Former President Donald Trump vowed to continue his effort to have the judge overseeing his case removed, as he exited the courtroom after a lengthy trial day.

"We are going to continue our fight against this judge," Trump told reporters, acknowledging he is having a "hard time with the New York state system."

Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump's second recusal motion on Monday, and an appellate court denied his effort to have the case delayed over the recusal effort last week.

"We have a very conflicted, highly conflicted judge. He shouldn't be on the case. He's rushing this trail, and he's doing as much as he can for the Democrats," Trump said, without evidence, before his motorcade departed the courthouse.

After seating the seventh juror in the case, Judge Juan Merchan reiterated his hope that opening statements could commence Monday if the remaining jurors are selected by then.

Until then, "put the case out of your mind," Merchan told the seventh juror. "Don't think about it, don't talk about it."

The judge then concluded the proceedings for the day. Court will be in recess on Wednesday, and jury selection will resume Thursday with the fresh batch of 96 prospective jurors.

With seven jurors now seated, 11 more jurors -- six of them alternates -- remain to be chosen.

Judge Juan Merchan has sworn in and seated a seventh juror, selecting the North Carolina-born civil litigator who now resides on the Upper East Side, after neither party challenged his selection.

Prosecutors used two peremptory strikes on the real estate developer and former police photographer, who had both made it to the final round of questioning.

Merchan excused them both before swearing in the seventh juror.

The trial's first six jurors were sworn in and seated earlier Tuesday.

The first six jurors selected to serve in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial represent a diverse cross-section of New York City, according to their biographical information. Here's a brief sketch of each juror, whose identities are being kept private for security reasons.

Juror No. 1 is a middle-aged salesman who immigrated to the United States from Ireland. He lives in West Harlem and said he normally gets his news from the New York Times, Daily Mail, Fox News and MSNBC. In his spare time, he said he enjoys doing "anything outdoorsy."

Juror No. 2 works as an oncology nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She lives with her fiancé and enjoys taking her dog for walks in the park. She said she gets her news from The New York Times, CNN, Google, and Facebook.

Juror 3 is a corporate attorney who moved to New York from Oregon five years ago. He has worked at two major white-shoe law firms in New York. He said he normally gets his news from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Google. In his spare time, he said he enjoys hiking and running.

Juror No. 4 said he finds the former president to be "fascinating and mysterious." Originally from Puerto Rico, he has lived in the Lower East Side for the last 40 years. He is a self-employed IT consultant who attended one year of college and has been "married for a long time." He normally gets his news from the Daily News, The New York Times, Google.

Juror No. 5 was the only potential juror who raised her hand when lawyers asked if they had ever heard of Trump's other criminal cases. A life-long New Yorker, she currently works as an ELA teacher in a charter school and lives in Harlem. She normally gets her news from Google and TikTok but said that she "doesn't really care for the news."

Juror No. 6 is a software engineer who works for the Walt Disney Company, which is the parent company of ABC News. She grew up in New York City and lives in Chelsea with three roommates. She said she gets her news from The New York Times and TikTok. In her spare time, she said she enjoys plays, restaurants, dancing, and watching TV.

When the National Enquirer's parent company AMI signed a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in New York in September 2018, AMI was negotiating to sell the Enquirer and two other tabloids to Hudson News Group for $100 million, former publisher David Pecker testified under cross-examination.

Defense attorney Emil Bove suggested the pending sale put Pecker under pressure to resolve a federal campaign finance investigation over its payment to quash stories damaging to Donald Trump's presidential ambitions.

"You knew to finalize that deal, to consummate it, you had to clear out the investigations?" Bove asked.

"Yes," Pecker responded. "From a timing standpoint it would have added stress to the transaction."

On Thursday Pecker testified he had been "very worried" about the investigation. He had received a letter from the Federal Election Commission and said he called up Michael Cohen. "I said 'I'm very worried,'" he testified.

Pecker said Cohen responded, "Why are you worried? Jeff Sessions is the Attorney General and Donald Trump has him in his pocket."

The defense appears to be suggesting AMI cooperated with federal campaign finance investigations not because the company had done anything wrong related to the 2016 Trump campaign, but out of financial considerations in order to preserve the $100 million deal with Hudson News, which was finalized in April 2019.