Former President Donald Trump held a press conference Friday morning following his conviction a day earlier on 34 felony counts related to a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Calling the trial “unfair,” Trump hit on several familiar themes as he walked reporters and viewers through the proceedings.
“As far as the trial itself, it was very unfair. We were not allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances. You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side. They were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel, but he is really a devil. It looks so nice and soft. People say he’d seem like such a nice man. If you saw him in action, and you saw that with a certain witness that went through Hell. When we wanted to do things he would not let us do those things. But when the government wanted something they got everything, they got everything they wanted,” Trump continued.
“It was a rigged trial. We wanted a venue change where we could have a fair trial. We did not get it. We wanted a judge change, we wanted a judge that was not conflicted. Obviously, he did not do that. Nobody has ever seen anything like it. We had a failed DA; crime is rampant in New York, violent crime, that is what he is supposed to be looking at. Crime is rampant in New York. Yesterday at McDonald’s you had a man with a machete. Who can imagine a machete being wielded in a store come in a place where they are eating and he is rampant and Bragg is down watching a trial on what they call ‘crimes,'” he went on.
Trump added:
“Falsifying business records.” To me it sounds very bad. It is only a misdemeanor but to me it sounds so bad when they say falsifying business records. That is a bad thing for me. You know what falsifying business records is? In the first degree! They say falsifying business records means the legal expense, I paid a lawyer, totally legal, I paid a lawyer a legal expense and a bookkeeper, without any knowledge from me correctly marked it down in the books. A very professional woman, highly respected, she testified, marked it down in the books as a legal expense. A legal expense is a legal expense in the books. It is not sheet rock construction or any other thing. It is a legal expense.
Think of that. This is what the falsification of business records were. I said what else are you going to call it? What else are you going to call it?
WATCH:
Trump gave a presser Friday morning to discuss what Judge Merchan did NOT allow his defense team to do, which was DEFEND him… pic.twitter.com/Kd6XeCNM2Y
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) May 31, 2024
