More jurors have been dismissed on the second day of Donald Trump’s hush money case – as he claimed outside court that the trial “should never have been brought”.
No one has yet been chosen on the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in the historic trial which started on Monday.
Several others were excused on Tuesday morning after saying they could not be impartial or because they had other commitments.
Dozens of potential jurors have yet to be questioned.
It is the first of Trump’s four criminal cases to go to trial and may be the only one that could reach a verdict before the presidential vote in November.
If convicted, Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee – would become the first former US president convicted of a crime.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged effort to keep salacious and, he says, bogus stories about his sex life from emerging during his 2016 campaign.
Trump has claimed the trial is the result of a politically motivated justice system working to deprive him of another term as president.
Before entering the courtroom this morning, he stopped briefly to address a TV camera in the hallway, repeating his claim that the judge is biased against him.
“This is a trial that should have never been brought,” Trump said.
Among the potential jurors dismissed today was a woman who had previously notified the judge she had a trip planned around Memorial Day.
A man was excused after saying he could not be impartial.
Another man, who works at an accounting firm, was dismissed after saying he feared his ability to be impartial could be compromised by “unconscious bias” from growing up in Texas and working in finance with people who “intellectually tend to slant Republican”.
After another juror said she would be unable to serve impartially, Trump twisted in his chair, looking in the direction of the box.
