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Former President Donald Trump condemned the criminal charges he faced in New York Tuesday night, saying to a crowd of supporters that “the only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it.”
Trump flew back to his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida following his arraignment in Manhattan.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America. Never thought it could happen,” Trump said during his opening remarks.
Trump went on to group the indictment — stemming from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign — with various other legal and political threats he’s faced, dismissing them all, CNN reports
He repeated his claim that the prosecution is meant to derail his candidacy.
“This fake case was brought only to interfere with the upcoming 2024 election. And it should be dropped immediately,” he said.
Throughout his remarks, Trump was dismissive of the case presented by prosecutors.
“As it turns out, virtually everybody that has looked at this case including RINOs and even hardcore Democrats say there is no crime, and that it should never have been brought. Never have been brought. Never brought it,” he said.
Trump also went to attack the other legal threats still percolating, including an investigation in Georgia into election interference, a DOJ investigation into his handling of classified documents post-presidency and an investigation by the New York attorney general into the Trump Organization.
Trump said, of the case being led by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, that she is “doing everything in her power to indict me over an absolutely perfect phone call, even more perfect than the one I made with the president of Ukraine.”
