NEW YORK (AP) — A full jury of 12 people and six alternates was seated Friday in Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president a step closer to opening statements.

Lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of New Yorkers to choose the panel that has vowed to put their personal views aside and impartially judge whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is guilty or not. The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers.

The trial will place Trump in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks, forcing him to juggle his dual role as criminal defendant and political candidate against the backdrop of his hotly contested race against President Joe Biden. It will feature salacious and unflattering testimony his opponent will no doubt seize on to try to paint him as unfit to return as commander in chief.

Trump has spent the week sitting quietly in the courtroom as lawyers press potential jurors on their views about him in a search for any bias that could preclude them from hearing the case. During breaks in the proceedings, he has lashed out about the allegations and the judge to cameras in the hallway, using his mounting legal problems as a political rallying cry to cast himself of a victim.

Over several days, dozens of members of the jury pool have been dismissed after saying they don’t believe they can be fair. Others have expressed anxiety about having to decide such a consequential case with outsized media attention. The judge has ruled that their names will be known only to prosecutors, Trump and their legal teams.

One woman who had been chosen to serve on the jury was dismissed Thursday after she raised concerns over messages she said she got from friends and family when aspects of her identity became public. On Friday, another woman broke down in tears while being questioned by a prosecutor about her ability to decide the case based only on evidence presented in court.

“I feel so nervous and anxious right now,” the woman said. “I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t want someone who feels like this to judge my case either. I don’t want to waste the court’s time.”

As more potential jurors were questioned Friday, Trump appeared to lean over at the defense table, scribbling on some papers and exchanging notes with one of his lawyers. He occasionally perked up and gazed at the jury box, including when one would-be juror said he had volunteered in a “get out the vote” effort for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Another prospective juror got Trump’s attention when he mentioned that he follows the White House Instagram account, including when Trump was in office. Trump shot a grin at one man who was asked if he was married and joked that he had been trying to find a wife in his spare time, but “it’s not working.”

Judge Juan Merchan is also expected to hold a hearing Friday to consider a request from prosecutors to bring up Trump’s prior legal entanglements if he takes the stand in the hush money case. Manhattan prosecutors have said they want to question Trump about his recent civil fraud trial that resulted in a $454 million judgment after a judge found Trump had lied about his wealth for years. He is appealing that verdict.

The trial centers on a $130,000 payment that Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, made to porn actor Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the final days of the 2016 race.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He could get up to four years in prison if convicted, though it’s not clear that the judge would opt to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal any conviction.

Trump is involved in four criminal cases, but it’s not clear that any others will reach trial before the November election. Appeals and legal wrangling have caused delays in the other three cases charging Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and with illegally hoarding classified documents.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A group backing a proposed ballot measure in California that would require school staff to notify parents if their child asks to change gender identification at schools is battling the attorney general in court Friday, arguing he released misleading information about the proposal to the public.

The group is suing Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, in Sacramento Superior Court. They want the measure’s title to be changed from the “Restrict Rights of Transgender Youth” initiative to the “Protect Kids of California Act” and update what they say is a biased summary of the proposal.

“It’s an abuse of the attorney general’s power to oversee these ballot measures where he’s legally obligated to be neutral and draft a title and summary that’s impartial,” said Dean McGee, a lawyer with the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing proponents of the measure.

The initiative would also ban transgender girls in grades 7 through college from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, along with barring gender-affirming surgeries for minors, with some exceptions.

It is part of a nationwide debate over local school districts and the rights of parents and LGBTQ+ students. States across the country have sought to impose bans on gender-affirming care, bar trans athletes from girls and women’s sports, and require schools to “out” trans and nonbinary students to their parents. Some lawmakers in other states have introduced bills in their legislatures with broad language requiring that parents be notified of any changes to their child’s emotional health or well-being.

