The first of several trials looming large over former President Donald Trump’s second campaign for a second term will begin in New York this week, where for the first time in U.S. history a former commander-in-chief will be forced to defend themselves against criminal prosecution.

Lawyers representing the 45th President will appear before acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court Juan Merchan on Monday to begin to the jury selection process, at the end of which a group of twelve Manhattan adults will be tasked with deciding whether there is evidence enough to convict Trump on any of the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records leveled against him by District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.

Trump was placed under a gag order ahead of the trial’s start (his second such order), but that hasn’t stopped him from sharing his feelings on the jurist potentially responsible for issuing a sentence in the case, were the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination found guilty on any count.

“There is NO WAY I can be given a Fair (Biden) Trial on Monday with Judge Juan Merchan, who is totally conflicted and corrupt, presiding. Soros backed Alvin Bragg, the ‘District Attorney’ who has, along with his sidekick Leticia James, let violent crime flourish in New York, never wanted to bring this case because it is a sham and mockery of our legal system. He brought it anyway for purposes of saving the WORST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform over the weekend.

Monday’s court proceedings center around “hush-money” payments then-candidate Trump allegedly paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom the former president apparently had an affair in 2006.

That $130,000 payment made through and by Trump’s former-fixer Michael Cohen in October of 2016 was offered, prosecutors have alleged, in an attempt to keep Trump’s dalliance out of the media ahead that year’s presidential contest, which he would go on to win.

In a press conference following Trump’s unprecedented arrest, arraignment, and bondless release ahead of trial, District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the former New York real estate mogul engaged in “a scheme to buy and suppress negative information to help Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the 2016 election.”

Trump, in a post calling Merchan “perhaps the most highly conflicted Judge in New York State history,” claimed that the charges against him are politically motivated, stating without evidence that the roots of those charges lay in the White House and that his legal woes are in fact efforts to stymie his electoral chances.

“They could have started this Fake Biden Trial many years ago, not right in the middle of my campaign for President, and time would not be a problem. This is a blatant and unprecedented attack on Crooked Joe Biden’s Political Opponent (who is leading in every poll!), done in close coordination with the White House, that cannot be allowed to go forward,” the former president wrote Sunday.

Criminal proceedings aren’t the only legal complications tying up the 45th President’s campaign schedule with New York court appearances. The former president is also in the midst of fighting for his business empire, after a judge fined him hundreds of millions for misrepresenting the value of his business holdings. A hearing on his bond in that civil judgement is set for April 22. Trump made his feelings about that jurist quite clear as well.

“I owned the Miss Universe Pageant for 19 years, did VERY well with it, sold it to IMG at a great profit, and ran for President. It was a contest like no other! But now I have one that’s even better. Who is the WORST, most EVIL and most CORRUPT JUDGE? Would it be Judge Arthur Engoron, Judge Lewis Kaplan or, could it be that my current New York disaster, Judge Juan Merchan, is the WORST? They are all from violent crime (without retribution!) filled New York, are really bad Judges, are extraordinarily conflicted and unfair, and most obviously to all, suffer from a rare but very lethal disease, TDS, commonly known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. Please reply here!!!” he wrote, capitalization his.

Trump also faces further felony charges in Washington D.C. over his alleged role in attempting to reverse his loss in the 2020 election, in Florida over his alleged retention of top secret government documents, and, in Georgia over his alleged attempts “find 11,780 votes” in order to change the results of that state’s elections results.

Polling shows Trump and Biden tied ahead of November’s general election.