Well, a jury has been seated in the historic criminal
trial of former President Donald Trump,
so that moves the proceedings closer to opening statements in
the first criminal trial ever against a former President Foxworth.
Blake Hanson has the new development.
Tonight he is in Studio Blake.
Stephen Heather. There are still more alternate jurors to see,
but we're on track for the trial in earnest to
begin early next week.
A jury is now seated in the first ever criminal
trial of a former American president.
The process not an easy one to pull off for
a defendant many Americans know and have an opinion of.
Everybody was shocked. When we saw him on Tuesday for
the first time.
You know, we couldn't believe that that was the case.
So we were shocked and frozen.
The day began with two jurors dismissed.
1 expressed doubt about her ability to be fair.
After clues about her identity became public,
prosecutors raised concern. A second might not have been honest
with some of his answers,
but the court quickly seated 7 jurors and one alternate
defense lawyers ran out of their ability to strike jurors
without reason.
Because it's the lowest level felony,
each side only gets 10 strikes.
Normally in a regular felony AB or a day,
you get 20 strikes. So.
It moves rather quickly because there's only so many people
you could strike off.
Outside court, Trump complained about the trial.
The law requires he be present as a criminal defendant,
impacting his ability to campaign for reelection.
And I'm sitting here for days now,
from morning till night in that freezing room,
freezing. Everybody was freezing in there and.
All for this, and this is your result.
Look at each one of them a story,
and it's very unfair. Trump has pleaded not guilty to
34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of
an effort to keep stories about his sex life from
emerging during his 2016 campaign.
The trial is expected to center around a $130,000 payment
his former fixer,
Michael Cohen, made. To adult film star Stormy Daniels,
Trump could face up to four years in prison if
convicted,
but would almost certainly appeal if that was the case.
Prosecutors have asked that Trump be held in contempt over
social media posts he made this week.
The judge scheduled a hearing on that for next week.
Stephen Heather.