OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump arrived at the Manhattan courtroom on Monday for the start of his first criminal trial. He declared that the charges against him are an attack on America.
Trump is accused of falsifying records regarding his payment to Stormy Daniels as part of a “hush money” agreement. He believes that Democrats are using the lawsuit as a tool to hinder his political campaign. Instead of traveling the country to promote his candidacy, he is being forced to spend time and money on defending himself in court.
Trump said: “This is an assault on America.”
“Nothing like this has ever happened before. There’s never been anything like it. Every legal scholar says, this case is nonsense. It should never have been brought. [indecipherable] anything like this. There is no case and they’ve said it. People that don’t necessarily follow or like Donald Trump said, this is an outrage that this case was brought. This is political persecution,” Trump said.
“This is a persecution like never before. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And again, it’s a case that should have never been brought. It’s an assault on America. And that’s why I’m very proud to be here. This is an assault on our country. And it’s a country that’s failing. It’s a country that’s run by a competent man who is very much involved in this case. This is really an attack on a political opponent. That’s all it is. So I’m very honored to be here. Thank you very much,” Trump added.
WATCH:
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in Trump’s hush money case, made his first crucial ruling in the case shortly after the historic proceedings began on Monday.
Merchan started the trial off by denying Trump’s motion for recusal, telling the court that the former president’s arguments lack basis.
Trump has accused the judge of being biased against him and called on him to recuse himself from the case. The former president has also repeatedly attacked Merchan’s daughter over her political consulting work, which includes employment at a Democratic firm that worked with Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.
In April of last year, Bragg filed 34 first-degree charges against Trump for falsifying business records. The charges also related to purported hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Bragg alleged that Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election.”
“During the election, Trump and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase, and bury negative information about him and boost his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged in the indictment last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to hide this conduct, causing dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”
Fox News reported:
According to New York state law, a charge of falsifying business records in the first degree alleges that the defendant committed a crime of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud. The intent to defraud would be an intent to commit another crime.
In 2019, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York investigated the matter and opted not to charge Trump related to the alleged payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.
