Trump trial live updates: Ex-president moans hush money case is a ‘mess’ as jury finally selected

A Florida judge has denied motions from two ex-Trump aides to have charges relating to the classified documents found at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home dismissed.

Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta were charged with multiple counts of the obstruction of justice alongside Trump last year.

The two men were accused of moving boxes of sensitive information and attempting to delete security footage pertaining to the documents so that it could not be used in a future investigation as evidence.

The pair had sought to have their cases dropped on grounds of lack of specificity, which were described by Nauta as “unconstitutionally vague”.

De Oliveira previously claimed he had “no clue” what was in the boxes he had been moving for Trump and was unaware of the Justice Department’s investigation.

On Thursday, US district judge Aileen Cannon denied the motions.

One of the top priorities for both sides in Trump’s hush money trial will be to root out potential “stealth jurors” – those who claim to be impartial but who have hidden their biases to get on a jury and possibly derail a trial.

Jurors are supposed to be impartial. A number of prospective jurors have been dismissed from the proceedings simply because they felt they could not be neutral while sitting in judgment of the former president.

Gustaf Kilander and Alex Woodward report.

Here’s the very latest from Alex Woodward, who is in Manhattan for us once again bright and early to cover the day’s proceedings:

“Morning friends. I’m outside the courthouse. The sun isn’t up yet, it’s slightly (slightly) warmer than yesterday, and there are only two reporters in line, including myself, and some line holders bundled under a giant pink blanket on fold-out chairs. Thankfully it’s not raining.

“We’ll get back to jury selection in a few hours, but first we’ll start with an evidentiary hearing as required under New York law.

“Essentially, prosecutors are showing the judge the scope of what they would ask Trump if he does testify.

“As a criminal defendant he is entitled to know what kind of fire he’s walking into, if he does end up choosing to defend himself on the stand.”

As our colleagues Kelly Rissman and Ariana Baio reported earlier this week, the DA’s office believes nothing should be off limits.

One of the potential jurors being considered for selection yesterday was excused after noting media comparisons between Trump and the disgraced Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Mike Bedigan and Alex Woodward report.

The dismissal of juror 2 on Thursday – an oncology nurse by profession who raised concerns about her anonymity after friends and family asked her if she had been chosen for the jury box having guessed her involvement after reading descriptions of her in the media – led Judge Merchan to appeal for “common sense” in the reporting of the jurors and asked that their current or former employers not be mentioned.

Here’s Alex Woodward with an updated look at what we can say about the jurors now that the initial 12 have been chosen, with the process expected to conclude on Friday with the selection of the remaining five alternates.

Here’s what the former president and criminal defendant had to say after leaving court yesterday.

Fair to say he has not enjoyed himself much so far, branding the whole affair “a mess” as he trudged back to Trump Tower.

Two jurors who were sworn in to Trump’s trial on Tuesday have now been excused from the case as the court grapples with the prospect of finding impartial New Yorkers.

Court proceedings got off to a rocky start on Thursday morning as jury selection resumed after a day’s recess on Wednesday.

First, juror number two raised concerns that personal details disclosed in her jury questionnaire could be used to identify her – and that her concerns might impact her ability to be impartial in the case.

Then, juror number four showed up late to court and Manhattan prosecutors raised concerns about the truthfulness of his answers during questioning in the court earlier in the week.

Both were ultimately excused by Judge Merchan, taking the panel briefly back down to five.

Here’s more from Ariana Baio.

The panel of 12 Manhattan residents who will ultimately decide the fate of former president Donald Trump in his New York criminal trial have now been seated after a chaotic day in court yesterday.

After three days of jury selection, in which hundreds of New Yorkers were called to the New York Criminal Court, sworn in and asked personal questions, the majority of jury selection concluded on Thursday – with a panel of five women and seven men sworn in.

One alternate has also been seated, with five more needed to complete the full panel of 18: 12 jurors and six alternates.

Ariana Baio watched events unfold in court for The Independent yesterday and offers this recap.

Trump’s defence team was informed yesterday they would not be told in advance who the prosecution’s witnesses are in the hush money trial to prevent their client posting about them on Truth Social, a point that led to an argument between Judge Merchan and Todd Blanche and left Trump huffing in his seat.

You can see why, given that he posted this last night about the ongoing proceedings.

His other big contribution yesterday was complaining that Europe should pay more in aid to Ukraine, perhaps indirectly attempting to relieve some of the pressure on House speaker Mike Johnson over his latest spending bill, which has been received with huge anger from the MAGA wing of the Republican Party, led by witchfinder-general Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Conventional political wisdom regarding Donald Trump states that the people who voted for him in 2016 and 2020 aren’t likely to go for any Democrat this time around — especially not Joe Biden.

But a prominent group of anti-Trump Republicans believes those two-time Trump voters are best positioned to convince others in the GOP to vote to re-elect Biden. And they’re ready to spend big to do so.