“First of all, I want to wish my wife Melania a happy birthday. It would be nice to be with her, but I’m in the courthouse for a rigged trial,” Donald Trump said outside the courtroom on Friday. The 77-year-old added that Melania was celebrating her 54th birthday in the state of Florida, where he also planned to fly there following the meeting.
Trump is on trial in the context of suppressing a sex scandal. The prosecution accuses him of wanting to influence the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election by paying $130,000 (121,268.66 euros) in hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels.
“It’s a manipulated process”
The transaction itself was not illegal, but when returning the money to his lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump falsified business documents to conceal their actual purpose, according to the allegations. The payment of the sum itself is undisputed.
Image: JEENAH MOON (POOL)
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Image: JEENAH MOON (POOL)
Trump regularly uses the globally acclaimed criminal trial in New York – the first ever once morest a former US president – for campaign appearances in front of the courtroom. On Friday, he complained once more regarding the temperature in room 1530, which he felt was too low: “We have another day in court, an ice-cold courthouse. I think it’s intentionally very cold here,” said Trump. “We have an ice-cold courthouse, and that’s fine – it’s just fine,” Trump complained anyway, suggesting that the courtroom temperature was harassment once morest him personally: “It’s a rigged process.”
