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Donald Trump's legal team was expecting around just 40 percent of jurors to be dismissed from his New York hush money criminal case over the question of whether they can be impartial, but more than half of the 96 jurors were dismissed en masse due to their admitted inability to be unbiased.

While at least 50 of the potential jurors were let go over their inability to be impartial, others bowed out over potential conflicts.

Also read: Trump 'glares' at NYT's Maggie Haberman in courtroom after she reports he was sleeping

Speaking on CNN Monday, network legal analyst Elie Honig said that it's "remarkable" how many jurors have so far been excused.

"... More than half the people said right off the bat, knowing one paragraph of information about this case, 'I cannot be [unbiased],' and walked out the door — that's gotta be a world record," Honig said during a panel discussion.

"And I think it speaks to just how polarizing Donald Trump is," Honig continued, adding that the juror exits could also be due to "how scared people are."

"Will this qualify legally as a fair trial or fair jury? Yes, in all likelihood. But let's also be real about what we're talking about here — Manhattanites overwhelmingly dislike Trump politically and personally," Honig said, pointing out that things would be much different in a county where the population overwhelmingly supports Trump.

"So let's be real, it's a very tough jury pool for Donald Trump, but sometimes that's how it goes."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Eli Honig on CNN 4/15/24 youtu.be

Donald Trump arrived at a New York courthouse for the start of his hush money trial Monday, making him the first-ever former president to face a criminal trial in the U.S.

He marked the occasion by taking to his Truth Social platform minutes after his arrival and reminding his followers that he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.

The trial comes after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter between the two before the 2016 election.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 34 charges in the case.

In a post to Truth Social, made as news reports swirled about his arrival at the courthouse, Trump shared images from news stories that broke on Jan. 30 this year, pointing out that a Republican congresswoman had put forward his name to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Also read: 'He did say one thing that is accurate': CNN host undercuts Trump courthouse rant

New York Rep. Claudia Tenney said that Trump was "instrumental" in brokering the Abraham Accords, which were signed September 2020 between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates and sought to normalize relations between the countries. In the following months, Morocco and Sudan signed a similar treaty.

"For decades, bureaucrats, foreign policy 'professionals', and international organizations insisted that additional Middle East peace agreements were impossible without a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Trump proved that to be false," Tenney told Fox News at the time.

"The valiant efforts by President Trump in creating the Abraham Accords were unprecedented and continue to go unrecognized by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, underscoring the need for his nomination today," Tenney added.

Judge Juan M. Merchan almost immediately rejected Donald Trump's request for recusal in his hush money trial.

On the first day of court on Monday, Merchan took on Trump's attorneys' motion that the judge recuse from the case. Trump reportedly watch "stone-faced" during the proceedings.

The motion argued that Merchan should recuse himself because his daughter worked for a Democratic consulting firm.

Merchan said Trump's attorneys' motion "does not reasonably or logically” explain why he should be recused.

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"To say that these claims are attenuated is an understatement," Merchan said. "There is no basis for recusal."

With that, the judge denied the recusal motion, according to reports.

"Trump appears to be very attentive," CNN's Paula Reid noted.

"Our colleagues say he is looking straight ahead at a screen. Our colleagues also report that he's biting his bottom lip as the judge rejects his motion for recusal."

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to an adult movie star after an alleged affair. He has denied all the allegations made against him.

CNN host Kaitlan Collins handed Donald Trump a backhanded and snarky compliment on Monday morning after the former president launched into a one-minute-long rant about the unfairness of his being tried in the Manhattan hush-money case.

Flanked by a phalanx of attorneys and security, the former president addressed the press and claimed he's facing a case that never should have been brought — and then tried to pin it on President Joe Biden.

'Nothing like this has ever happened before, there's never been anything like it," he insisted. "Every legal scholar has said, this case is nonsense. It should never have been brought."

ALSO READ: A criminologist explains why keeping Trump from the White House is all that matters

He later added, "It's an assault on America and that's why I'm proud to be here. This is an assault that our country and it is a country that is failing, it's a country that's run by an incompetent man who is very much involved in this case."

After turning on his heel and ignoring shouted questions, CNN's Collins told viewers, "There is Donald Trump, he did say one thing that is accurate: this is a historic case, one like we have not seen in our country's history, a former president facing criminal charges and about to go to into that courtroom."

She later added, "He said several things that are not true that he has been saying repeatedly about this case. You've likely heard the fact checks of them before that this is a case that is politically motivated and being led by his opponent here, President Joe Biden.

"That is not the case. this was a case that was brought by the Manhattan district attorney, a jury indicted him in this case and agreed to that and signed off on it. That is why we are here where we are today."

Watch below or at the link.

CNN 04 15 2024 09 30 17 youtu.be

A major newspaper mixed up Donald Trump's name for O.J. Simpson's in an obituary for the NFL star-turned-accused murderer.

The Los Angeles Times used the former president's name in a prewritten obituary, which media outlets typically have at the ready for celebrities, political figures and other noteworthy individuals, instead of using Simpson's name in a published version that was quickly corrected.

"Long before the city woke up on a fall morning in 2017, Trump walked out of Lovelock Correctional Center outside Reno, a free man for the first time in nine years," the obituary initially read upon publication. "He didn’t go far, moving into a 5,000-square-foot home in Las Vegas with a Bentley in the driveway."

Simpson, a star running back in the 1960s for the University of Southern California and in the 1970s for the NFL's Buffalo Bills, died at age 76 following a battle with cancer.

He was charged in the brutal 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, and although he was widely presumed to be guilty, Simpson was acquitted a year later in a trial that drew unprecedented attention and raised still-simmering questions about race and justice.

Simpson was later convicted in 2008 on armed robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy and other charges related to an ill-fated attempt to recover valuable memorabilia he claimed had been stolen from him, and he served nine years of a 33-year sentence.

Conservative attorney and prominent Trump critic George Conway said he understood the Times' mixup.

"Understandable mistake," Conway tweeted. "It can be hard to keep all these clearly guilty sociopaths straight."

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A lawsuit filed in Georgia seeks to recover a $100,000 donation to Rudy Giuliani's legal defense fund. The donation came from Matthew Martorano, a Donald Trump supporter accused of participating in an online skincare product scam.

The lawsuit alleges that the donation should be returned to victims of the alleged fraud, according to CNBC. Martorano's software was accused of helping the scammers hide the number of chargebacks they received, which is a sign of potential fraud.

Giuliani's spokesperson said the lawsuit was unrelated to their client. Lawyers for Martorano and the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment, CNBC said.

The Georgia suit follows a federal lawsuit that certified a nationwide class against the alleged skin care sales scammers at Konnektive LLC. The judge in that case wrote that the plaintiff "has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that Konnektive Defendants deceived banks and credit card companies."

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Martorano has also made other high-dollar political donations, including $5,000 to the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee and $3,330 to Trump's presidential campaign. He and his wife also transferred a house and two properties in Georgia spanning 135 acres to a limited liability corporation for a $0 purchase price.

The suit questioned Martorano's motive for donating to Giuliani, who represented Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Former Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer is also represented by one of Martorano's lawyers in a Fulton County criminal case.

Shafer is a co-defendant with Giuliani, Trump, and a dozen more people in that criminal case, which accuses them of conspiracy in trying to overturn Trump's 2020 presidential election loss in the state.

In December, Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection after a judge ordered him to pay $146 million to two election workers who filed a defamation lawsuit. The $100,000 donation represents 13% of Giuliani's defense fund.