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After a long first day of court at his New York criminal trial, President Donald J. Trump gave brief remarks to reporters waiting for his departure from the courthouse.
“We had some amazing things happen today. As you know, my son is graduating from high school, and it looks like the judge will not let me go to the graduation of my son, who’s worked very, very hard. He’s a great student. I’m very proud of the fact that he did so well,” said the 45th president, lamenting that his son will not be able to have “his mother and father there” with him.
“It looks like the judge isn’t going to allow me to escape this SCAM,” Trump asserted. In fact, if Trump misses a day in court, Judge Merchan has threatened to issue a warrant for his arrest.
On the nonexistent merits of the case, President Trump, the GOP nominee, said, “It’s a scam trial. If you read all of the legal pundits, all of the legal scholars today, there’s not one that I see that said this is a case that should be brought or tried. It’s a scam. It’s a political witch hunt. It continues – it continues forever. And we’re not going to be given a fair trial. It’s a very, very sad thing.”
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley expressed his dismay at the weaponization of the justice system against Trump on Monday afternoon. In an analysis, he quoted Roman philosopher and orator Cicero, writing, “The more laws, the less justice.” He added that Judge Merchan and the New York prosecutors “appear eager to prove that the same is true” in Trump’s “hush money” case, where he faces 34 felony counts.
President Trump switched gears to the U.S. Supreme Court hearing on Thursday, April 25. The nation’s highest court will hear his legal team’s arguments on presidential immunity.
“In addition, there’s, you know, next Thursday, we’re before the United States Supreme Court in a very big hearing on immunity. And this is something that we’ve been waiting for a long time, and the judge is, of course, is not going to allow us. He’s a very conflicted judge and he’s not going to allow us to go to that. He won’t allow me to leave here for half a day to go to D.C. and go before the United States Supreme Court because he thinks he’s superior, I guess, to the Supreme Court,” he said.
“We got a real problem with this judge. We have a real problem with a lot of things having to do with this trial, including the DA, because you go right outside, and people are being mugged and killed all day long, and he’s sitting here all day with about 10 or 12 prosecutors over nothing. Over nothing. Over what people say shouldn’t be a trial,” said the 45th president.
In a powerful closing encapsulating the gravity of this trial, President Trump told reporters:
“Now, I can’t go to my son’s graduation, I can’t go to the United States Supreme Court, that I’m not in Georgia or Florida or North Carolina, campaigning like I should be. It’s perfect for the radical left Democrats, that’s exactly what they want. This is about election interference, that’s all it’s about. Thank you.”