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This Tuesday, April 16 marked the second day of the trial of the former American president. Faced with this unprecedented situation, Trump appeared indifferent and annoyed.
He makes no secret of it: he would give a lot to be elsewhere. By his gestures, his attitude and even more by his words, Donald Trump expressed his discomfort and his repugnance at finding himself judged by a New York court.
In a blue suit and shirt, with a striped tie of the same color, with a stern expression, he quickly took his place on Tuesday, behind a large wooden table, for the second day of his criminal trial – unprecedented for a former American president. After brief exchanges with his lawyers, he only seemed to lighten up when faced with the lenses of the photographers who came to shoot him before the start of the hearing.
Silenced
“I should be in Pennsylvania and Florida right now, a lot of other states, North Carolina, Georgia, campaigning.”the Republican candidate for the November election was indignant when he arrived at the Manhattan court, denouncing once again a “trial that should never have existed”.
On Monday, he criticized Judge Juan Merchan, who required his presence at all the hearings (i.e. four days a week), for not having exempted him from the outset to attend his son’s graduation or follow a hearing that concerns him at the United States Supreme Court next week. Tuesday, on this day exclusively dedicated to the constitution of the jury of 12 residents of New York who will decide his fate, Donald Trump turned his head towards the jury box to his right to scrutinize them one after the other.
Reduced de facto to silence, he showed no particular emotion and sometimes seemed bored, even dozing off, in the face of this sometimes repetitive parade of anonymous citizens, a slice of New York society, thrown into this judicial soap opera to suspense. The former Republican president is being prosecuted for payments intended to buy the silence of former porn star Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election which he won narrowly against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
A Trump reader
Everyone, in turn, had to answer out loud to a long questionnaire on their professional and family situation, their hobbies, their sources of information, but also their sympathies or prejudices towards the accused. After a while of this mostly passive attitude, Donald Trump began to more actively monitor potential jurors’ responses, perusing a printed copy of the questionnaire. The real estate mogul finally came to life when a potential juror answered the question positively: “Have you read one or more of the books written by the defendant? »greeting with a smile and an approving nod the mention of his most famous work, The Art of the Deal.
After this first phase, when prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked the 12 pre-selected jurors if they felt capable of convicting him, he nodded several times in their direction. Then, when the defense questioned a juror about the meaning of videos she posted on social media, Donald Trump turned to her. Once the juror left, the judge challenged Donald Trump’s lawyers, saying that the accused had “mumbled” something and “made gestures” as she spoke. “I will not allow jurors to be intimidated in my court”he told them, ordering them to rein in their restless customer.