Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taking a break from courting voters to go to court as a potential juror. He shook hands and fist-bumped bystanders as he reported for jury duty today at a Manhattan court.
He arrived in a limousine and walked up the courthouse steps, waving. The Republican front-runner said last week he was "looking forward to appearing."
The 75 or more potential jurors greeted him with murmurs. A court officer escorted him to a seat in the front row. Trump later took a 20-minute break to talk on his phone in the hall.
While returning to the jury assembly room, he took a selfie with an attorney he encountered and signed a sketch artist's drawing.
"Beautiful," he said.
In celebrity-studded New York City, it's not unusual for famous names to be picked to show up in potential jury pools.
Among them have been Caroline Kennedy, Woody Allen, Spike Lee and Madonna.
Jury assembly supervisor Irene Laracuenta told the possible jurors that their commitment would be either one day or one civil trial, depending on whether they were selected.
"No one - no one - gets special treatment," Laracuenta said.
If Trump isn't picked for a jury by the end of Monday, he's exempt from jury duty for the next six years. Jurors who do get chosen are told to expect to sit for at least one week, but trials can last for months.
The real estate mogul and reality TV star had been called previously but didn't appear. His campaign said he hadn't received those summonses. Michael Cohen, special counsel to Trump, said the summonses had been sent to an address where the businessman never lived.
Yesterday, Trump told NBC that he would push to end the constitutionally protected citizenship rights of children of any family living illegally inside the U.S.
"They have to go," Trump said, adding: "What they're doing, they're having a baby. And then all of a sudden, nobody knows ... The baby's here."
Native-born children of immigrants, even those living illegally in the U.S., have been automatically considered American citizens since the adoption of the 14th amendment of the US Constitution in 1868.
Trump's remarks came as his campaign website posted his program for "immigration reform." Among its details: Making Mexico pay for a permanent border wall. Mandatory deportation of all "criminal aliens." Tripling the force of immigration officers by eliminating tax credit payments to immigrant families residing illegally in the US.
