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Full jury seated in Trump’s NY hush money trial

NEW YORK (AP) — A full jury of 12 people and six alternates was seated Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, setting the stage for opening statements next week in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

Hours after the jury was seated, a lawyer for Trump was in an appeals court seeking to halt the trial, arguing that the judge rushed through jury selection and that the case should be moved out of Manhattan.

The jury, which includes a software engineer, investment banker, English teacher and multiple lawyers, took final shape after lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of potential jurors on whether they can impartially judge the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The judge said lawyers will present opening statements Monday morning before prosecutors begin laying out their case alleging a scheme to cover up negative stories Trump feared would hurt his 2016 presidential campaign.

The trial unfolding in Manhattan thrusts Trump’s legal problems into the heart of his hotly contested race against President Joe Biden, with Trump’s opponent likely to seize on unflattering and salacious testimony to make the case he’s unfit to return as commander in chief.

Trump, meanwhile, is using the prosecution as a political rallying cry, casting himself as a victim while juggling his dual role as criminal defendant and presidential candidate.

Just after the jury was seated, emergency crews responded to a park outside the courthouse, where a man had set himself on fire. The man took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories and spread them around the park before dousing himself in a flammable substance and setting himself aflame, officials said. He was in critical condition Friday afternoon.

Trump has spent the week sitting quietly in the courtroom as lawyers pressed potential jurors on their views about him in a search for any bias that would preclude them from hearing the case.

During breaks in the proceedings, he has railed against the case on social media or to TV cameras in the hallway, calling it a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

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