Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hold a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on April 12, 2024.
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Donald Trump said Friday that he will testify under oath in his hush money trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday in New York.
“All I can do is tell the truth,” said Trump, who is accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records, “and the truth is there is no case.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke at a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The trial – the first ever against a former president – centers on a hush money payment in late 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had an extramarital affair with Trump years ago.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of facilitating that payment and others to unlawfully hide information from voters in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, which Trump would later win.
Trump is expected to be in court throughout the trial, which could last more than six weeks.
Asked at Mar-a-Lago what he would pay attention to when the jury selection process begins Monday, Trump said: “Jury selection is largely a matter of luck. It depends on who you get.”
He then attacked presiding judge Juan Merchan again, accusing him of a conflict of interest that required his recuse from the case.
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Trump and his lawyers said the conflict was that Merchan’s daughter worked for a Democratic political firm. Merchan rejected that argument last year, but Trump’s lawyers recently filed another motion to dismiss on similar grounds. Trump has repeatedly targeted the judge’s daughter on social media, prompting Merchan to extend a gag order against Trump.
Johnson, whose role as leader of the closely divided House of Representatives is being questioned within his own party, had traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, the GOP’s de facto leader and by far its most influential member.
The two men held a news conference to announce a bill that would supposedly strengthen the “integrity” of elections by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, even though voting is already illegal for non-citizens.
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2024-04-12 21:59:18
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