The twelve jurors in Donald Trump's criminal trial were sworn in on Thursday in New York. Presiding judge Juan Merchan was "optimistic" that five more alternate jurors could be selected.
The Republican candidate is on trial in a case of hidden payments to buy the silence of a former porn star, Stormy Daniels, a few days before the 2016 election that he won narrowly against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. "I have been sitting here for days, from morning to night, in this frozen room," he lamented. "I should be in lots of places campaigning,' he once again protested to journalists after the hearing. The first former president of the United States to appear on criminal charges, Donald Trump, 77, who hopes to return to the White House in 2025, has been obliged to attend this crucial and sometimes laborious stage of jury selection since Monday.