Former President Donald Trump told reporters inside a New York City courthouse Monday the civil fraud case against him is an attempt by “corrupt” prosecutors to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
The former president arrived in New York City late Sunday for his Monday trial regarding a lawsuit brought forth by New York Attorney General Letitia James in Sept. 2022. The lawsuit is seeking $250 million in damages over allegations that Trump and his business associates, including family members, committed fraud and overvalued Trump’s properties and wealth.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Tuesday that Trump and The Trump Organization were liable for fraud because they exaggerated his net worth and manipulated his assets, which deceived banks and insurance companies during operations.
The former president entered the courthouse Monday morning and told reporters “corrupt people” are politically attacking him. He continues to deny any wrongdoing in relation to this case.
“This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. We have a rogue judge who ruled the properties are worth a tiny fraction of 1/100th, a tiny fraction of what they actually are. We have a racist attorney general who’s a horror show, who ran on the basis that she was gonna get Trump before she even knew anything about me,” Trump said. “She used this to run for governor. She failed in her attempt to run for governor. She had virtually no polling. She came back, and she said, ‘well, now I’ll go back to get Trump again.’ And this is what we have. It’s a scam. It’s a sham.”
Trump said his financial records are excellent and denied the accusations that any bank had been harmed by his net worth claims. He said the banks were represented by the best law firms in New York and received the money owed to them. (RELATED: Appeals Court Rejects Trump’s Request To Delay Trial Set To Begin Early Next Week)
“There was no crime. The crime is against me because we have a corrupt district attorney, but we have a corrupt attorney general, and it all comes down from the DOJ,” Trump continued. “They totally coordinated this in Washington because I’m leading. I’m the leading candidate. I’m leading Biden by ten points, and I’m leading the Republicans by 50 and 60 points. That’s pretty much, they say over. I never accept that, but they say it’s over. This has to do with election interference, plain and simple. They’re trying to damage me so I don’t do as well as I’m doing in the election.”
“Our country has gone to hell. We have a country that’s in decline, serious decline. We have a man running our country [President Joe Biden] who has no clue what he’s doing … so, what we have here is an attempt to hurt me in an election,” he added. “It’s an attempt to hurt me in an election. This has never happened before. Where a President of the United States leaves office and gets indicted, and the reason I got indicted was that I ran. If I didn’t run, I would be sitting on the beach like Biden does every time even though he’s supposed to be working.”
Trump argued James and the “corrupt” officials in the Department of Justice (DOJ) brought the case against him now during his 2024 candidacy instead of years before because of his success in the 2024 presidential primary polls.
“It’s all run by DOJ which is corrupt in Washington. Everything goes through them. They’re all corrupt people. Frankly, our country is corrupt. And that’s one of the reasons I’m running. We’re gonna straighten it out,” the former president said.
He said Engoron, who is presiding over the trial, is an unopposed “politician” who is intentionally attempting to politically attack Trump through the ruling. He alleged Engoron “overplayed his hand” and thus should be investigated for “undervaluing” his properties.