The proposed ballot measure in California has so far received at least a quarter of the more than 500,000 signatures it needs by May 28 to end up on the ballot in November, according to the secretary of state’s office. But backers of the measure say the title and summary Bonta released for the proposal are hindering their ability to garner enough support before time runs out. They want the secretary of state to extend their deadline by 180 days.

They want to remove language released by Bonta’s office that says the initiative would bar gender-affirming care for transgender youth “even if parents consent or treatment is medically recommended” and require schools to notify parents of their child’s request to be treated as a gender different from school records “without exception for student safety.” They also want the summary to say the measure would define “male” and “female.”

Bonta’s office did not respond to emails seeking comment Thursday on the lawsuit.

California citizens can place initiatives on the ballot if they gather enough supporting signatures, but the attorney general is typically responsible for writing the title and summary language that appears before voters. California judges can step in if they rule the attorney general is not using impartial language. In recent years, California judges have ordered the state to correct misleading information about proposals to repeal a gas tax and raise taxes on business properties.

Ballot measure summary language released by the attorney general can have a “huge impact” on how people vote, said Bob Stern, former president of the Center for Governmental Studies.

“For some people, that’s the only time that they’ll see any information about the measure — is when they go in to vote,” Stern said.

Stern believes the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, not the attorney general, should release ballot measure summaries, because attorney generals are elected officials who often have a future in politics. Bonta, for example, is expected to run for governor in 2026.

Bonta is currently fighting a Southern California school district in court over a policy that, in part, required school staff to notify parents if their child asked to change their gender identification at school. Bonta said the policy discriminated against gender non-conforming students. The district, Chino Valley Unified, updated the rule last month to remove mention of gender identification changes. The updated rule is more broad, requiring school staff to notify parents if a child requests any changes to their “official or unofficial records.”

Kathie Moehlig, head of San Diego-based nonprofit TransFamily Support Services, said the proposed ballot measure and similar proposals at the school district level have left children she works with scared that “their very being is going to be legislated out of existence.”

“Schools don’t have an agenda to make kids trans. Schools have an agenda to keep all students safe.” Moehlig said. “The unfortunate truth is that there are some kids who are in homes where sharing about their gender identity or sexual orientation would make them unsafe.”

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Sophie Austin reported from Sacramento. Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @sophieadanna

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican candidate in Wisconsin’s closely watched U.S. Senate race emphasized this week that he doesn’t oppose elderly people voting after initially saying that “almost nobody in a nursing home” is at a point in life where they are capable of voting.

Eric Hovde faces Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in the race that is essential for Democrats to win in order to maintain their majority in the Senate. A Marquette University Law School poll this week showed the race is about even among likely voters.

Baldwin and Democrats have been attacking Hovde over comments he first made April 5 on a Fox News radio show about nursing home voting. Who can vote in a nursing home, and how they cast their ballots, has been a hot issue in Wisconsin since 2020 when supporters of former President Donald Trump alleged that people were voting illegally.

No charges were brought, and President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump has withstood a nonpartisan audit, numerous lawsuits, a partial recount and a review by a conservative law firm.

But Hovde has been raising the issue of nursing home voting when discussing what he said were problems with the 2020 election.

“We had nursing homes where the sheriff of Racine investigated, where you had 100 percent voting in nursing homes,” Hovde said.

That claim of 100% voting in nursing homes, first made by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman in a discredited report, has never been verified. Voting data has shown that participation in nursing homes across the state was much lower than 100%.

“If you’re in a nursing home, you only have a five, six-month life expectancy,” Hovde said last week on the “Guy Benson Show.” “Almost nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote.”

Baldwin, in reaction to Hovde’s comments, said last week that “thousands of Wisconsinites live in nursing homes.”

“Eric Hovde does not have a clue what he’s talking about,” she said on MSNBC.

In two subsequent interviews this week, when asked to clarify his comments in the wake of Democratic criticism, Hovde accused his opponents and the media of “political hits.”

“They tried to say I didn’t want elderly people to vote,” Hovde said Monday on WISN-AM. “I don’t even know how they came up with that.”

