Donald Trump Appears to Fall Asleep in Court During First Day of Criminal Trial: Report

Donald Trump's criminal trial seemingly got off to a slow start, as evidenced by a first-hand account of him nodding off on the morning of his first day in court.

The former president, 77, reported to a Manhattan court first thing on Monday, April 15, so his long-awaited "hush money" trial could get underway. It was a landmark moment in American politics — the first time a U.S. president has been tried on criminal charges — and yet, before lunch rolled around, he was seen drifting in and out of sleep, according to a journalist in the room.

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman was one of only a few reporters permitted to sit in on Monday's courtroom events, which began with discussion on some pretrial motions before moving into the jury selection process.

While providing updates from the heart of the action in a liveblog on the Times' website, Haberman wrote, "Trump appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack."

Haberman later offered a more detailed account of what she witnessed, claiming that he "appeared to nod off a few times" and reiterating that when he did, she could see "his mouth going slack and his head drooping onto his chest."

Trump's lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, "passed him notes for several minutes," she added, "before Mr. Trump appeared to jolt awake and notice them."

After getting through the morning motions and taking a lunch break, Trump and his team returned to the courtroom for jury selection, during which batches of potential jurors were sworn in and questioned about their willingness and ability to judge Trump fairly if seated on the panel.

Several hundred Manhattan residents were summoned for jury duty with the assumption that a large percentage of people would be dismissed for bias. Only 12 will ultimately be selected as jurors with six additional people designated alternates, and the process of finding those 18 "impartial" New Yorkers could take two weeks or more according to worst-case scenario estimates.

Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an alleged scheme to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and more broadly interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

If Manhattan prosecutors can successfully argue their election interference narrative to a jury, Trump could face up to four years in prison per count that he's convicted on. He has pleaded not guilty.