First three jurors chosen to serve on Trump criminal trial

By Luc Cohen, Jack Queen and Andy Sullivan

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A group of three jurors was selected on Tuesday to serve on Donald Trump's hush-money criminal trial, as the selection process continues to choose a 12-member panel which can be fair to the Republican former U.S. president.

Jury selection began on Monday and could last at least a week.

Trump, the Republican candidate for president in the Nov. 5 election, faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money 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 an encounter took place. He has called the case, brought by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a partisan witch hunt meant to interfere with his campaign to unseat President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 election.

The three selected included a man originally from Ireland who enjoys doing "anything outdoorsy" and watches both MSNBC and Fox News, a woman who works as an oncology nurse and enjoys taking her dog to the park, and a corporate lawyer who said he does not follow the news that closely.

(Writing by Andy Sullivan in Washington and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Howard Goller, Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)