Donald Trump has lashed out at the ongoing criminal case against him, including asking why he is in court over "legal fees" he paid towards his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump questioned why Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office charged him with falsifying business records over money he arranged Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair she had with the former president a secret ahead of the 2016 election.
The $130,000 sum was listed in Trump's company records as "legal fees," which prosecutors allege was part of an unlawful attempt to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential race. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.
"The Corrupt Soros Funded District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, who has totally lost control of Violent Crime in New York, says that the payment of money to a lawyer, for legal services rendered, should not be referred to in a Ledger as LEGAL EXPENSE," Trump wrote.
"What other term would be more appropriate??? Believe it or not, this is the pretext under which I was Indicted, and that Legal Scholars and Experts CANNOT BELIEVE. It is also the perfect Crooked Joe Biden NARRATIVE—To be STUCK in a courtroom, and not be allowed to campaign for President of the United States!"
The Context
Trump made history on April 15 when he became the first former president in U.S. history to appear in court facing criminal prosecution.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in relation to the hush money he arranged Cohen to pay Daniels to keep the alleged affair she and the former president had a secret, which was listed as "legal fees."
Trump admits reimbursing the $130,000 hush money to Cohen but denies having an affair with Daniels.
What We Know
The jury has now been seated in the historical trial, with proceedings continuing on Monday with opening statements and the first witnesses' testimonies.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has long accused the criminal case of being a "witch hunt" which aims to stop him winning the 2024 election.
The former president is under a gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan to stop Trump publicly speaking about jurors, potential witnesses, court staff or their families during the proceedings. However, the gag order does not restrict Trump from making statements about Merchan, Bragg, or the case against him.
Bragg's office has been contacted for comment via email.
The former president has also frequently tried to attack Bragg by tying him to George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who frequently donates the Democratic and liberal causes.
The 93-year-old, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who lived through the Holocaust as a child, has also frequently been the target of far-right and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
In May 2023, Soros denied to Semafor that he ever donated to Bragg's election campaign. Soros did contribute to the Color of Change PAC, a non-profit that promotes criminal justice which also spent around $500,000 supporting Bragg, reported CNN.
However, Soros's spokesperson said that the around $4 million he donated to Color of Change's PAC down the years was never "earmarked" for Bragg's campaign, and he and Bragg have "never ever meet in person or spoken by telephone, email, Zoom etc. There has been no contact between the two."
Soros' son Jonathan and daughter-in-law Jennifer did donate more than $20,000 combined to Bragg's 2021 campaign.
Views
Trump's campaign team in a Sunday statement: "President Trump did nothing wrong. These charges are entirely fabricated in order to interfere in the election and distract from the failed presidency of Crooked Joe Biden."
Soros denied financial ties to Bragg in May 2023: "As a matter of fact I did not contribute to his campaign and I don't know him. I think some on the right would rather focus on far-fetched conspiracy theories than on the serious charges against the former president."
What's Next
The trial in New York continues on Monday, with proceedings expected to last for several more weeks.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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