Trump, who is once again seeking the White House, is the first ex-president to ever stand trial on criminal charges.

He was rebuked by on Tuesday by New York Justice Juan Merchan for speaking while one potential juror was being questioned.

The judge told Trump's lawyer quote "I will not have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom."

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.

Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump about a decade beforehand.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and denies the alleged affair.

Jury selection began Monday.

Lawyers need to pick 12 members of the jury and six alternates.

"Hilariously, yesterday, when walking in, my first thought when I saw him was, 'Oh, he looks exactly like he does on TV.'"

Kara McGee didn't make the cut.

She said the commitment to a trial that could run for weeks or longer was too much for her schedule.

Though she felt she and her fellow potential jurors were taking the process seriously.

"I think regardless of what people came into it thinking about the defendant, there were other people as well in the jury box who answered the questions honestly and said, 'Yes, I have family members who have been involved with X political thing. I have X opinion about something on this jury sheet, but I believe that I can put that aside and be unbiased.'"

Trump a Republican, has called the case a partisan witch hunt brought by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, meant to interfere with his campaign to unseat President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.

"I should be right now in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states, North Carolina, Georgia, campaigning. This is all coming from the (U.S. President Joe) Biden White House because the guy can't put two sentences together. He can't campaign. He is using this in order to try and win an election. And it's not working that way. It's working the opposite way."

Jury selection is expected to consume the rest of the week, and the trial is scheduled to last through at least May.