A 40-year-old New Yorker did not expect to report to jury duty this week and come face to face with Donald Trump.

Yet he found himself in the first batch of 96 prospective jurors for the former US president's historic criminal trial.

He breezily answered the first few screening questions: what he did for a living (finance), what he did in his free time (golf), which podcasts he enjoyed (Barstool Sports).

But the biggest question of all stopped him short: Could you judge the defendant impartially?

The historic hush-money trial of Donald Trump got underway Monday with the arduous process of selecting a jury to hear the case charging the former president with falsifying business records in order to stifle stories about his sex life.

The day ended without any jurors being chosen. The selection process was scheduled to resume Tuesday.

Donald Trump arrived at a New York court Monday to start jury selection for his hush money trial — the first time a former U.S. president has ever faced a criminal trial.

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” Trump told reporters before going into the courtroom.

“This is political persecution,” he said. “It’s an assault on America and that’s why I’m very proud to be here.”

Trump’s lawyers last week repeatedly sought to delay Monday’s start date with last-ditch efforts in an appeals court, but those efforts all failed.

Former President Trump’s trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into alleged hush money payments ahead of the 2016 presidential election is set to begin Monday with jury selection.

The trial in New York City is the first of the election year for the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Donald Trump is making history Monday as the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges, a watershed moment for American politics, the presidential election and Trump himself.

Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president — is required to be present for the entire trial, which could last as long as eight weeks. He’s pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, a low-level felony punishable by up to four years in prison. The trial kicks off Monday with jury selection.

The hundreds of New Yorkers who report for jury duty Monday morning in Manhattan will embark on an experience not found in history books: They will be vetted as jurors for the trial of a former U.S. president.

The task won’t be easy. Lawyers for Donald J. Trump and prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office will narrow the pool to 12 jurors and several alternates. Both sides will try to discern biases that could alter the outcome of the trial, posing dozens of questions that have been discussed and debated for weeks.

Former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York begins Monday with an immediate and fundamental challenge: selecting a jury that can fairly judge one of the most famous and polarizing figures alive.

“Picking a jury in a case involving someone as familiar to everyone as former President Trump poses unique problems,” Joshua Steinglass, the senior trial counsel in the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, said at a recent hearing — in what may be the understatement of the year.