In remarks that could best be described as a rant, former President Donald Trump spoke out Friday against a “very unfair” trial wherein a “devil" — Judge Juan Merchan — supposedly prevented him from being exonerated.
“I would have testified, I wanted to testify,” Trump told reporters. He said the prevailing “theory” is that one must should never testify, even “if it were George Washington,” because a single untruth could be charged as perjury, but he “didn’t care” and still wanted to testify.
Trump then launched into another bizarre attack against the judge in his case, claiming he was the reason he never took the stand in his own defense.
“Was he a bad boy here? Was he a bad boy there?” Trump said, claiming Merchan let prosecutors "go into everything that I was ever involved in." That's why he didn't speak, Trump asserted: "I would have loved to have testified. To this day I would have liked to have testified.”
He again returned to Merchan, who will decide Trump's sentence at a July 11 hearing.
“You saw what happened to some of the witnesses who were on our side, they were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel but he’s really a devil,” Trump said. “He looks so nice and soft,” the former president continued, but he put people through “hell.”
Trump, who faces the prospect of prison, did not help himself with his remarks, Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis commented on social media.
“This press conference is not helping Trump," Kreis wrote. "He’d be better just keeping quiet but he’s begging for incarceration at this point."
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