Former President Donald Trump lashed out at the historic trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday, questioning why the district attorney’s office took up the case after other law enforcement agencies did not bring charges.
“If this was such a good case, why didn’t the Southern District bring it? Who looked at it and rejected it? Why didn’t many other law enforcement agencies and groups look at it? Because it was shown to everyone. And very importantly, why didn’t the Federal Elections do anything about it? Because this is federal, not state,” he said.
“It’s not state… I don’t think it’s ever happened before. It’s never happened before… where the state tries to insert itself into federal elections. Never. Nobody’s ever seen it. But, you know, federal elections completely ignored it.” “.
In 2019, the Justice Department “effectively concluded” its investigation into Trump’s payments. And in 2021, the Federal Election Commission, the agency dedicated to enforcing campaign finance laws, announced that it had dropped a case investigating whether Trump had violated election laws over the payment to Daniels.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the case last year and announced Trump’s indictment in April 2023.
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Former US President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he leaves court during his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on April 22, 2024 in New York City. Former President Donald Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. (Brendan McDermid-Pool/Getty Images)
Trump’s trial in a Manhattan courtroom began in earnest on Monday, following jury selection last week, and heard from its first witness, former American Media Inc. CEO David Pecker.
Pecker was allegedly a key figure in a “catch and kill” scheme before the 2016 election. “Catch and kill” schemes are understood as tactics used by media outlets and publishers to buy the rights to a story. person, but not publish the materials.
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The trial centers on a $130,000 payment made by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to former porn actress Stormy Daniels, $130,000 to allegedly silence her claims of an alleged extramarital affair she had with Trump earlier in the decade. 2000. Daniels reportedly spoke to the National Enquirer, owned by American Media Inc., about her claims of an affair with Trump, and Pecker allegedly contacted Cohen to “buy” Daniels’ silence about the alleged affair.
Trump has repeatedly denied an affair with Daniels and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Former President Donald Trump leaves Trump Tower on his way to Manhattan Criminal Court, Monday, April 15, 2024, in New York. The secret trial against former President Donald Trump begins Monday with jury selection. It is a unique moment in American history, as it is the first criminal trial of a former commander in chief of the United States. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“During the election, TRUMP and others employed a ‘catch and kill’ scheme to identify, purchase and bury negative information about him and improve his electoral prospects,” Bragg alleged last year. “TRUMP then went to great lengths to conceal this conduct, resulting in dozens of false entries in business records to conceal criminal activity, including attempts to violate state and federal election laws.”
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A courtroom sketch depicts the third day of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Jury selection for the alleged hush money case remains underway after two sitting jurors were dismissed today. (Christine Cornell)
Trump said Monday that the payments to Cohen were legitimate.
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“It’s an accounting case that is a very minor issue in terms of the law, in terms of all violent crimes,” Trump said Monday afternoon. “This is a case where a lawyer is paid, and on the books they call it a legal expense.”
Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer of US President Donald Trump, right, outside a federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“They accused me of that,” he added.
Trump made brief public comments early Monday, where he criticized the case as a trial of “Biden” motivated “for the purpose of hurting the opponent of the worst president in the history of our country.”
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“I just want to say before we start: These are all Biden’s trialsTrump said before opening remarks were given on Monday. “This is done as electoral interference. Everybody knows”.
“I’m here instead of being able to be in Pennsylvania, Georgia and many other places campaigning, and it’s very unfair. Fortunately, the poll numbers are very good,” Trump continued. “They’ve been increasing because people understand what’s going on.”
