Court proceedings can be boring, but the beginning of former President Donald Trump 's hush money trial on Monday seemed to be particularly snooze-worthy, with witnesses stating they saw the businessman falling asleep in the courtroom.
The presumptive Republican nominee arrived at the courtroom in Manhattan early on April 15 and had to sit through a day of proceedings while jury selection got underway.
Maggie Haberman with The New York Times was sitting in the courtroom and wrote on the Times' live blog: "Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack." She added that he "appeared to nod off a few times" and that it was a dramatic event each time he did — with his head sagging and his mouth noticeably going slack.
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The hush money case charges Trump with 34 felonies, all related to falsifying business records as he paid off Daniels and attempted to sway the outcome of the 2016 election, which he won (Getty Images)At one point, Haberman wrote that she noticed Trump's lead defence attorney, Todd Blanche, passing him notes "for several minutes" before he "appeared to jolt awake and notice them."
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The proceedings reportedly began with a discussion on pretrial motions and then moved into the highly anticipated jury selection process. Trump could reportedly be seen nodding off before the lunch recess.
Monday marked the first time in American history that a former president was tried on criminal charges. Trump was accused of doling out hush money to pornstar Stormy Daniels — as much as $130,000 (£104,400) — to silence her claims that she and the former president had an affair in 2006.
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Trump's defence lawyer, Todd Blanche, was desperately trying to get the businessman's attention by passing notes, but he was sleeping (Getty Images)The claims were brought forward amid the 2016 presidential election, which saw Trump take the Oval Office. But during campaign season, he and his team feared that Daniels' claims would hamper their ability to win votes, which is where the hush money came in. Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen, who is now his nemesis, paid off the pornstar, court records show.
After lunch on Monday, it was reported that Trump and his team returned to the courtroom as several batches of potential "impartial" jurors were sworn in and pressed about their ability to remain unbiased during the trial. Jury selection is slated to last up to two weeks as biased individuals are weeded out from the hundreds who were summoned for the trial. Ultimately, 18 will be selected for a 12-person jury with six alternates.
The hush money case charges Trump with 34 felonies, all related to falsifying business records as he paid off Daniels and attempted to sway the outcome of the 2016 election, which he won. He could face four years in prison for each count, if he's found guilty. He has, of course, pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The case is just one in a string of legal battles the former president faces, however. It's one of four criminal indictments — the others relating to his illicit scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia that saw Joe Biden wrest the Oval Office from him, his incitement of the January 6 Capitol riot and the illegal stashing of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The other trials are slated to begin months from now.
Trump also recently faced two civil cases — one that accused him of grossly inflating his net worth by several billions of dollars in order to secure better real estate loans and business deals in New York, and one in which writer E. Jean Carroll accused him of defaming her after she accused him of raping her.
He was found liable in both cases and ordered to pay $454 million (£365million) in the civil fraud case and $83.3 million (£67million) in the defamation suit. All eyes are on the former president as he faces the hush money trial, which might impact his ability to win the Oval Office back in November.
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