And good afternoon, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips today on ABC
News Live targeting witnesses before they even testify.
We're only in day two of jury selection and Donald
Trump is already calling Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels sleazebags
and he's violating the judges limited gag order and now
forcing the Manhattan DA's office to file a formal request
to actually hold Trump in contempt.
This hush money case already making history as this is
the first time a former president has stood trial on
criminal charges,
and the preceding already proving to be challenging.
Not one juror seated after an entire first day of
filtering through the pool of New Yorkers,
at least fifty of them excused after raising their hand,
claiming that they just couldn't be fair or impartial.
This case years in the making and all stemming from
those allegations that Trump made hush money payments to porn
star Stormy Daniels just prior to the 2016 election in
an effort to conceal an alleged affair.
This is the first of four criminal cases involving Donald
Trump to go to trial as he continues to make
his bid to return to the White House.
We have team coverage with our senior investigative correspondent Olivia
Rubin outside the courthouse.
She joins me along with executive editorial producer John Santucci
and our legal contributor and trial attorney Brian Buchmeyer.
Olivia, why is jury selection moving at such a slow
pace?
Well, Kira, they have a lot to get to and
a lot to tease out of these jurors.
And I think one thing that is really contributing to
the length of this process is the questionnaire that each
juror is filling out 1 by 1 by 1,
or I should say answering one by one in the
courtroom in front of Donald Trump.
So just to sort of put in a picture of
how this is working,
they're bringing in one panel of jurors.
Remember we started with 90,
six. The judge is giving them pre instructions which took
about another 30 minutes.
Then some of them dismissed themselves.
Everyone knows the number about 50 took themselves out and
then it left with about 50 to take through the
juror questionnaire 1 by 1.
And then you go into the individual questioning.
So there's a lot to do there and I'm reminded
of the process when they were picking the jury for
Donald Trump's Civil E Jean Carroll case,
which again a lot less on the line there.
It's civil, it's not a criminal case.
But what they did that it was different was it
wasn't that one by one process of having every juror
answer the questionnaire.
So I think that it is what is taking up
a lot of the time here.
But it does seem and you know,
we'll have to see which way Judge Marshawn takes.
It does seem like after this lunch break,
which is ending, any minute now,
they are going to start getting into striking some of
these jurors because it appears Todd Blanche,
Trump's attorney, and Joshua Steinglass,
the prosecutor, each finished their questioning of the 18 jurors
that were in the room.
So now they each have an opportunity to strike who
they did not like and then you would go into
the next batch.
So potential here after this lunch break to move the
process forward a little bit there.
Brian, how long do you think this could take?
And tell us more about these questionnaires and just the
type of questions and why this is becoming a bit
challenging.
Day 2
here in my mind thinking that we're only going to
be in court four days a week,
I can see us not going just into next week,
but the following week. We're going to continue to follow
that process that Olivia so eloquently laid out for us
of trying to will down a large group.
First with the judges orders and instructions,
they self select themselves out.
Then you're going through the peremptory challenges and forecast challenges.
Both are two different types of strikes.
But what I will say is in terms of why
it's taking so long is this is the process
we in the criminal justice system,
especially in New York City and the courts that I've
been in.
We really want to make sure we get it right.
That if someone's liberty is on the line,
that there's not a single juror that is biased.
There's not a a single juror that has an opinion
that we think can taint the jury.
Because we want to make sure that if we're going
to take someone's liberty or give them a felony conviction,
like what might couldn't, what might possibly could have happened
here with Donald Trump,
that you get it right.
Because of course, if you get it wrong,
there's a conviction. There's also the appeals just take forever.
So this is just kind of the the method that
we choose.
So apparently Trump may give another little speech outside the
courtroom.
He's been doing this more than once.
Is that a good idea,
Brian?
Let's put it this way,
if if you're a a political pundit or you're or
you're or you're trying to get him re elected,
maybe. I mean John will be better at that aspect
in terms of telling us how he takes the kind
of courthouse in terms of into a podium and gets
more people looking to elect him.
But from an attorney and that's how my mind is
focused on this,
that is horrible. If I had any ability to control
Donald Trump and I was his attorney,
I would be pulling him into the courtroom saying we
don't have to make these comments.
I don't want you out there saying this was a
legal expense because that might not be our defense when
we start opening statements.
And so you want to ensure
that these comments that are made outside the corner about
the case are in line with what you're going to
argue because sometimes your client can be the
worst, worst witness before they even take the stand.
John you and I have been there before.
Trump's attorneys not always happy with the fact that he
just decides to talk at any moment.
Yeah. Good luck trying to control him.
Anybody that has tried has failed.
And ultimately Donald Trump's most infamous words has been fired
or sometimes they just quit.
Look I I, I think the the damage here for
Donald Trump is pretty clear in the sense that you
know we know next week we're going to have a
hearing about this effort by prosecutors to say he violated
the gag order on three occasions,
not because of what he said but because what he.
I don't know guys. Somebody help me.
The verb for truth did I don't know.
I guess it's just post untruth social,
but that that's really what what the problem is here,
that you know what Donald Trump wrote about Stormy Daniels
and Michael Cohen is going to cause the problems Now
they're going to tell him to stop.
He's probably not. But eventually if it gets to more
money or the idea that hey you keep doing this,
you're held in contempt of court,
you get thrown in jail,
that could turn him off.
That would be something that would make Donald Trump potentially
stop.
But I don't think we're there just yet.
So Olivia, the judge, denied any request from
the defense, in particular Todd Blanche,
to excuse Trump from attending his presidential immunity case before
the US Supreme Court.
And he also said that he's going to decide on
whether to let Trump go to his
son's high school graduation. Baron is about to graduate from
high school.
I can't believe we're already there.
It seems like he was just a little boy yesterday.
But you know, Trump was coming forward saying the judge
isn't letting me go anywhere.
I'm going to miss my son's high school graduation.
That's just not simply true,
right? The judge is still considering the high school graduation.
Exactly. It's not true. The judge did not say,
no, you cannot go to your son's graduation,
he said. That's not something that we can decide right
now because of the point that we're at in trial.
And we actually went back and looked at this part
of the transcript last night because we wanted to be
sure that,
you know, everyone was understanding what Juan Marshawn,
the judge, said on that instance.
And he has not made a ruling on that.
But he did say that Donald Trump could not go
to the Supreme Court arguments.
He said that you are a criminal defendant here.
You do not have to be there,
but you do. You have to be here.
And I think John Santucci put it best yesterday when
he was describing that Donald Trump is likely learning a
very hard lesson in this trial,
which is that he does not get to set his
own schedule and he does not get to make his
own decisions anymore about where he's going and when.
All right, Olivia, John, Brian,
thank you all so much.
We'll continue to follow a jury selection.