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Hours after he was charged in a Manhattan court on 34 felony counts, former President Trump delivered an angry response to the prosecution at a campaign-style rally that showcased the new attention pumped into his bid for a second White House term.
Mr. Trump leveled broadsides against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who on Tuesday charged the former president with falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid to adult performer Stormy Daniels and others ahead of the 2016 election.
“The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” Mr. Trump said in the 25-minute speech.
Mr. Trump took aim at several other prosecutors and investigators behind a litany of civil and criminal probes he’s facing in what he called “massive election interference on a scale never seen before in this country.”
Mr. Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, dismissed the “ridiculous” indictment brought against him by Mr. Bragg. He told the crowd that “every single legal analyst and pundit said, there is no case, there is no case.”
He said Mr. Bragg knew there was no case but pushed forward with the indictment under pressure from the left and then tipped off the media to his plans.
“The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amount of grand jury material,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Bragg has denied leaking anything from the grand jury.
Mr. Trump looked somber in the courtroom entering his plea of not guilty and was subdued when he address the crowd in the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
He used the prime-time address to take on others pursuing him with legal action. He attacked “lunatic special prosecutor” Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed to investigate Mr. Trump’s involvement in provoking the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and separately, his possession of classified documents at his residence and office at his private Mar-a-Lago club.
