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PALM BEACH: Donald Trump provided a full-throated protection of his conduct Tuesday in his first public remarks since being charged over hush cash funds to a porn star, blasting the prison prosecution as “an insult to our nation.”
Hours earlier the 76-year-old former US president pleaded not responsible to 34 felony counts in a dramatic listening to in New York that transfixed the nation — and started the countdown to the primary ever prison trial of an American president.
“I by no means thought something like this might occur in America — by no means thought it may occur,” Trump informed an viewers of a number of hundred donors, political allies and different supporters after returning to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront mansion in southern Florida.
“The one crime that I’ve dedicated is to fearlessly defend our nation from those that search to destroy it… It is an insult to our nation.”
Trump — the frontrunner within the race for the 2024 Republican nomination — stated from a stage festooned with American flags in an opulent gold-and-cream ballroom that “radical left” prosecutors throughout the nation have been out to get him “at any price.”
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg is prosecuting Trump for cooking his firm’s books to cover funds he organized to grownup movie actress Stormy Daniels days earlier than the 2016 election, to cowl up an alleged sexual encounter a decade earlier.
Trump’s former chief monetary officer Allen Weisselberg is serving a five-month jail time period for a similar cost of falsifying enterprise data.
Manhattan prosecutors say Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York enterprise data to hide prison conduct that hid damaging info from the voting public through the 2016 presidential election.”
A “assertion of info” launched alongside the indictment included particulars of hush cash funds to Daniels, Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal and a former Trump Tower doorman claiming to have a narrative a few baby Trump had out of wedlock.
Daniels was paid $130,000 by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, whereas McDougal and the doorman acquired $150,000 and $30,000 respectively from AMI, the publishers of grocery store tabloid the Nationwide Enquirer.
Bragg alleges that Trump and his allies “additionally took steps that mischaracterized, for tax functions, the true nature of the funds.”
Trump and his attorneys have accused Bragg of over-reaching in his characterization of the allegations.
The one-time actuality TV star had despatched a fundraising e mail shortly earlier than flying again to Florida, saying that for the reason that information of his indictment broke, his marketing campaign had raised over $10 million.
“Whereas we live via the darkest hours of American historical past, I can say that at the very least for this second proper now, I’m in nice spirits,” Trump stated.
The twice-impeached Republican is the primary sitting or former American president to be criminally indicted.
Earlier within the Manhattan courtroom, he answered “not responsible” to all prices in a transparent voice, sitting with hunched shoulders and at occasions wanting aggravated however principally listening cooperatively.
Choose Juan Merchan stated a trial may probably begin as quickly as January — a month earlier than the presidential primaries kick off — though Trump’s attorneys have indicated they might need it pushed again to subsequent spring.
In a spectacle that performed out on stay tv — with rival protesters rallying exterior — the listening to marked a watershed second for the US prison and political system.
A crowd of tons of had gathered, with pro-Trump protesters — sporting “MAGA” hats and apparel emblazoned with the American flag — yelling slurs at their opponents.
Trump for years rejoiced in his fame as a playboy however has all the time denied the tryst with Daniels, which might have occurred simply after his third spouse Melania gave start.
He faces a sequence of separate prison investigations at state and federal stage that might lead to additional — extra severe — prices between now and Election Day.
They embrace his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss within the state of Georgia, his dealing with of categorised paperwork, and his involvement within the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Whereas Republicans have largely rallied round Trump, President Joe Biden — aware of his potential 2024 rival’s accusations that the judicial system is being politically “weaponized” — has shunned commenting in any element.
Hours earlier the 76-year-old former US president pleaded not responsible to 34 felony counts in a dramatic listening to in New York that transfixed the nation — and started the countdown to the primary ever prison trial of an American president.
“I by no means thought something like this might occur in America — by no means thought it may occur,” Trump informed an viewers of a number of hundred donors, political allies and different supporters after returning to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront mansion in southern Florida.
“The one crime that I’ve dedicated is to fearlessly defend our nation from those that search to destroy it… It is an insult to our nation.”
Trump — the frontrunner within the race for the 2024 Republican nomination — stated from a stage festooned with American flags in an opulent gold-and-cream ballroom that “radical left” prosecutors throughout the nation have been out to get him “at any price.”
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg is prosecuting Trump for cooking his firm’s books to cover funds he organized to grownup movie actress Stormy Daniels days earlier than the 2016 election, to cowl up an alleged sexual encounter a decade earlier.
Trump’s former chief monetary officer Allen Weisselberg is serving a five-month jail time period for a similar cost of falsifying enterprise data.
Manhattan prosecutors say Trump “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York enterprise data to hide prison conduct that hid damaging info from the voting public through the 2016 presidential election.”
A “assertion of info” launched alongside the indictment included particulars of hush cash funds to Daniels, Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal and a former Trump Tower doorman claiming to have a narrative a few baby Trump had out of wedlock.
Daniels was paid $130,000 by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, whereas McDougal and the doorman acquired $150,000 and $30,000 respectively from AMI, the publishers of grocery store tabloid the Nationwide Enquirer.
Bragg alleges that Trump and his allies “additionally took steps that mischaracterized, for tax functions, the true nature of the funds.”
Trump and his attorneys have accused Bragg of over-reaching in his characterization of the allegations.
The one-time actuality TV star had despatched a fundraising e mail shortly earlier than flying again to Florida, saying that for the reason that information of his indictment broke, his marketing campaign had raised over $10 million.
“Whereas we live via the darkest hours of American historical past, I can say that at the very least for this second proper now, I’m in nice spirits,” Trump stated.
The twice-impeached Republican is the primary sitting or former American president to be criminally indicted.
Earlier within the Manhattan courtroom, he answered “not responsible” to all prices in a transparent voice, sitting with hunched shoulders and at occasions wanting aggravated however principally listening cooperatively.
Choose Juan Merchan stated a trial may probably begin as quickly as January — a month earlier than the presidential primaries kick off — though Trump’s attorneys have indicated they might need it pushed again to subsequent spring.
In a spectacle that performed out on stay tv — with rival protesters rallying exterior — the listening to marked a watershed second for the US prison and political system.
A crowd of tons of had gathered, with pro-Trump protesters — sporting “MAGA” hats and apparel emblazoned with the American flag — yelling slurs at their opponents.
Trump for years rejoiced in his fame as a playboy however has all the time denied the tryst with Daniels, which might have occurred simply after his third spouse Melania gave start.
He faces a sequence of separate prison investigations at state and federal stage that might lead to additional — extra severe — prices between now and Election Day.
They embrace his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss within the state of Georgia, his dealing with of categorised paperwork, and his involvement within the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Whereas Republicans have largely rallied round Trump, President Joe Biden — aware of his potential 2024 rival’s accusations that the judicial system is being politically “weaponized” — has shunned commenting in any element.
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