Former President Donald Trump said he views his indictment charges as a “badge of honor” during a Sunday Fox Business interview with Maria Bartiromo.
The former president faces two separate indictments, the first brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the other by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed to oversee the documents case. Bragg’s office indicted Trump in relation to his former attorney Michael Cohen allegedly paying $130,000 in hush money to former porn star Stormy Daniels, and the second indictment charges the former president with 34 counts for storing classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago residence.
Trump equated his charges to his fight for the American people, and claimed Bragg’s office and the Biden administration’s Department of Justice are intentionally targeting him.
“The people of our country get it. As far as I’m concerned, I consider it a badge of honor. To be indicted, I would consider a badge because I am doing it for the country and I am doing it for the people,” Trump said.
“Look, I’m fighting for, I think 225-250 million people. I think that’s the real number, okay? I’m fighting for a lot of people. That’s much more important than me.” (RELATED: Trump Admits It Was ‘Probably’ A Mistake To Hire FBI Director Christopher Wray)
He then compared the criminal charges of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to the first son Hunter Biden, who agreed to plead guilty to illegally purchasing a gun and to failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018 in exchange for avoiding jail time. A jury found Manafort guilty on eight counts of tax evasion and bank fraud in 2018.
“Hunter Biden got a traffic ticket,” Trump said. “Compare Hunter Biden to Paul Manafort. Paul Manafort was put in solitary confinement, they wanted to destroy him. All they wanted him to do was say something bad about me. This guy had tremendous courage. He said ‘I’m not gonna lie. I can’t say anything bad. Trump is a great president. He’s a great president, I’m not gonna do it.’ He went into solitary confinement over nothing compared to what Hunter Biden’s done.”
Trump warned other Republican presidents will be falsely charged and intentionally targeted by federal prosecutors.
“The point is this. Any other Republican that gets this position will be attacked the same way. These are fascists, they’re communists, they’re Marxist, they’re radical left Democrats. They’re sick people,” he concluded.
The former president said the indictment is “ridiculous” and has continued to deny any wrongdoing. He pleaded not guilty to the charges brought by Bragg and the 34 counts related to the classified documents.