Hovde reiterated that his issue was based on reports of people who questioned how their severely ill relatives in nursing homes had voted.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Shmaling, a Trump backer, said in 2021 that the families of eight residents told investigators they believed their love ones did not have the capacity to vote but ballots were cast for them.

Hovde this week said “a large percentage” of nursing home residents “are not in the mental capacity to (vote).”

But he said that does not mean he thinks elderly people should not be allowed to vote.

“I think elderly should absolutely vote,” he said Wednesday on WSAU-AM.

Nursing home voting became a focus for Trump supporters following his narrow loss in Wisconsin in 2020.

State law requires local election clerks to send so-called special voting deputies to nursing homes to give residents an opportunity to vote.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, in a bipartisan 5-1 vote in March 2020, determined that poll workers could not be sent into nursing homes to help with voting due to a safer-at-home order issued by Gov. Tony Evers early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The order came at a time when nursing homes were severely limiting who could come into their facilities, often not even allowing immediate family members inside.

An audit by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau determined that the elections commission broke the law when it told clerks not to send or attempt to send deputies into nursing homes.

Schmaling, the sheriff and a Trump backer, called for criminal charges against the commissioners who voted not to send in voting deputies. But the Racine County district attorney declined to charge, citing lack of jurisdiction. The Milwaukee County district attorney also declined to charge two commissioners in his county, saying there was a lack of evidence that a crime was committed.

Republicans in the Legislature have tried to tighten rules about voting in nursing homes, but the measures have either failed to pass or been vetoed by Evers.

PHOENIX (AP) — A jury in southern Arizona was ordered to resume deliberation Friday in the trial of a rancher charged with fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Jurors received the case Thursday afternoon after a nearly one-month trial in a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with second-degree murder in the January 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.

The Santa Cruz County Superior Court did not immediately confirm whether the jury took the case back up at 8:30 a.m. as instructed by Judge Thomas Fink.

Cuen-Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. Court records show Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the U.S. illegally several times and was deported, most recently in 2016.

Some on the political right have supported the rancher as anti-migrant rhetoric and presidential campaigning heat up.

Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away on his property.

Kelly said he fired warning shots in the air, but he didn’t shoot directly at anyone.

Jette said Kelly fired nine shots toward the group.

The prosecutor said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.

Jette encouraged jurors to find Kelly guilty of reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide if they can’t convict him on the murder charge. A second-degree murder conviction would bring a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

Defense attorney Brenna Larkin urged jurors to find Kelly not guilty, saying in her closing argument that Kelly “was in a life or death situation.”

“He was confronted with a threat right outside his home,” Larkin said. “He would have been absolutely justified to use deadly force, but he did not.”

No one else in the group was injured, and they all made it back to Mexico.

The trial that started March 22 included jurors visiting Kelly’s nearly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch outside Nogales.

Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault. He earlier rejected a deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.

By Stephanie Kelly

(Reuters) – The role Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, will play in his White House bid is coming into focus, as the wealthy lawyer injects millions of dollars into their independent campaign and amplifies their stances on social media.

Shanahan, a political neophyte tapped in March to be the independent candidate Kennedy’s vice presidential pick, gave $2 million one day after her candidacy was announced, campaign filings showed this week.

That money allowed the campaign to stay out of the red during an expensive push to be listed on state election ballots alongside Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Kennedy’s campaign raised $5.4 million in March and spent $4.5 million, the filings showed.

Shanahan, the former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, previously gave $4 million to a pro-Kennedy super PAC, an outside spending group that has no contribution limits, to help fund an ad in this year’s NFL Super Bowl, she told the New York Times.

The dual role being played by Shanahan of both messenger and financial powerhouse is unique. “I can’t think of instances where the vice presidential candidate has been a major donor,” said Joel Goldstein, a professor at Saint Louis University School of Law.

