OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump sounded off about his trial taking place in New York City over “hush money” he allegedly directed his former lawyer Michael Cohen to make to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump said. “I should be in Georgia now. I should be in Florida now. I should be in a lot of different places right now, campaigning. And I’m sitting here. This will go on for a long time. It’s very unfair.”
“I did nothing wrong,” Trump repeated.
“They take this payment, and they call it a legal expense. You heard it today for the first time. This is what I got indicted over. This is what took me off and takes me on the campaign trail. Because I should be in Georgia and now. I should be in Florida now. I should be in a lot of different places right now, campaigning. And I’m sitting here. This will go on for a long time. It’s very unfair. The judge is conflicted, as you know. It’s very unfair what’s going on. I should be allowed to campaign,” Trump said.
“Whoever heard of this? To get indicted for that. People in the court said I can’t believe it. This is the case. We did nothing wrong. The other thing is, if this is such a great case, why didn’t the southern district bring it, who looked at it? Why didn’t numerous other agencies and law enforcement groups look at it? Because it was shown to everybody,” Trump added.
He declared: “Very importantly, why didn’t the federal elections do anything about it? This is federal. It’s not state. They are trying to make it a state case. It’s not state. It’s never happened before, I believed, never happened before. This has never happened before. With a state trying to insert itself in federal elections. Nobody has ever seen it. Federal elections took a total pass on it. They said essentially, nothing was done wrong, or they would have done something about it. They’re tough. They would have done something about it. They said nothing, and they said they’re gonna take a pass — because they couldn’t even believe it. If you read their letter, they couldn’t even believe it. They were incredulous.”
“And yet, Bragg makes it out. With Bragg, if you look, when he first came in, he didn’t want to do it. He didn’t want to do it. Look at Pomerantz and what he did. That is bad stuff. When are they gonna look at all the lies that Cohen did in the last trial? Heb got caught lying in the last trial. He was caught lying. pure lies. And when are they gonna look at that?” he asked rhetorically.
“Another subject because, just a few blocks away, they had a trial, $175 million. That is Letitia James. It’s all coming out of the White House, by the way. That’s in front of the Judge Engoron. The judge didn’t know anything. He didn’t know about the collateral security. He said supposing it goes down — it doesn’t go down because its cash. I put up $175 million in cash. We had a bonding company do it. He challenged the bonding company, that maybe the bonding company was no good. Well, they are good. And they also have $175 million of my collateral. The judge didn’t know anything about it — he didn’t know what $175 million cash meant. He had no idea what anything meant. He had no idea what he did in the trial,” Trump said.
“And he charged me hundreds of millions of dollars on something where I am totally innocent. But if you look at what happened today, Judge Engoron should not have done that. He should have gone to the business division where they have complex business trials. Biut actually, it should have never been brought. Because I didn’t overestimate. They said I overestimated. If you look at the numbers, they are underestimated. I underestimated. I did the opposite of what they said,” Trump continued.
WATCH:
Donald Trump: “I should be in Florida right now. I should be in a lot of places campaigning right now. Instead I’m sitting here and this trial will go on for a very long time. It’s very unfair.” pic.twitter.com/LydvP1n7VQ
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 22, 2024
“They want to build a narrative. But if you look — I have a complete record of what happened, Judge Engoron had no idea what was going on, didn’t understand the most simple concepts. This is the man that took a case and this is why businesses — they are moving out of New York. Because they can’t be subject to this kind of thing — be put out of business. They are moving out of New York because of it,” Trump said.
“But Judge Engoron had absolutely no idea what had happened. He didn’t realize we put up $175. When he found out we put it up, he said what happens if it goes up or down? I said it doesn’t go up or down. It doesn’t go up or down. It’s cash that we put up, all cash. Very few people could do that. The deal was approved with the attorney general if you can believe that. But the deal was approved. She just tried to embarrass everybody and she tried to embarrass a very good bonding company by saying they weren’t creditworthy. Well, they were credit worthy. What was more important as they had a security, $175 million that I put up,” he continued.
“The point here is that the judge had no idea what was happening. This is the same judge that two months ago made a ruling that shook the world. It shook the world. Everyone knows according to that trial, I did nothing wrong,” he said.
Trump concluded: “And over here, I did nothing wrong also. This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail. So far, it’s not working.”
