OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
4:50 PM – Monday, April 15, 2024
Given the date of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s upcoming trial, he may have to miss his son Barron’s high school graduation that is scheduled for next month.
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Trump is slated to make history as the first former president of the U.S. to go on trial in a criminal case.
On Monday, the jury selection process for Trump’s hush-money trial commenced in a Manhattan courtroom.
Judge Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court announced that as the court prepared for the first day of voir dire, he had received requests from Trump’s legal team asking the former president to miss the trial on May 17th in order to travel to Florida to attend Barron Trump’s high school graduation.
Merchan stated that he would not make a decision right away regarding Trump’s request to postpone the trial and move it to a different day.
“It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan said.
It could take up to two weeks to select the right jurors. According to reports, Donald Trump will be allowed to know the names of the chosen jurors at his upcoming trial. However, the public will not. Jurors’ safety could be jeopardized if Americans discovered who was responsible for the final verdict.
After Monday afternoon’s court adjournment, Trump voiced his displeasure to the media.
“As you know, my son is graduating from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who has worked very, very hard,” Trump explained to reporters on Monday afternoon. “He was looking forward, for years, to that graduation with his mother and father there, and it looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this scam.”
As a result, Trump may not be able to attend Barron’s graduation, depending on how “on time” the trial proceeds. The judge also rejected Trump’s request to watch the Supreme Court arguments.
Trump has been accused of lying on documents to conceal payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, and he has been charged with 34 felony counts related to allegedly fabricating business records.
The prosecution alleges that, “in order to buy Daniels’ silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump,” Michael Cohen, the longtime personal attorney for the former president, orchestrated $130,000 in payments to Daniels only days before the 2016 presidential election.
The accusations have been adamantly refuted by Trump.
While Merchan did not explicitly reject Trump’s request to attend the ceremony, he did turn down his second request, which was to be able to attend the Supreme Court’s arguments on April 25th.
“Your client is a criminal defendant,” Merchan told Trump’s lawyers. “He’s required to be here. We will see him here next week.”
After the trial ended at around 4:40 p.m., Trump went outside to speak with reporters and discuss what was going on.
“We had some amazing things happen today as you know, my son has graduated from high school and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who’s worked very, very hard, he’s a great student, very proud of the fact he did so well and was looking forward for years to have graduation with his mother and father there,” Trump stated.
Subsequently, Trump criticized the accusations against him and disparaged the judge and prosecutors.
“It’s a scam trial,” Trump asserted.
“If you read all of the legal pundits, all of the legal scholars today, there’s not one that I see that said this is a case that should be brought to a trial. It’s a scam. It’s a political witch hunt. It continues, it continues forever, and we’re not gonna be given a fair trial. It’s a very, very sad thing. In addition, as you know, next Thursday we’re before the United States Supreme Court in a very big hearing on immunity. And this is something that we’ve been waiting for a long time and the judge, of course, is not going to allow us, he’s a very conflicted judge and he’s not going to allow us to go to that,” Trump continued.
Trump entered not guilty pleas to all 34 criminal counts, and he could be spared jail time in exchange for a fine. However, if Trump is found guilty, he could also potentially face a four-year prison term.
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