Former President Trump has revealed what he wished he had done in his hush money trial in Manhattan. During a speech he gave from Trump Tower in New York on Friday morning, he said that he wished he had testified in court.
“I would have testified. I wanted to testify,” he stated, suggesting that he was advised not to testify in the case in which he faced 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal payment made as part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election.
Trump says he would have 'loved' to testify in New York criminal trial https://t.co/lRA9czDRDU
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“The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify – anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they’ll sue you for perjury,” Trump explained, adding, “But I didn’t care about that. I wanted to.”
Poking holes into how the trial was conducted, Trump added that Judge Juan Merchan “allowed them to go into everything that I was ever involved in. Not this case – everything that I was ever involved in, which is a first.”
“In other words, you could go into every single thing that I ever did. Was he a bad boy here? Was he a bad boy there? And my lawyer said, ‘Why do you need to go through it? All you wanted to do is testify simply on this case.’ Because I would have loved to have testified, to this day I would have liked to have testified,” he stated.
“But you would have been, you would have said something out of whack like it was a beautiful sunny day, and it was actually raining out,” he continued.
Just a day before, Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts filed against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Sentencing is set for July 11. But the Republican presidential candidate is not giving in to the conviction, as he has vowed to take up an appeal
According to him, fighting the case is “far beyond” him.
“And this can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents. It should never be allowed to happen in the future. But this is far beyond me. This is bigger than Trump. This is bigger than me. This is bigger than my presidency,” he stated further, per Fox News.
“We’re losing our country,” he continued, adding, “And I really think that this is an event… what took place yesterday with this judge that we have conflicted… he’s a crooked judge. And you’ll understand that. And I say that knowing that it’s very dangerous for me to say that. And I don’t mind because I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and to save our Constitution. I don’t mind.”
