Trump companies face opening arguments in criminal tax fraud trial

NEW YORK — Opening legal arguments about the alleged crimes by two of former President Donald Trump’s companies are set to be heard starting Monday by a jury of four women and eight men in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The jurors, including at least five persons of color, plus six alternates, were selected last week for the anticipated six-week trial. They underwent extensive screening about their personal and business backgrounds, including whether they have strong feelings about Trump who isn’t accused of wrongdoing in the case.

Spoiler alert: Yes, many do.

It took a last-minute swap agreement for attorneys to select the final two alternate jurors on Friday, chiefly because so many of those screened had been ruled out because they really dislike Trump. The government and defense legal teams each agreed to reinstate one candidate who had been vetoed by the other side.

In the first criminal charges ever filed against entities linked to the ex-president, the case accuses the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation in an alleged tax fraud conspiracy.

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The companies allegedly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in untaxed, off-the-books payments to Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s longtime top financial lieutenant, and other officials from 2005 to mid-2021.

Weisselberg, who was also charged in the case, pleaded guilty to 15 criminal counts in August in an agreement with prosecutors. His testimony is expected to result in a far lower than expected jail sentence of roughly 100 days.

Multiple jury candidates said they might have difficulty believing Weisselberg, whom a prosecutor said in court Friday had stopped meeting with the government legal team. 

►Cutting a deal:Allen Weisselberg, Trump Organization CFO, pleads guilty in tax case

In contrast, the companies pleaded not guilty and opted to stand trial. Trump is not charged, and is not expected to appear at the trial.

Attorneys for the companies and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office conducted the juror screening with Acting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the trial.

The questioning provided snapshots of the jurors and alternates. It also weeded out several prospective jurors who revealed unshakably strong negative feelings about Trump that might prevent them from being fair and impartial. That included one West Village man who called Trump “a criminal.”

He and others with views that typically included the words vile, narcissist or racist were dismissed.

Separately, the screening also showed to the exit a woman who disclosed that she supported Trump’s presidency and liked his business acumen.

►Elephant in the room:Negative feelings about Trump ‘problematic for both sides’ as jurors selected in NYC tax fraud trial

The panel of prospective jurors represented all walks of life and varying education levels and interests, a broad array of Manhattanites, residents of the county where the Trump companies are based. 

Those selected include a Black woman who’s a native New Yorker and was the first juror seated. She said she works as the administrator of a dialysis facility at Harlem Hospital, part of New York City’s public hospital network.

She told attorneys during pre-trial screening that she never married, and has one daughter and one grandchild. She also said she sometimes watches NY1, the city’s 24-hour cable news channel.

The media outlet is a favorite source of information cited by many of the potential jurors. One, who was selected to hear the case, said she retired in 2019 after working for more than 25 years at Bellevue Hospital, another facility in the city’s public hospital system. She now takes care of a friend.

Fittingly for a city that’s long been a crossroad of the world, one of the jurors is a France-born manager for a corporate investment bank. The rival legal teams had him read his answers to a juror questionnaire from a spot directly in front of the bench, in part because they had difficulty parsing his accent.

Another juror is a custodian who works at Macy’s, the famed department store that sponsors the city’s annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.

He’s not the panel’s only blue-collar worker. One of the alternate jurors works for a parking company.

And one of the alternate jurors is a college graduate who lives in Manhattan’s Lower East Side neighborhood and works at a Trader Joe’s supermarket.

She was chosen even though she described some of Trump’s public statements as “degrading,” but said she could nonetheless keep an open mind and focus on the evidence and the judge’s legal instructions.

►Cases pile up:The lawsuits, investigations and legal troubles a 2024 Trump candidacy faces, explained