Examining Trump’s Claims on His Arrest and Arraignment
In a speech from Mar-a-Lago hours after pleading not guilty to criminal charges in Manhattan, and in social media posts, former President Donald Trump has said the case against him is unfair. Here, we explain his attacks on the prosecutor, judge and venue.
Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records “to conceal crimes that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on April 4. As we’ve explained, the case centers on allegations that Trump, shortly before the 2016 election, paid to silence a porn star, who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump, and then falsified business records to conceal state and federal election law violations.
The court documents cite two other alleged payments to suppress negative information about Trump.
Trump spoke for less than a half hour and recycled false claims and old grievances about voter fraud, the Russia investigation and the FBI investigation of his handling of classified documents. We focus on his claims about his criminal indictment — the first ever filed against a former president of the United States.
The George Soros Connection
As he has in the recent past, Trump accused liberal billionaire George Soros of financing Bragg’s election as district attorney in 2021. In his April 4 remarks at Mar-a-Lago, Trump called Bragg a “George Soros-backed prosecutor.”
Soros did not directly contribute to Bragg’s campaign, which reported raising nearly $3.2 million for his election after Bragg announced in June 2019 that he would run for Manhattan DA.
However, , Soros did contribute