Still largely unknown, Shanahan has gradually offered more of her policy stances on social media and in podcasts, but since her elevation to the ticket has not apparently conducted interviews with traditional news outlets. The Kennedy campaign declined a request for an interview with Shanahan.

She was a guest on Stanford University Professor Jay Bhattacharya’s podcast earlier this month to discuss chronic diseases, fertility issues and the free-speech rights of advocates who opposed pandemic-era lockdowns.

Shanahan writes frequently on social media platform X about health-related issues, including skepticism around the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

A variety of institutions, including the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deem the vaccines safe.

Kennedy, known for his anti-vaccine advocacy, has used podcasts like “The Joe Rogan Experience” and social media in a bid to attract younger voters dissatisfied by the choice between Biden and Trump, who are 81 and 77 years old, respectively.

Kennedy is backed by 15% of registered voters, versus 39% for Biden and 38% for Trump, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Shanahan will join Kennedy in a virtual event on Monday for Earth Day, where they will discuss “why protecting the environment is essential to protecting the health of Americans,” Shanahan said on X.

She traveled earlier this month to Yuma, an Arizona town on the Mexico border, and afterwards detailed the campaign’s emphasis on border security, along with pathways for legal immigration. In another post, she highlighted her own mother’s emigration from China to the U.S.

On abortion, a key issue for many voters after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, Shanahan wrote on X earlier this month that the idea that anyone could control her body is “wrong,” but that she would “not feel right terminating a viable life living inside of me, especially if I am both healthy and that baby is healthy.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Oatis)

(Reuters) -A person was covered in flames outside the New York courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial is underway, CNN reported on Friday.

Representatives for New York’s fire and police departments as well as the mayor’s office could not be immediately reached for comment.

The person on fire received medical attention and was taken from the area, said CNN reporters at the scene, adding that the circumstances of the fire was unclear. The smell of smoke and burning human flesh lingered in the air, they added.

The courthouse in New York City is already under heightened security given the former president’s presence in the courtroom each day.

(Additional reporting by Kanishka Singh; writing by Susan Heavey, editing by David Ljunggren)

NEW YORK (AP) — The start of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial was pushed back a week to mid-May on Friday after lawyers agreed the extra days would aid trial preparation.

U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein changed from May 6 to May 13 the start of jury selection during a pretrial hearing in Manhattan. Menendez was allowed to participate in the conference by telephone after his lawyers said a late night in the U.S. Senate on Thursday made it impossible for him to attend the Friday morning hearing.

Menendez and two New Jersey businessmen have pleaded not guilty to charges that cash, gold bars and a luxury car were given to Menendez and his wife since 2017 in return for the Democratic senator carrying out political favors.

Menendez’s wife, Nadine, who also has pleaded not guilty, will not go on trial until July, at the earliest, because she faces medical issues.

A third businessman, Jose Uribe, has pleaded guilty to bribery charges and agreed to testify against the others at trial.

The criminal case last fall forced Menendez to give up his powerful role as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Earlier this week, lawyers for Menendez indicated in a court filing that they may seek exoneration at trial by claiming that he lacked criminal intent since his wife didn’t disclose anything illegal to him about her dealings with New Jersey businessmen.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Sen. Bob Menendez at https://apnews.com/hub/robert-menendez.

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania school board’s cancellation of an upcoming appearance by actor and children’s book author Maulik Pancholy was ill-advised and sends a hurtful message, especially to the LGBTQ+ community, education officials said.

A member of Cumberland Valley School District’s board cited concerns about what he described as Pancholy’s activism and “lifestyle” before the board voted unanimously Monday to cancel his appearance at a May 22 assembly at the Mountain View Middle School. Pancholy, who is gay, was scheduled to speak against bullying.

Besides their concerns about Pancholy, some board members also noted the district’s policy about not hosting overtly political events, news outlets reported. The policy was enacted after the district was criticized for hosting a rally by Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign for president.

