Former President Donald J. Trump, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida Tuesday night after his entrenchment in New York, cast the case against him as unfair and politically motivated in a speech unusually short 21-minute session that focused on other complaints and investigations.
Accompanied by his family, Republican Party officials and allies, Trump branded Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg a “criminal,” claiming without evidence that Bragg leaked grand jury information.
Trump also said that the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, “is someone who hates Trump and has a wife and family who hate Trump.”
In court during his detention, Judge Merchan warned Trump about his public statements, urging him to stop commenting on the case “due to the potential for inciting violence and social unrest.”
In his speech, which was broadcast live on CNN and Fox News, Trump spent most of his time commenting on other things he perceives to be against him.
He again criticized the search carried out by the FBI in Mar-a-Lago in August, the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into him and his family’s businesses and the case that is open in Georgia about his intervention. in the 2020 election at that location.
“This is a prosecution, not an investigation,” he said of the New York attorney general case.
In anticipation of Trump’s remarks, cable television and national news outlets provided minute-by-minute updates throughout the day.
The former president declined to speak to reporters in New York, instead saving his remarks for his primetime speech when he returned home to Florida.
His remarks represent a strategy that has become commonplace for Trump: blurring the line between his courtroom battles and his political opponents in order to sway public opinion about his arrest while enthusing—and getting contributions to—his campaign—from his supporters.
