The presumptive GOP nominee will stand trial Monday in the first criminal trial of a former president. At this point, Trump is used to trying to leverage his appearances as part of his campaign.
Former President Donald Trump will have a new rally arena on Monday: the hallways of the Manhattan Criminal Court.
Next week marks the start of the first criminal trial featuring a former president of the United States. As he’s competing for voters across the country as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump will be required to be in New York every day of the trial, which is expected to be four days a week for at least six weeks.
At this point, Trump is used to the halls of Manhattan courthouses as an extension of his campaign trail to protest the charges and motivate his base.
« This is the single greatest witch hunt of all time, » Trump said in October outside of a courthouse where he was tried for business fraud. « They’re trying to damage me so I don’t do as well as I am doing in the election. »
His claims have echoed across the country, as he falsely casts separate state and federal indictments as part of a partisan conspiracy against him.
« Their whole plan is to go after Trump in every way possible, especially criminally and legally, » Trump said in Rome, Ga., last month. « I come home to our wonderful first lady who had never heard the word indictment. Neither did I until I got indicted so many times in the last few months. »
To cheering crowds and pointed cameras in both places, Trump lobs personal insults at judges and prosecutors across all of his 88 charges, in some cases leading to gag orders.
The charges in Monday’s trial, brought by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, allege that Trump falsified New York business records to conceal damaging information before the 2016 presidential election.
