The opening act for former President Donald Trump's historic criminal trial in New York City is set to begin Monday with jury selection — and the near certainty of a rowdy, circus-like atmosphere that has officials bracing for the worst.
A horde of journalists is poised to provide blanket coverage as the high-stakes courtroom drama gets underway with Trump supporters and counter-protesters expected to face off outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse.
"72 hours until all hell breaks loose!" Trump said in a Friday fundraising email, the New York Times reported Saturday.
"If we fail to have a MASSIVE outpouring of peaceful patriotic support — right here, right now — all Hell will break loose," he wrote.
Right-wing activist Laura Loomer told the Times she was planning to be there with a camera crew and Vish Burra, executive secretary of the New York Young Republican Club, said his group would rally at Collect Pond Park, directly across from the courthouse.
The park was the scene of racuous demonstrations when Trump was arraigned last year, with protesters separated by barricades as they shouted, whistled and waved signs.
"We're expecting something similar to that," Burra said. "And I know the NYPD is."
Law enforcement and court officials haven't said what security measures will be in place but planning has been underway for months, a court lawyer said during a hearing last week, the Times reported.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in November, is the first former U.S. president ever to face criminal prosecution.
He's charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for allegedly trying to influence the 2016 election by directing the payment of $130,000 in hush money to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, who claims they had an affair in 2006.
Trump has pleaded not guiity and has repeatedly referred to the case against him as a "witch hunt."
His public statements have also included repeated attacks on presiding Judge Juan Merchan, District Attorney Alvin Bragg and others, including the judge's daughter and his principal law clerk.
In response, Merchan issued gag orders that bar Trump from making "inflammatory" comments about potential witnesses, jurors, Bragg's prosecutors, court staff and their families, most recently on April 1.
Little more than a week later, the ex-president tested the order's limits by calling Daniels and former Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen, who's expected to be a star witness against him, "two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly!"
During a Saturday campaign rally in battleground Pennsylvania, Trump called the case a "communist show trial" and said: "I will be forced to sit fully gagged. I'm not allowed to talk. They want to take away my constitutional right to talk," the Associated Press reported.
A day earlier, he also pledged to testify in his own defense.
"All I can do is tell the truth, and the truth is that there is no case," he told reporters during a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The process of picking 12 jurors and six alternates will be the "most important" and "hardest" part of the proceedings, according to high-profile Manhattan defense lawyer Arthur Aidala, whose clients have included former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
"They lie," Aidala told the New York Times for a report last week. "People want to be on that jury because they think they're going to write a book or they're going to be on '20/20' or '48 Hours' or one of those things."
A pool of more than 500 prospective jurors has been summoned for the trial, CBS News reported earlier this month, citing two unidentified sources.
The selection process could take several days, according to the Associated Press, with potential panelists first being asked to fill out forms with 42 questions, some of which have multiple parts.
Lawyers for each side will then use those answers to further question the prospective jurors during a legal proceeding known as voir dire, French for "to speak the truth."
Based on their responses, each side can argue that some should be disqualified because they won't be fair and impartial.
If the judge disagrees, each side can use so-called peremptory challenges to reject up to 10 each, half the number allowed in the most serious cases, such as murder, terrorism and kidnapping.
Each side can also strike two potential jurors for each alternate juror to be selected.
The jury pool will be filled with people whose names were drawn from official lists of registered voters, taxpayers, driver's license holders, public benefit recipients and other sources.
Merchan has ordered that their names and addresses be kept secret from the public to prevent the possibility of "bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment."
The information will, however, be shared with lawyers on both sides so they can conduct research to try to uncover signs of bias.
"It's always most important to know who your worst jurors are going to be," lawyer and jury consultant Renato Stabile told the New York Times. "It's jury deselection, not jury selection because you can only control who you are getting rid of."
To serve on the jury, prospective jurors must be Manhattan residents who are U.S. citizens, 18 or older, speak English and don't have any felony convictions.
Manhattan voters overwhelmingly rejected Trump during the 2020 election, when Biden won about 85% of the vote, which trial consultant Jeff Frederick told Reuters "seems to favor the government."
"But it only takes one juror to prevent a conviction, so that's the challenge for prosecutors," Frederick added.
Regardless of the trial's outcome, Trump faces three other indictments pending in Washington, D.C., Florida, and Georgia over allegations involving the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, his hoarding of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden, respectively.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies any wrongdoing in those cases, of which only the one in Florida has a tentative trial date set for May 20, according to USA Today.
But it could be delayed by arguments over the admissibility of evidence, with Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith proposing a July 8 start and Trump's lawyers suggesting Aug. 12.
