According to reports, former President Donald Trump was seemingly falling asleep during the first day of his criminal trial in New York City that kicked off this Monday with what was set to include jury selection.
Maggie Haberman, a journalist with The New York Times, reported on Trump’s evident drowsiness — which in broader context becomes an even bigger deal considering how often that the former president and his allies have wielded the “Sleepy Joe” accusation against President Joe Biden, Trump’s expected general election challenger for 2024. “Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack,” Haberman said in an update.
Monday was the first day of Trump’s criminal trial dealing with accusations from local prosecutors of falsifying business records in connection with hush money from before the 2016 elections for a woman named Stormy Daniels who allegedly had an affair with Trump. The hush money has been broadly connected to the election itself from that year, and ex-Trump “fixer” Michael Cohen was already criminally prosecuted for his role in the whole scheme on account of what prosecutors deemed a violation of campaign finance laws. The idea was that the hush money effectively supported Trump’s campaign by helping keep Daniels’ story under wraps ahead of the 2016 election.
On Monday, prosecutors were also asking for penalties on Trump for social media commentary from the ex-president that they said violated a gag order previously imposed by presiding Judge Juan Merchan blocking a range of attacks on witnesses, jurors, and others. Merchan wasn’t deciding immediately on the request, instead pushing further resolution of the matter to at least next week, with the gag order remaining in effect in the meantime. On the witness front, Trump was blocked on paper from going after known or even just reasonably foreseen witnesses in connection to participation in the investigation or this month’s trial.
