The initial six days of Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial, the first for an American president, were a high-intensity spectacle. A jury was seated, opening statements made and the first witness began testifying. Mr. Trump, who faces up to four years behind bars if convicted, is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records for […]
Read MoreTag: Merchan, Juan M
The Supreme Court Should Not Come Between Trump and Voters
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear oral arguments in Donald Trump’s immunity-appeal case on Thursday may appear to advance the rule of law. After all, few, if anyone, thinks that a majority of the court will conclude that a former president is completely immune from federal criminal liability. But the court’s decision to review the […]
Read MoreGag Order Hearing Is Heated as Judge Considers Citing Trump for Contempt
The judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s trial in Manhattan held a fiery hearing on Tuesday about whether to find Mr. Trump in criminal contempt for repeatedly violating the provisions of a gag order. While the judge, Juan M. Merchan, did not issue an immediate ruling, he engaged in a heated back-and-forth with one […]
Read MoreWill Justice Merchan Find Trump in Contempt of Court?
April 15, 2024, 2:47 p.m. ET April 15, 2024, 2:47 p.m. ET The scene outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.Credit…Josh Cochran Beyond seeing its historical importance, those of us covering the Trump trial expected the first day to be relatively uneventful, with housekeeping details and rules of the road for jury selection. But it turned […]
Read MoreTrump to Fight Gag Order in Hush Money Trial Before Key Witness Testifies
Manhattan prosecutors are poised to push their case against Donald J. Trump into a critical new phase on Tuesday, as they prepare to question a key witness and urge the judge to hold the former president in contempt for attacking witnesses and jurors in the landmark trial. The case, the first criminal trial of an […]
Read MoreHow Donald J. Trump’s Criminal Trial Will Unfold
On Monday morning, a Manhattan jury will hear opening statements in People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump, the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president. It is the next phase of a criminal trial that will unfold like any other — even though it has a defendant like no […]
Read MoreDismissed Trump Jurors Describe Intense Days in a Glaring Spotlight
The two Manhattan residents were led into the courtroom to fulfill a foundational civic duty: to be interviewed as prospective jurors. But in the room when they arrived was a defendant, Donald J. Trump, unlike any in American history. Both would-be jurors, a man and a woman, were eventually excused. But the experience thrust them […]
Read MoreTrump’s Trial Challenge: Being Stripped of Control
“Sir, can you please have a seat.” Donald J. Trump had stood up to leave the Manhattan criminal courtroom as Justice Juan M. Merchan was wrapping up a scheduling discussion on Tuesday. But the judge had not yet adjourned the court or left the bench. Mr. Trump, the 45th president of the United States and […]
Read MoreDay 4 of Trump’s Criminal Hush-Money Trial: Key Takeaways
The first week of the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump ended with a disturbing jolt: a 37-year-old man set himself on fire outside the courthouse, an event that overshadowed the legal proceedings inside. The news of the immolation rippled through the press corps just as the final members of Mr. Trump’s jury — including […]
Read MoreProsecutors Want to Ask Trump About Attacks on Women
If Donald J. Trump takes the stand at his criminal trial in Manhattan, prosecutors want to cross-examine him about recent lawsuits he’s lost, attacks he’s made on women and a judge’s opinion that his sworn statements in a civil case rang “hollow and untrue.” In hearing on Friday afternoon, the prosecutors from the Manhattan district […]
Read MoreInside the Courtroom, Trump’s Fame is Balanced by Judge Merchan
Everywhere in our universe, a basic physical law applies: the greater the mass of an object, the stronger its gravitational field. The accumulated mass of fame and political status places Donald J. Trump at the center of most rooms he finds himself in. In the dimly lit New York courtroom where he is standing trial, […]
Read MoreTrump’s Trial Reaches What Could Be Final Day of Jury Selection
Twelve New Yorkers have been selected to decide Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, the first for an American president, and alternates are expected to be chosen on Friday should any of the first dozen have to drop out of the trial unexpectedly. Opening statements, where prosecutors and defense lawyers will introduce their dueling […]
Read More12 Jurors in Trump Hush Money Trial Will Decide a Former President’s Fate
At 4:34 p.m. on Thursday, twelve citizens were selected to determine the fate of an indicted former president for the first time in American history, a moment that could shape the nation’s political and legal landscapes for generations to come. The dozen New Yorkers will sit in judgment of Donald J. Trump, the 45th president […]
Read MoreJudge in Trump Trial Asks Media Not to Report Some Juror Information
The judge in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial ordered reporters to not disclose employment information about potential jurors after he excused a woman who said she was worried about her identity becoming known. The woman, who had been seated on the jury on Tuesday, told the judge that her friends and colleagues had […]
Read MoreHere’s the latest.
