It today, go to pretty litter, im Zachary Cohen in washington. And this is cnn welcome to cnn Special Coverage on big tapper and youre looking live inside the Manhattan Courthouse right now, lets bring up those pictures where the judge has just entered the courtroom and donald trump is about to make history. The first former president in the United States to ever face a criminal trial. Any second, can we expect Jury Selection to start . Whats called void here . And we just got our first look at the former president s inside that courtroom is still photograph cameras are not allowed in general. There he is facing 34 counts of fall falsifying Business Records allegedly part of a scheme to keep Adult Film Star and director Stormy Daniels from speaking out about their alleged Sexual Interlude ahead of the 2016 election, Cnns Kaitlan Collins and paula reid are outside the courthouse for us right now, caitlyn, at the prosecution and the defense are about to start this process of choosing 12 jurors and six alternates who will ultimately decide if mr. Trump is guilty of these crimes jake, but before they get there, we saw a flurry of efforts by the trump team to delay this trial. One thing that they have tried repeatedly to do is going after the judge himself by asking judge juan merchan to recuse himself something. Theyve already tried last year, but they are now trying again and we are told by our reporters and sayyed the room that is the first order of business that the judge is taking up here and we have heard from many legal experts following kristen. And as weve been looking at this, you know, it has been this effort to get him or herself, but that seems virtually like its not going to happen no, that seems highly unlikely. And as jake noted, the are no cameras in the courtroom, so relying on our colleagues and sayyed for updates and they have announced that judge juan merchan, he is in the courtroom and the trial is now underway. You want to know someone else who is also in the courtroom im not if the District Attorney, alvin bragg, this is a big test for hip is a democrat and the elected District Attorney and he campaigned on a promise to prosecute trump. He could be the first prosecutor to overseeing and perhaps the only ive hes reelected to oversee the prosecution and that really matters trump saying hes focused on alvin bragg almost is as he has the judge here in the sense of how hes going to be conducting this trial, alvin bragg that we havent heard trump as much, obviously, director and a lot of that is by design. I think that were going to say alvin bragg more likely. Smith then Letitia James. Total surprising given that hes here today. He doesnt have to be we dont expect that hes going to attend every day of this trial. But we will not be seen him holding press conferences, going in and out of florida like we did with Letitia James so we can expect throughout this process, you use gonna keep pretty quiet. It is declined to answer most questions about this trial. And that is the way most prosecutors i think its important to note the scene and what we are seeing out here. I mean, we have the three of us have spent a lot of time outside this courthouse, kristen, and i mean, there are supporters of the former president and to have gathered here, weve seen a lot of farright figures that are here that have been kind of taking up his defense, whether its going after the judge finding the twitter account that they claimed was his daughters that the court had to come out and say it was not. They have been such a part of this as well. They havent looked right now, are really experiencing the media circuit. And this is a badly what donald trump and his team, while you have flag flying, thats a topic trump 2024, you have crowds gathering, you have a giant Truck Driving by blasting music. I mean, this is exactly the kind of seen making that trumps team needs. Because remember, we are in the middle of a campaign season, and this is taking what he needs is a medium cameras seeing this kind of display for him so that he can continue remember . Yeah. Yeah. And of course, jake, what is different about all of this is that trumps present in the courtroom is required. You can obviously ask for a waiver. He is not choosing to do so and he is expected to be here every day. His team has having to plan around that and decide where could they have . Rallies or events nearby . What does that look like . Obviously, he has his own plane, but it is certainly a constraining factor on the Presumptive Republican nominee as he is going to be spending a lot of time in this courthouse behind me all right. Kaitlan collins on the streets of manhattan, as you can hear behind her, the court clerk has just opened proceedings. We are told and im back here with my panel. Laura coates, take us inside. That room. What is it like youre a former prosecutor. What is it like for the various parties as they prepare for this moment . Universally, its Nerve Wracking to figure out whats going to happen next. Youve prepared for your case in a very strategic way. The one thing, the one wildcard now are 12 jurors to figure out what theyre going to do, who theyre going to be, what theyre going to present and how theyre going to be impartial or not. If youre the prosecutor, you know, the second those jurors come in the room, it is performance oh, theyre going to walk in, theyre going to look at you. What is your desk look like . What is your dimona, leg . Are you confident are you disorganized . Are you smirking in some way, whatever youre doing, you are representative of the people of the jurisdiction and you are now full display. And so you have to really be present and aware of how you present to a jury because youre looking at each one of them bam were looking at you wondering, do i trust this person . Can this person persuade me and in turn, youre going to be taking feverish notes, trying to figure out what about a juror in particular might be off putting. Has somebody leaned in towards you . Are they giving you an evil glare . They smirking at you . How are they engaging with the court . All of these things begin to tell you the about the psychology of the human being. But more than anything, you have to be cool, calm, and collected to know that i am are presented the jurisdiction. Heres the case, and i can win. So, karen, i keep hearing the names sandoval bandied about sandoval. What is this . Thats the name of a case thats where it comes from. And its a little mini hearing that happens before ever retrial where the people are required to inform the defense and request permission of the judge of prior bad acts that they want to be able to potentially Ask Donald Trump should he take the stand in advance . The judge is going to weigh what the probative value versus the prejudicial effect of any prior bad acts. So it happens in every case. So for example, you might have a defendant who has a very long criminal history and the judge is not going to want a jury to think that the defendant has a propensity to do things just because he has a criminal history street because that doesnt mean he did it in this case. So the judge ways that the probative value against the prejudicial effect. And so, but this, youll get a window into what are the things that the prosecution wants to Ask Donald