Trump faces hearing over his possible testimony as court seeks jury alternates: Live

At least 15 members of the storied Kennedy political clan, which has produced a president, two senators and multiple House members since the 1950s, officially endorsed President Joe Biden for re-election at a campaign event on Thursday – in what marks their biggest snub to Robert F Kennedy Jr to date.

Gustaf Kilander and Andrew Feinberg bring us this report.

You can watch the very latest from Manhattan via the livestream below.

Conventional political wisdom regarding Donald Trump states that the people who voted for him in 2016 and 2020 aren’t likely to go for any Democrat this time around — especially not Joe Biden.

But a prominent group of anti-Trump Republicans believes those two-time Trump voters are best positioned to convince others in the GOP to vote to re-elect Biden. And they’re ready to spend big to do so.

Earlier this month, a group called Republican Voters Against Trump rolled out what they are describing as a $50 million multi-platform advertising campaign. That campaign is designed both to troll the twice-impeached, four times-indicted ex-president and to genuinely reach out to his most loyal supporters.

Andrew Feinberg has this report.

I mean, honestly, what can you say about this from the ex-US attorney general?

A Florida judge has denied motions from two ex-Trump aides to have charges relating to the classified documents found at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home dismissed.

Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta were charged with multiple counts of the obstruction of justice alongside Trump last year.

The two men were accused of moving boxes of sensitive information and attempting to delete security footage pertaining to the documents so that it could not be used in a future investigation as evidence.

The pair had sought to have their cases dropped on grounds of lack of specificity, which were described by Nauta as “unconstitutionally vague”.

De Oliveira previously claimed he had “no clue” what was in the boxes he had been moving for Trump and was unaware of the Justice Department’s investigation.

On Thursday, US district judge Aileen Cannon denied the motions.

One of the top priorities for both sides in Trump’s hush money trial will be to root out potential “stealth jurors” – those who claim to be impartial but who have hidden their biases to get on a jury and possibly derail a trial.

Jurors are supposed to be impartial. A number of prospective jurors have been dismissed from the proceedings simply because they felt they could not be neutral while sitting in judgment of the former president.

Gustaf Kilander and Alex Woodward report.

Here’s the very latest from Alex Woodward, who is in Manhattan for us once again bright and early to cover the day’s proceedings:

“Morning friends. I’m outside the courthouse. The sun isn’t up yet, it’s slightly (slightly) warmer than yesterday, and there are only two reporters in line, including myself, and some line holders bundled under a giant pink blanket on fold-out chairs. Thankfully it’s not raining.

“We’ll get back to jury selection in a few hours, but first we’ll start with an evidentiary hearing as required under New York law.

“Essentially, prosecutors are showing the judge the scope of what they would ask Trump if he does testify.

“As a criminal defendant he is entitled to know what kind of fire he’s walking into, if he does end up choosing to defend himself on the stand.”

As our colleagues Kelly Rissman and Ariana Baio reported earlier this week, the DA’s office believes nothing should be off limits.

One of the potential jurors being considered for selection yesterday was excused after noting media comparisons between Trump and the disgraced Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Mike Bedigan and Alex Woodward report.

The dismissal of juror 2 on Thursday – an oncology nurse by profession who raised concerns about her anonymity after friends and family asked her if she had been chosen for the jury box having guessed her involvement after reading descriptions of her in the media – led Judge Merchan to appeal for “common sense” in the reporting of the jurors and asked that their current or former employers not be mentioned.

Here’s Alex Woodward with an updated look at what we can say about the jurors now that the initial 12 have been chosen, with the process expected to conclude on Friday with the selection of the remaining five alternates.

Here’s what the former president and criminal defendant had to say after leaving court yesterday.

Fair to say he has not enjoyed himself much so far, branding the whole affair “a mess” as he trudged back to Trump Tower.