Former U.S. President Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records brought against him in New York.
Prosecutors have accused Trump of orchestrating payments to two women before the 2016 election to suppress publication of their alleged intimate encounters with him.
After his court hearing on Tuesday, Trump returned to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and addressed his supporters, accusing the legal system of being used to interfere with his chances of winning the White House in 2024.
Describing it as “massive election interference at a scale never seen,” Trump claimed that the cases signify an effort to hinder his third run for the presidency.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America,” he said. “The only crime that I’ve committed has been to fearlessly defend our nation against those who seek to destroy it.”
Echoing Trump, Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson called the case against the former president the “boldest election interference ever attempted in this country’s history” during his opening segment on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Carlson added that the indictment does not allege specific violations of the law, making it unconstitutional and farcical.
Trump has tried to move the trial from Manhattan to Staten Island because he’s concerned that the district is predominantly pro-Democrat and he won’t get a fair hearing.
In the event that Trump secures the Republican nomination for the presidential election scheduled on November 5, 2024, the delay of at least a year in the criminal trial could have significant implications for his campaign.
The former president’s supporters rallied behind him after the hearing, with Republican lawmakers Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, long-time ally Roger Stone, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and former U.S. ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell among those gathered at Mar-a-Lago to show their support.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and incoming president of the Florida Atlantic University’s college Republicans club, Nathan Mitchell, were also present.
During his speech, Trump said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Democrat lawyer prosecuting Trump, is the real “criminal” because Bragg “illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information for which he should be prosecuted, or at a minimum, he should resign.”
The 45th President was referring to the fact that the specific charges contained in the indictment against Trump have not been made public, meaning someone must have leaked them to the press.
Trump on Tuesday accused Bragg of leaking “the various points, and complete information, on the pathetic indictment against me,” calling for the district attorney’s own indictment.
“I know the reporter and so, unfortunately, does he. This means that he MUST BE IMMEDIATELY INDICTED. Now, if he wants to really clean up his reputation, he will do the honorable thing and, as District Attorney, INDICT HIMSELF,” he said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
