Former US President Donald Trump departs Trump Tower for the opening of his first criminal trial.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump’s criminal trial may prevent him from attending son Barron’s high school graduation.The historic trial began with jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.The judge has not yet decided on Trump’s request to skip trial for the graduation event.
Donald Trump may have to miss out on his son Barron’s high school graduation ceremony next month due to the timing of the former president’s first historic criminal trial.
Trump’s hush-money trial kicked off with jury selection on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
As the court prepared for the first day of voir dire, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he received requests from Trump’s attorneys for the former president to skip out on the trial on May 17 so that he could attend Barron Trump’s high school graduation in Florida.
Merchan said that he would not yet rule on Donald Trump’s request to not have the trial held that day.
“It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial,” Merchan explained.
Jury selection is expected to last up to two weeks.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has charged Donald Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, alleging that he lied on documents to disguise payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors allege Donald Trump’s ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen facilitated $130,000 in payments to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Trump has denied the charges.
