A jury of 12 people and six alternates were selected Friday in former President Donald Trump's historic hush money trial in New York City.
The jury of 12 New Yorkers and one alternate was seated on Thursday, and the process of picking the final five alternates wrapped up on Friday, clearing the way for opening arguments to begin as early as Monday in the first criminal trial of a former president.
The jurors were selected from a pool of more than 500 prospective jurors summoned to the courthouse in lower Manhattan, with 96 of them dismissed on the first day of jury selection Monday.
Most of them said they would have difficulty remaining impartial in weighing the evidence against Trump, 77.
He is accused of making payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy playmate Karen McDouglas in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election to buy their silence about affairs he had with them years earlier.
Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president in November, has spent his days sitting in a criminal courtroom in Manhattan as jury selection unfolded his week.
The names of the jurors are being kept a secret in the high-profile trial, and on Thursday Judge Juan Merchan chided the media about revealing too many details that could identify them.
It came after one juror told the court that she could not serve because her family and friends discovered she would be part of the case.
"I don't believe at this point I can be fair and unbiased and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom," the woman said.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks.
