Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hold a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on April 12, 2024 in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Donald Trump said on Friday he would testify under oath in a criminal hush-money trial set to begin Monday in New York.
“All I can do is tell the truth,” said Trump, who has been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. “The truth is there is no case.”
Republican presidential candidates speak at conference press conference Meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, at Trump’s vacation home at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
The trial, the first ever against a former president, focuses on a hush-money payment made in late 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who said she had an extramarital affair with Trump years ago.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accused Trump of facilitating the payment and others’ illegal withholding of voter information ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which Trump ultimately won.
Trump is expected to appear throughout the trial, which could last more than six weeks.
When Trump was asked at Mar-a-Lago what he would be looking for when the jury selection process begins on Monday, he said, “Jury selection depends a lot on luck. It depends on who you pick. “
He went on to attack the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, again, accusing him of a conflict of interest that required him to recuse himself from the case.
Trump and his lawyers say the conflict is that Mocha’s daughter works for a Democratic political firm. Merchant rejected that argument last year, but Trump’s lawyers recently filed for recusal on similar grounds. Trump has repeatedly targeted the judge’s daughter on social media, prompting Mo Qian to expand the gag order against Trump.
Johnson’s leadership in the House of Representatives is widely divided and is being challenged from within the party. He had traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party and by far its most powerful member.
The two held a press conference to announce a bill aimed at strengthening the “integrity” of elections by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, even though it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote.