Former President Donald Trump arrived for the first day of his ‘unprecedented’ criminal hush money trial – and appeared to fall asleep in the courtroom.
Before entering Manhattan Criminal Court around 9am on Monday, Trump said: ‘This is political persecution, this is a persecution like never before, nobody has ever seen anything like it… It’s an assault on America.’
It marked a historic moment – the start of the first criminal trial against a former or serving US president.
About two hours later, Trump was observed seeming to doze off.
‘Trump appears to be sleeping,’ reported New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. ‘His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.’
A couple minutes later, Haberman wrote that ‘Trump has apparently jolted back awake, noticing the notes his lawyer passed him several minutes ago’.
Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal payout.
