Ex-President Donald Trump suffered a major meltdown this week following the fifth day of his criminal hush money trial in New York, RadarOnline.com can report.
In the latest development to come after Trump became the first former U.S. president to appear in court on criminal charges this month, he raged about the ongoing proceedings and the allegations against him shortly after court wrapped up on Monday.
According to Trump, he is “totally innocent” in connection to the 34 counts of falsifying New York business records charged against him.
He also complained that the ongoing proceedings were “very unfair” because he “should be in a lot of places campaigning” for the 2024 presidential election rather than “sitting” inside a Manhattan courtroom.
“I should be in Georgia right now. I should be in Florida right now. I should be in a lot of places campaigning right now,” Trump fumed outside the courtroom on Monday afternoon. “Instead, I’m sitting here and this trial will go on for a very long time.”
“It’s very unfair,” he continued. “People in the court just said to me: I can’t believe it.”
The embattled 45th president once again blamed President Joe Biden for the ongoing criminal trial – although, according to Trump, the criminal hush money case has only improved his own poll numbers.
“This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump claimed on Monday afternoon. “So far it’s not working because my poll numbers are higher than they’ve ever been.”
Meanwhile, the embattled ex-president also raged against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his former attorney-turned-key witness, Michael Cohen.
Although Judge Juan Merchan imposed a gag order against Trump to prevent Trump from attacking witnesses in the case, that did not appear to stop the ex-president on Monday.
“They called a payment to a lawyer a legal expense in the books,” Trump explained during his nearly eight-minute diatribe outside the courtroom. “They didn’t call it construction. They didn’t say you’re building a building.”
“It was called a payment to a lawyer because, as you know, Cohen is a lawyer,” he continued. “He represented a lot of people over the years. I’m not the only one.”
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“And he wasn’t very good in a lot of ways in terms of his representation,” Trump added, “but he represented a lot of people.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump remains on trial for the alleged falsification of New York business records to hide hush money payments made to two women ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The trial kicked off with jury selection on Monday, April 15 – making Trump the first former U.S. president in history to appear in court to face criminal charges.
The trial picked back up on Monday morning with opening statements. The jury also heard from the case’s first witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, shortly before the day’s proceedings were adjourned.