In part, that is because of the nature of the case: Jurors, once seated, will be asked to decide whether Donald J. Trump committed a crime. Prosecutors have charged him with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal that could have hurt his first presidential run. But the […]
Read MoreWhat Sentencing Could Look Like if Trump Is Found Guilty
For all the attention to and debate over the unfolding trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan, there has been surprisingly little of it paid to a key element: its possible outcome, and specifically, the prospect that a former and potentially future president could be sentenced to jail time. The case — brought by Alvin Bragg, […]
Read MoreFact-Checking Trump’s Defenses in His Court Cases
As former President Donald J. Trump battles a series of criminal and civil actions while he runs to reclaim the White House, he has put his legal woes at center stage, making them a rallying cry for his re-election. It is a tactic that is likely to be on full display this week as his […]
Read More‘It’s a Very Winnable Case’: Three Writers Dissect the Trump Trial
David French, a Times columnist, hosted a written online conversation with the former federal prosecutors Mary McCord and Ken White to discuss and debate the Trump criminal trial in Manhattan and how, or if, the outcome will matter to voters. David French: Before we start, just a quick refresher on the case. Donald Trump is […]
Read MoreDay 2 of Trump’s Criminal Hush-Money Trial: Five Takeaways
After the first day of jury selection in Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial saw the dismissal of dozens of potential jurors who said they could not be impartial, the first seven jurors were chosen on Tuesday as the defendant looked on. The picks came after a morning session in which several more potential jurors said […]
Read MoreProsecutors and Defense Lawyers Begin to Seat Jurors for Trump Trial
An Upper East Side investment banker, a high school teacher who likes to sew, a Mexico-born man who listens to podcasts about gay issues, a Harlem woman from a family of police officers and a bookseller who believes “no one is above the law.” These were just some of the hundreds of New Yorkers who […]
Read MoreAs Trump Runs in 2024, His 2016 Tactics Are on Trial
Donald J. Trump first ran for president nearly a decade ago. Now, as he runs again in a political climate that he helped create, his Manhattan criminal trial is partly a referendum on his tactics during that first campaign. The trial’s very premise is that prosecutors believe Mr. Trump orchestrated an election interference scheme. Faced […]
Read MoreAs Trump’s Manhattan Trial Begins, Prospective Jurors Are Dismissed in Dozens
After years of investigation and weeks of delay, the criminal case known as the People of the State of New York vs. Donald J. Trump went to trial Monday, with hundreds of citizens summoned to potentially join a jury that will decide the fate of the first American president to face prosecution. But the ritual […]
Read MoreTrump Can Get a Fair Jury in Hush Money Case
If Donald Trump has been clear about anything, it is this: “I cannot get a fair trial in New York.” By New York, he means Manhattan, where he won slightly less than 10 percent of the vote in 2016 and about 12 percent in 2020 and where, as one of his lawyers argued last week, […]
Read MoreTrump’s Criminal Trial to Begin Today in Manhattan
The first criminal trial of an American president will begin Monday as prosecutors and defense lawyers convene in a Manhattan courtroom to begin selecting the jury that will decide Donald J. Trump’s fate. The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, has charged Mr. Trump with 34 felonies, accusing him of falsifying documents to conceal a […]
Read MoreProtests, Traffic, Crowds: Court Braces for a Trump Trial Like No Other
Manhattan’s Criminal Courts Building, at 100 Centre Street, is short on charm: circled in scaffolding, lit like an aging cafeteria and, in recent months, neighbor to a colossal pile of rubble, the remains of the Manhattan Detention Complex, which is being demolished. Yet come Monday, it will be the pulsing center of a swirling mass […]
Read MoreTrump Makes Third Attempt to Delay Hush Money Trial
Lawyers for Donald J. Trump have spent the early part of this week seeking to stave off the former president’s trial on charges that he covered up a sex scandal. They tried again Wednesday, filing a civil action in an appeals court against the judge in the case, records show. Although the filing is sealed, […]
Read MoreTrump to Sue Judge in Last-Ditch Attempt to Avert Criminal Hush-Money Trial
Donald J. Trump, a week away from standing trial in Manhattan on criminal charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal, has indicated he plans to file a lawsuit against the judge overseeing the case. The lawsuit was not immediately made public, but court records showed on Monday that Mr. Trump was […]
Read MoreJudge in Trump Criminal Case Braces for Glare of Unprecedented Trial
Inside a dreary Lower Manhattan courtroom on a recent Wednesday, Justice Juan M. Merchan convened a special session for people with mental health troubles who had landed in legal jeopardy. He calmly counseled them, praised any signs of progress and shook the hand of one man who, thanks to medication, had turned his life around. […]
Read MoreJudge Won’t Delay Trump’s Criminal Trial to Wait for Immunity Ruling
The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan rejected his last-ditch bid to delay a trial beyond April 15, removing one of the final obstacles to the first prosecution of a former American president. Mr. Trump had asked the judge to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on whether he […]
Read MoreJudge Won’t Delay Trump’s Criminal Trial to Wait for Immunity Ruling
The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan rejected his last-ditch bid to delay a trial beyond April 15, removing one of the final obstacles to the first prosecution of a former American president. Mr. Trump had asked the judge to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court rules on whether he […]
Read MoreTrump Asks Trial Judge to Step Aside, Aiming Again at His Daughter
Donald J. Trump, desperate to delay his criminal trial in Manhattan this month, has renewed a request for the judge overseeing the case to step aside, the latest twist in the former president’s attacks on the judge’s integrity — and family. In a court filing made public Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that the judge, […]
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