A full jury of 12 people and six alternatives have been selected for Donald Trump’s hush money case, drawing the first criminal trial of a former US president a step closer to opening statements.

Lawyers spent days quizzing dozens of New Yorkers to choose the panel that has vowed to put their personal views aside and impartially judge whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is guilty.

The jury includes a sales professional, a software engineer, an English teacher and multiple lawyers.

The trial will place Trump in a Manhattan courtroom for weeks, forcing him to juggle his dual role as criminal defendant and political candidate against the backdrop of his hotly contested race against President Joe Biden.

It will feature salacious and unflattering evidence his opponent will seize on to try to paint him as unfit to return as commander in chief.

The case brought by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of falsifying business records to suppress stories about his sex life emerging in the final days of the 2016 election.

It centres on a 130,000-dollar (£105,000) payment that Trump’s lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen made shortly before the 2016 election to porn actress Stormy Daniels to prevent her claims of a sexual encounter with Trump from becoming public in the race’s final days.

Prosecutors say Trump obscured the true nature of the payments in internal records when his company reimbursed Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2018 and is expected to be a star witness for the prosecution.

Trump has denied having a sexual encounter with Daniels, and his lawyers argue that the payments to Cohen were legitimate legal expenses.

Trump, who faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, has denied any wrongdoing.

He could get up to four years in prison if convicted, though it is not clear that the judge would opt to put him behind bars. Trump would almost certainly appeal against any conviction.

The hush money case is among four criminal prosecutions involving Trump as he vies to reclaim the White House, but it is possible that it will be the sole case to reach trial before November’s presidential election.

Appeals and other legal wrangling have caused delays in cases charging Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election results and illegally hoarding classified documents.