Trump if he takes the stand and then the judge will rule which ones hes going to allow when and which ones hes not. It could be anything from his open cases. It could be anything from lies that he is told because obviously credibility is is always an issue when you are testifying in court, it could be anything it could be about january 6. Well see what they taught me. Why didnt if i bring it up, hold on one second. I want to go to paula reid right now from outside the courtroom has an update. Paula and again, jake, we are reading live updates from our colleagues who are inside the court because there are no cameras. And right now, the judge is taking up this issue of his recusal. Now, the defense team has pushed for the judge to recuse himself based on the work the political work that his daughter is involved in. Now there are two motions to have him recused. One is before the judge and other one is before the Court Of Appeals now the judge says, he will issue a decision from the bench on the motion that is before him. Now, were told trump is sitting still directly facing the judge during this proceeding. Now right now, im michelle is going over the allegations that trump has made about statements that the judges daughter has made on a podcast about her fathers view that politicians should not use twitter. Now of course, that could seem to some people, right, to be referring to trump but so far theyre just going through these different allegations, going through the motions. The judge said that its the opinion of the court that trump is using a series of inferences, innuendos, and unsupported speculation to make his claims for recusal. Its not looking good that he is going to succeed on this motion and then he indeed denied the motion. De denied the motion for recusal. Now, again, trump appears to be very attentive. Our colleagues say he is looking straight ahead at a screen. Our colleagues also report that hes biting his bottom lip as the judge rejects his motion for recusal. Now, this is just another in a series of efforts that trump team has attempted to either get the judge or get the case dismissed, or the least delayed. All right. Paula. Thank you so much for that update elie honig lets lets talk about this moment for these players, you have alvin bragg, the District Attorney. You have donald trump, the defendant and his criminal defense team obviously, this is a legal case of import but beyond that, all of these whatever your political views, all of them are human beings yeah, all of them are going through the emotions that come with a case like this. What are they feeling . What, what are they experiencing . This is a Heart Pounding Sweaty Palms Moment for everyone in that courtroom, no matter who you are, if youre the prosecutor, you ive been living this case sleeping, eating, breathing it for two years now, this is the Moment Of Truth, even if youve tried 30, 50 cases, this is the biggest one. Any of them will ever try if youre the defendant, donald trump, you your liberty is potentially at stake. Your political future will be impacted by this. If youre the Defense Lawyers is the biggest case youll ever be part of. The jurors some of them are probably terrified of being put on that jury. Some of them may be desperate to get on even the judge judge has been on the bench for 17 years. I promise you. The first line of his obituary will be about this case and he knows that. So everyone in this courtroom, i dont care how experienced they are. Theyre feeling it right now. Its a moment, are your hearts pounding through your chest . Weve never seen anything like this them has ever seen anything like this. And obviously, the witnesses in this case, im sure are feeling the same thing. We have Michael Cohen, obviously who is a big part of this, because allegedly donald trump had him pay off Stormy Daniels. And then we have Stormy Daniels herself will be testifying beyond that, there is another witness somebody who political junkies might might know her name and her face. Hope hicks, who worked in the white house and we know from Michael Cohens 2019 trial, jaime gan, girl, that she was very involved in this, at least according to testimony, according to the fbi, what could hold hope hicks testify about if she is called as a witness. So lets just remind everyone that october was a bad month for the trump camp, 1162016. This was october 7, the access Hollywood Tape becomes public, so they are now scrambling what we dont know is exactly what happened on these phone calls. We have reporting and the Court Documents show an fbi interviews that there are a number of phone calls going on that Michael Cohen is hauling hope hicks and then maybe trump becomes part of that call or the call is transferred for the record, hope hooks hope hicks, sorry. Has said that she did not know about Stormy Daniels until november, and she has said that repeatedly but she certainly was involved. She was inner circle. She was very close to trump personally. So theyre going to be a lot of questions about did she know more than weve learned thus far, right. Enlarge codes because the prosecutions theory of the case, and again, these are allegations. He says these are not established facts. The prosecutions theory of the case is that Michael Cohen made these payments to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet, 130,000, i believe and that then there was a falsification of putting Michael Cohen on retainer so as to pay Michael Cohen back, thats the prosecution theory. Hope hicks might have an insight into that if it were true, she could very well based on the campaign as to why they were doing it and why they were not also important to note here is on Jury Selection de these jurors are very nervous. The reason you have this gag order happening right now is because they well, know that there are phases may not be on television. Their names night, maybe publicly revealed but you have somebody who has quite the pulpit and a bully pulpit, social media to try to either threatened or intimate or perhaps even interfere with their feelings of safety. And so this judge is going to be very cognizant to have all the witnesses who might be testifying, but the jurors will be in that courtroom today. They have on their brands and the weight of the world on their own shoulders and back. How theyll be predate who the course of this entire thing. All right, the first criminal trial of a former president of these a United States is now underway. Were getting live updates from inside the courtroom. As Donald TrumpsHush Money Cover Up, trial gets underway, those updates or next plus were also going to take a deep dive into how exactly this jury process, jury Selection Process well play out in just minutes. Whats called a vladimir were hundreds of people will be whittled down. Just 12 stay with us Erin Burnett Outfront tonight, its seven odd cnn, the only godaddy arrow helps you get your Business Online in minutes with the power of ai, with the perfect name, great logo, and a beautiful website to start with a domain, a few clicks and youre in business make now the future at godaddy. Com slash ive never once had to wait for insurance to approve a test or proven medication, you didnt have to worry about any of those things. Thanks. 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