Trump complains that he was prevented from continuing his election campaign

Donald Trump arrived at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday, on the second day of his historic trial, where he complained that he was prevented from continuing his election campaign, unlike his opponent in the November presidential ballot, Joe Biden.
“This is a trial that was not supposed to happen,” the former Republican president said of Judge Juan Merchan, who on Monday ordered him to attend hearings four days a week. “We have an anti-Trump judge.”
He added: “I am now supposed to be in Pennsylvania, Florida, and many other states, in North Carolina and Georgia, to campaign.” All of this is coming from the White House, from Biden, who is unable to utter two sentences. He can’t campaign,” he said, before sitting in the defendant’s chair in the first criminal trial of a former president in the history of the United States.
In the midst of the presidential election campaign, Donald Trump (77 years old) must currently silently attend the long process of selecting the 12 members of the jury who will issue their unanimous decision on whether he is “not guilty” or “guilty,” while his rival Joe Biden continued his campaign on Tuesday with a visit to… His hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, is contested and crucial to the November election.
On Monday, his trial began in New York over the falsification of accounting documents for his real estate group, the Trump Organization.
Of the 96 jury candidates who entered the courtroom on Monday afternoon, two-thirds were quickly excluded, after they admitted that they could not take a fair and impartial position in a case related to one of the most famous and controversial men in the world.
As for the rest, who are ordinary citizens who were thrown overnight into the chaos of this unprecedented trial, including a nurse, a bookseller, and a lawyer, they were forced to reveal details of their private lives before the court, such as their profession, family situation, sources of information, and hobbies.
They were asked to express their sympathy or bias towards the accused. This is a crucial stage in the trial, during which both the prosecution and defense can reject a certain number of jurors without having to provide justification, and can last until next week or beyond.
However, Trump’s “real problem is with the judge,” he said, adding in a statement to reporters after the end of Monday’s session that he “will not be given a fair trial.”
But Trump’s position on this case did not change the position of the judge examining it, who warned him, in a usual step with all defendants, that he would have to attend the proceedings in the Manhattan court daily, otherwise he would face arrest.
More than three years after he left the White House in chaos, Trump (77 years old) theoretically faces a prison sentence. But this will not prevent him from being a candidate in the presidential elections on November 5, during which he will seek revenge against Joe Biden, but it will put the campaign in an unprecedented situation.
If his innocence is proven, this will be a great success for the Republican candidate in the face of the “political persecution” orchestrated against him by the Democratic American administration, according to him.
Until recent days, Trump’s lawyers continued in vain to file appeals to delay the trial deadline, especially after he was able, through appeals, to postpone his other three criminal trials related to his illegal attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden, and his handling of classified documents upon leaving the White House. .
In an article published by the Los Angeles Times, electoral law expert Richard Hessen expressed his regret at the possibility that this case could be considered a “simple crime related to campaign financing,” and that it would be the only one whose trial ends before the elections.
Trump is the first former president in the history of the United States to appear before a court in a criminal case, in a trial that could lead to a prison sentence, thus turning the balance of the presidential election campaign.
According to the prosecution, Trump sought to buy Stormy Daniels’ cover-up about a sexual relationship she says she had in 2006 when he was married to Melania Trump. But Trump denies that he had any relationship with the former actress.
For Attorney General Alvin Bragg, the matter represents electoral fraud, because the goal of the operation was to cover up information that might harm the Republican candidate.
One of the challenges of the trial will be determining what Trump knew about these payments when they occurred.