Donald Trump, former US president, attacked his successor Joe Biden saying that the “country is going to hell” hours after being charged over hush money payments to a porn star.The 76-year-old, who pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts, was addressing his supporters and the media from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America — never thought it could happen,” he said, adding “the only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it”.
A New York judge released Donald Trump from custody without any pre-trial restrictions at a historic arraignment Tuesday where the ex-president was charged with 34 counts related to hush money payments ahead of the 2016 election.
Despite strict warning from the magisterate, the 76 year old republican in a social media post from his plane on his flight home from New York, former President Donald Trump said that Tuesday’s court hearing “was shocking to many in that they had no ‘surprises,’ and therefore, no case. Virtually every legal pundit has said that there is no case here. There was nothing done illegally!”
“Donald J. Trump repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said.
In response Trump pleaded not guilty in the hour long hearing trial of which could begin Jan 2024. He left the courtroom without making any statements.He is next due in court in December. Trump’s lawyers asked for him to be excused from attending the hearing in person because of extraordinary security precautions.
Hundreds of raucous Donald Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters swarmed around a New York courthouse on Tuesday as the former president appeared for his historic arraignsaid” on charges related to hush-money payments. Hours before Trump turned himself in on Tuesday afternoon, crowds of people whistled, shouted and waved placards in support of Trump, who has already announced his candidacy for president in 2024.
Donald Trump is the first sitting or former US president to face criminal charges. Trump is accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about a 2006 sexual encounter. A payment of $30,000 was made through an intermediary to a former Trump Tower doorman who was claiming that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.