Former President Donald Trump recently claimed that the witnesses in his hush money trial were “literally crucified” after he was convicted by a New York jury via Mediaite.
On Thursday, a 12-person jury unanimously convicted Trump on all 34 counts for falsifying business documents regarding hush money payments during the 2016 election season. Prosecutors noted that the payments made to adult star Stormy Daniels by Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen were concealed to hide their alleged affair.
After becoming a convicted felon, Trump slammed Judge Juan Merchan, claiming that he favored the prosecution and that the trial was “rigged.” The former president reiterated those criticisms during a Friday news conference at Trump Tower.
Trump then reckoned that Merchan appears “so nice and soft” but in reality he is “really a devil” who put his defense witnesses “through hell.” The Republican nominee further added that his witnesses “were literally crucified by this man.”
“So we have a judge who is highly conflicted. You know what the confliction is? Nobody nobody wants to write about it. And I’m not allowed to talk about it if I do, he said, I get put in jail. So we’ll play that game a little bit longer. We won’t talk about it, but you’re allowed to talk about it. I hope you do, because there’s never been anybody so conflicted as this. As far as the trial itself, it was very unfair. We weren’t allowed to be allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances. You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side. They were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel. But he’s really a devil. He looks so nice and soft. People say, oh, he seems like such a nice man. No. Unless you saw him in action. And you saw that. With a certain witness that went through hell. And when we wanted to do things, he wouldn’t let him. He wouldn’t let us do those things. But when the government wanted something, they got everything. They got everything they wanted. It was a rigged trial.”
