Trump hush money trial live updates: Jury selection resumes after day one ends with naps, rants and no jurors

Donald Trump’s campaign has furiously denied rumours that the former president fell asleep during the first day of his historic criminal trial in New York.

At various points during proceedings on Monday, Mr Trump, who is making history once again asthe first American president to ever stand trial on criminal charges, appeared to struggle to keep his eyes open, earning the nicknames “Sleepy Don” and “Don Snoreleone” – the latter a reference to the mafia kingpin Don Vito Corleone from the Godfather series.

The Republican has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election in order to silence her about an alleged affair in 2006.

The charges on their own are misdemeanours but have been elevated to felonies because Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg says they violated state and federal election laws.

Mr Trump denies the affair and has pleaded not guilty.

Jury selection in the trial began on Monday and continues on Tuesday, with 50 people excused so far after admitting they could not be fair or impartial to the defendant.

The next prospective juror is a native New Yorker who works in Social Security administration as a lawyer. He’s married and his wife is a graphic designer. He enjoys hiking and gardening and gets his news from “mostly local news” outlets including “The Times occasionally.” He has lived on Riverside Drive for 14 years.

Immediately after that juror, the next person said, after giving it some thought, “I don’t think I can be impartial and unbiased.” She’s excused.

The next person says he needs to be at a wedding on June 6 as best man — but will do the questionnaire.

He'