Donald Trump was accompanied by his loyal aide Margo Martin on Friday as he addressed court for the fourth day of his historic hush money trial and demanded that the gag order be lifted.
The former president, 77, left Trump Tower with his communications staff and boarded a motorcade in preparation for the last part of the grueling jury selection process.
He waved and fist bumped the crowd of waiting fans and photographers as he crossed the sidewalk while Martin looked at his phone.
The full 12-person panel that will decide his fate has already been chosen, but the court needs six alternates in case someone withdraws.
When he arrived in court on Friday, he demanded that the gag order “be lifted,” after prosecutors urged that he be found in contempt for social media posts.
Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower and heads to court for the fourth day of his historic hush money trial
He was joined by his loyal assistant Margo Martin in the motorcade as he prepared for the selection of alternate jurors.
“The silence order has to be lifted. People are allowed to talk about me and I have a gag order. Just to show you how much more unfair it is,” she told reporters.
‘And the conflict has to end with the judge.
‘The judge has a conflict, the worst I have seen in my life. And it has to end with the judge. The gag order has to be lifted. I should be allowed to speak.
Every time I come to talk to you I want to be open because we did absolutely nothing wrong.
‘I showed you yesterday 30 stories, 32 stories from legal experts. I don’t have one backwards. Thirty-two stories from legal experts who firmly say there is no case, that this case should never have been brought, that Trump did nothing wrong.
On Thursday night he left court and entered the “scam” case in which he is accused of hiding a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about their alleged affair.
He has denied 34 charges of falsifying business records and says all legal experts think the allegations are exaggerated.
After three days of legal wrangling, a panel of seven men and five women has been selected who will assess his guilt or innocence over the coming weeks.
Moments after the last of the 12 was chosen, Judge Juan Merchán declared ‘We have our jury’ and they were led out of the room.
On the way they passed Trump, who had his elbows on the table and looked at the dozen New Yorkers who will govern his future.
Jurors include a corporate lawyer, an investment banker, a software engineer and a professor.
One of the jurors called the former forewoman “selfish” when questioned about her opinions in court.
The jury president, when asked where he gets his news, told Dailymail.com, among other outlets.
After the jury was chosen, Trump walked out of the courtroom and expressed his frustration with the trial process, wielding a large stack of press clippings.
The former president read some of the headlines that declared the trial a “spectacle and outrage” and that it demonstrated that the United States was a “third world country.”
Flipping through them, he said: ‘The whole world is watching this New York scam. In each of the cuttings, I have not seen any that say it is a good test. It’s political. It is a shame.
Trump waved and fist-bumped the crowd of waiting fans and photographers as he crossed the sidewalk while Martin looked at his phone.
The former president, 77, left Trump Tower with his communications staff and boarded a motorcade in preparation for the last part of the grueling jury selection process.
Deputy District Attorney Joshua Steinglass speaks to jurors as attorney Todd Blanche and former US President Donald Trump pay close attention during Trump’s criminal trial on charges of falsifying business records to hide money paid to silence the porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Manhattan State Court in New York City, USA, April 18, 2024 in this courtroom sketch.
“I have been sitting here for days, from morning until night, in that freezing room. Freezing there. All for this. It is very unfair.”
Trump continued: “I’m supposed to be in New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and a lot of places campaigning, but I’ve been here all day in a trial that is really an unfair trial.”
‘Something very bad. The whole world is watching. You have an out of control district attorney. “You have a judge who is very conflicted.”
He added: “The whole thing is a disaster and we have the front-runner, Joe Biden; he’s the one who should be put on trial.” We have a corrupt president.
‘He should be tried, but he is the one in charge. His most important people are here, working with the district attorney’s office to make sure everything goes well because they don’t have a case. It’s really a shame, this country is becoming a third world country between having no orders and no justice.’
The judge earlier dismissed two jurors as the court struggled to assemble a panel for one of the highest-profile criminal cases in U.S. history.
Prosecutors said one juror had failed to disclose previous brushes with the law, and Judge Merchan excused him after bringing him to court for further questioning.
It came shortly after the judge dismissed another juror, a nurse who said she felt intimidated because some of her personal information had been made public.
It highlighted the unprecedented pressures surrounding the first criminal trial of a former US president.
One of the jurors who was dismissed was a grandfather and IT consultant who had previously told the court he found Trump “fascinating.”