District Superintendent Mark Blanchard and nine other senior leaders — including assistant superintendents and district-level directors of technology, curriculum, legal affairs, human resources, student services and special education — sent a letter to the board, faculty and staff on Thursday asserting that Pancholy’s speech should have been allowed. Pancholy’s representatives shared a copy of the letter with The Associated Press.

The education officials said they were not given “a real opportunity” to answer questions or provide guidance about the event, which they said was aimed at reinforcing the importance of treating all people equally.

The administrators added that the school board’s decision had “significant ramifications for our school community, especially for our students and staff who are members of the LGBTQ+ community.” They also noted that the actor’s sexual identity was cited as a factor in the decision, meaning “Mr. Pancholy’s personhood was reduced to a single aspect, and his ability to communicate a message of anti-bullying and hate was discredited.”

The Associated Press sent emails to individual school board members seeking comment Friday.

Pancholy, 48, is an award-winning actor, including for his roles on the television shows “30 Rock” and “Weeds,” and as the voice of Baljeet in the Disney animated series, “Phineas & Ferb.” He also has written children’s books and in 2014 was named by then-President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, where he co-founded a campaign to combat AAPI bullying.

Pancholy’s appearance was scheduled by the school’s leadership team, which each year selects an author to present a “unique educational experience for students,” according to the district.

The school board’s vote to cancel Pancholy’s appearance also sparked criticism from several parents, students and community members, who called the decision “homophobic.” Some have started online petitions urging that Pancholy’s appearance be reinstated.

In a statement posted on social media this week, Pancholy said his school visits are meant “to let all young people know that they’re seen.”

“To let them know that they matter.”

He also said that one of the reasons he became an author was because as a child he never saw himself represented in stories.

“That’s the power of books. They build empathy,” Pancholy wrote. “I wonder why a school board is so afraid of that?”

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russell Bentley, a U.S. national, has died in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in Ukraine, Margarita Simonyan, head of Russia’s state media outlet RT, wrote on Telegram on Friday.

Simonyan said Bentley had been “fighting there for our guys” and working with Russia’s Sputnik news service. She did not say how he died.

Bentley, born in 1960, a self-declared supporter of Russian-backed forces in Ukraine whom Russian state media had described as a war correspondent, reportedly went missing on April 8, police in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region said in a statement last Friday.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States will unveil in the coming days guidelines for the use of carbon offsets inside and outside of government to build confidence in the market and ensure credits reflect real emissions cuts, the top U.S. climate diplomat said on Friday.

It follows a 2022 move by the State Department, along with two philanthropies, to launch a carbon offset program known as the Energy Transition Accelerator to generate private finance to help developing countries transition to clean energy.

“Carbon markets are a critical tool on the path of… keeping warming below 1.5C,” John Podesta told an event about building high-integrity carbon markets at the State Department. “But carbon markets have been the subject of intense criticism and missteps which undermine the confidence in the ability to deliver significant emissions reductions.”

Podesta previewed some of what the guidelines will require, including assurance that carbon credits “represent real, additional, permanent emissions reductions,” and that emissions accounting happens at the sectoral level.

On the demand side, he said companies use of carbon credits “should not substitute or delay” efforts to invest directly in reducing their emissions.

The announcement comes amid a row about the use of offsetting within the Science Based Targets initiative – which validates corporate climate targets – after a plan by the board to allow supply chain emissions to be offset was criticised by its own staff.

Podesta and John Kerry, the former Secretary of State who spearheaded the launch of the ETA alongside the Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation, applauded the decision by SBTi to open their standards up to the use of carbon offsets.

At the same event, the U.S. also announced that it has selected the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), a Washington-based nonprofit, to serve as the secretariat for the ETA, with Kerry to serve as the chair of the ETA advisory group.

“If we do not mobilize the private sector we do not win this (climate) battle,” Kerry said. “We need high quality carbon markets to drive action.”

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Simon Jessop and Hugh Lawson)