge of federal resources.”
Hurricane Helene ripped through the Southeast U.S. after making landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 as a powerful Category 4 storm. Helene brought heavy rain and catastrophic flooding to communities across multiple states, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with North Carolina bearing the brunt of the destruction. Officials previously said hundreds of roads in western North Carolina were washed out and inaccessible after the storm, hampering rescue operations, and several highways were blocked by mudslides.
Tillis said Sunday that most roads in the region likely remained closed due to flooding and debris. Water, electricity and other essential services still have not been fully restored.
“The scope of this storm is more like Katrina,” he said. “It may look like a flood to the outside observer, but again, this is a landmass roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts, with damage distributed throughout. We have to get maximum resources on the ground immediately to finish rescue operations.”
Hurricane Katrina left more than 1,000 people dead after it slammed into Louisiana’s Gulf Coast in August 2005, flooding neighborhoods and destroying infrastructure in and around New Orleans as well as in parts of the surrounding region. It was the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland U.S. in the last 50 years, and the costliest storm on record.
The death toll from Hurricane Helene is at least 229, CBS News has confirmed, with at least 116 of those deaths reported in North Carolina alone. Officials have said they expect the death toll to continue to rise as recovery efforts were ongoing, and a spokesperson for the police department in Asheville told CBS News Friday their officers were “actively working 75 cases of missing persons.”
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $100 million in emergency funds for North Carolina to rebuild the roads and bridges damaged by the hurricane.
“We are providing this initial round of funding so there’s no delay getting roads repaired and reopened, and re-establishing critical routes,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration will be with North Carolina every step of the way, and today’s emergency funding to help get transportation networks back up and running safely will be followed by additional federal resources.”
President Biden previously announced that the federal government would cover “100%” of costs for debris removal and emergency protective measures in North Carolina for six months.
With North Carolina leaders working with a number of relief agencies to deal with the aftermath of the storm, Tillis urged federal officials to ramp up the resources being funneled into the state’s hardest-hit areas. The senator also addressed a surge in conspiracy theories and misinformation about the Biden Administration’s disaster response, which have been fueled by Republican political figures like former President Donald Trump.
Trump falsely claimed that Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the November presidential election, were diverting funds from Federal Emergency Management Agency that would support the relief effort in North Carolina toward initiatives for immigrants. He also said baselessly that the administration and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, were withholding funds because many communities that were hit hardest are predominantly Republican. Elon Musk has shared false claims about FEMA, too.
“Many of these observations are not even from people on the ground,” Tillis said of those claims. “I believe that we have to stay focused on rescue operations, recovery operations, clearing operations, and we don’t need any of these distractions on the ground. It’s at the expense of the hard-working first responders and people that are just trying to recover their lives.”
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