At the trial, Trump expresses discomfort and anger

He doesn’t hide it: he would give a lot to be somewhere else. With his gestures, his attitude, and even more with his words, Donald Trump expressed his discomfort and disgust at being in front of a court in New York.

Dressed in a blue suit and shirt, with a striped tie of the same color, a stern expression on his face, he quickly took his place Tuesday, at a large wooden table, for the second day of his criminal trial – unprecedented for a former US president. After brief talks with his lawyers, he only seemed to lighten up when he faced the lenses of photographers who had come to film him before the hearing began.

Silenced

“I should be in Pennsylvania and Florida right now, a lot of other states, North Carolina, Georgia, campaigning.”the Republican nominee for November’s election was outraged when he arrived at a Manhattan court, once again condemning “a trial that should never have existed”.

On Monday, he criticized Judge Juan Merchan, who required his presence at all hearings (i.e., four days a week), for not initially exempting him from attending his son’s graduation or following a hearing involving him at the United States Supreme Court next weeks. On Tuesday, on this day dedicated exclusively to the constitution of the jury of 12 New Yorkers who will decide his fate, Donald Trump turned his head to the jury box to his right to study them one by one.

Reduced de facto to silence, he showed no particular emotions, and sometimes seemed bored, even dozed off, faced with this sometimes repeated parade of anonymous citizens, a slice of New York society, thrown into this judicial soap opera in suspense. The former Republican president is being sued over payments intended to buy the silence of former porn star Stormy Daniels, days before the 2016 election in which he narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s reader

All, on the other hand, had to answer out loud a long questionnaire about their professional and family situation, their hobbies, sources of information, as well as their sympathies or prejudices towards the accused. After some time of this largely passive attitude, Donald Trump began to more actively monitor the answers of potential jurors, reviewing the hard 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 books written by the accused? »greeting with a smile and a nod of approval the mention of his most famous work, The art of the deal.

After this first phase, when prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked the 12 preselected jurors if they felt qualified to convict him, he nodded several times in their direction. Then, when the defense questioned the jury about the meaning of the video she posted on social media, Donald Trump addressed her. When the juror left, the judge challenged Donald Trump’s lawyers, saying he was the defendant “mumbled” something and “made gestures” as she said. “I will not allow jurors to be intimidated in my court”he told them, ordering them to restrain their restless customer.