Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump continues to make false claims about his New York trial.
President Trump frequently speaks to media cameras before and after entering a Manhattan courtroom where he faces charges of falsifying business records.
He peppers his hallway remarks with inaccurate assertions on a variety of subjects, but most often about the trial itself.
Below is a fact check of four false claims and one misleading claim he made about the trial in court comments last week. (And here’s a link to a fact check about his courtroom falsehoods from the week before.)
After leaving court Thursday afternoon, Trump falsely claimed he was not allowed to testify in his own defense, then admitted Friday morning that he was, in fact, allowed to testify.
playing cards Said The reporters said Thursday, “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order, right? “I am not allowed to testify because of this,” he added. He went on to complain that he was “not allowed to speak” even when attacked by others, adding, “That means I’m not allowed to testify because of the unconstitutional gag order.”
facts first: Mr. Trump’s claims are false. As he stated the next day, he was allowed to testify at trial. The decision is completely up to him. Judge Juan Melchan’s gag orderIt severely restricts his speech outside of court, but does not in any way prevent him from testifying. Furthermore, the gag order does not broadly prevent President Trump from speaking. He has been cleared to speak to the media, speak at campaign events, attack President Joe Biden and other political opponents, and even attack Marchand and Manhattan. The district attorney is behind the incident.
On Friday morning, Trump told reporters as he entered the courtroom: “No, I’m not going to stop testifying. The gag order is not for testimony.[ing]. The gag order prevents me from talking about people or reacting when they say something about me. Shortly after, as court proceedings began, Marchan told President Trump that he had an “absolute” right to testify and that the gag order “does not prevent him from being on the stand, but rather what he can say.” It is not intended to limit or minimize the
Rather, the gag order prohibits President Trump from three specific categories of speech:
1) To speak publicly, or to direct another person to speak publicly, about known or foreseeable witnesses, especially their participation in the case.
2) speaking publicly, or directing others to speak publicly, about prosecutors (other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg), district attorney staff and court staff, or family members of such persons, including Mr. Bragg; (if these statements were made). Intent to interfere with the event.
3) speaking publicly or directing another person to speak publicly about a juror or prospective juror;
President Trump has repeatedly made the gag order sound much broader than it actually is. At Wednesday’s campaign rally in Michigan, he claimed, “I’m not even supposed to talk to you because he gagged me,” when in reality the gag order was a sign of his election. It did not interfere with the speech.
“The defendant has a constitutional right to speak freely with American voters and to defend himself in public,” Machan wrote in the gag order.
President Trump’s public positions on whether to testify have varied. “I will testify,” he declared before the trial began, but in a television interview last week he said he would testify “if necessary.” Thursday was the first time he publicly claimed he was not authorized to testify.
President Trump and bail money
President Trump said, “New York City is a violent city. Cashless bail has made it violent. I’m the only one who has to pay the bail.”
facts first: Mr. Trump’s claims are false. Like many other New York defendants with criminal charges, Nonviolencehe There was no need to pay bail.. After his arraignment in 2023, he was released on his own recognizance, meaning without posting any cash.
Trump did have to post $200,000 bail (he contributed 10% himself and worked with a bail bond company to cover the rest) for a separate election-tampering incident in Fulton County, Georgia. But Mr. Trump’s clear signal Friday was that he was being treated uniquely harshly. In New York.He was released on his own recognizance in two years Federal criminal case — One case was filed in Washington, D.C., over attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and the other in Florida over the retention of classified documents after the president took office.
President Trump’s claim that New York City is a “violent city” is subjective. But it’s worth noting that violent crime in the city has plummeted over the past two decades, that the city’s crime rate is much lower than many other communities large and small across the country, and that New York State’s bail reform efforts It is an influence. There is debate about the city’s recent crime levels.
Trump continued Friday to complain that his New York trial prevented him from campaigning. This time he said: “We were already being rated down. A few months ago we were rated where we are today in Georgia. By the way, we’re doing very well in the polls. But there That’s where we were supposed to be. Tomorrow we’re going to be in Ohio and the next day we’re going to be campaigning, campaigning. So now I have to go through this challenge day in and day out. not.”
facts first: President Trump’s claim that the court case is preventing him from campaigning this weekend is false. Since the trial won’t be held on the weekend (or Wednesday), he was free to campaign wherever he wanted on Saturday and the next day, when he was scheduled to fly to Florida. Trump was scheduled to headline in private. A fundraising luncheon for the Republican National Committee was held Saturday at his Mar-a-Lago club.and was expected to compete in Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix F1 race.
There is no apparent basis for Trump’s claim that he was supposed to be in Ohio on Saturday. He is scheduled to visit the state on May 15, a non-trial Wednesday. And while it’s unclear what his campaign has “deducted” internally, he has never publicly scheduled a campaign event in Georgia for Friday.
playing cards He held campaign rallies in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, and was scheduled to hold a rally in North Carolina the previous Saturday, but the campaign was canceled due to inclement weather. But he regularly declines to visit battleground states or hold public events on days when he is not in court, instead hosting dinners and meetings at Trump Tower in Manhattan or golfing at a club in Bedminster, New Jersey. I am choosing to do this.
President Trump and “Advisor Advice”
President Trump complained on Tuesday that he was not allowing Marchan to invoke advice he claimed he received from his lawyer. Criminal defendants sometimes use the “advice of counsel” defense to prove that they did not intend to violate the law.
“You can’t even say ‘advice of an attorney’ here. This is new to me, ‘advice of an attorney,'” Trump told reporters outside court. “When you have a lawyer and that lawyer does something to you or advises you about something, we say “advice of a lawyer.” He said he wasn’t allowed to say that. ”
facts first: Mr. Trump’s claims are misleading. He did not say why Marchan would not allow Trump’s defense team to invoke the “advice of counsel” defense during the trial, but he did not say why Marchan would not allow Trump’s defense team to invoke the “advice of counsel” defense before the trial. When asked whether he would do so, he said: his lawyer I told Machan I wouldn’t do that..
The “advice of attorney” defense typically requires the defendant to waive the attorney-client privilege. Mr. Trump’s lawyers told Mr. Marchand before the trial that in lieu of the “formal” defense of “advice of counsel,” Mr. He said he was hoping for a different defense: “I’ll bring it out.” Counsel’s advice in the relevant case that gave rise to the charges in the indictment. ”
Mr Marchand rejected this proposal. he wrote in March. “Admitting the said defense in this case would effectively allow the defendant to invoke the very defense he declared not to rely, without any attendant obligation.The result would undoubtedly be to confuse the jury; It would be misleading. This court cannot support such a tactic.”
Therefore, Marchand ruled that Trump could not invoke or even suggest the “presence of counsel” defense at trial.
Biden and the incident
Trump continued to claim that Biden orchestrated the incident. “They’re making me sit here for Biden’s trial. It’s Biden’s trial,” he said during his court appearance Tuesday.
Facts first: President Trump’s claims have no basis. There is no evidence that Mr. Biden played any role in initiating or managing Mr. Bragg’s prosecution, and Mr. Bragg is a local elected official who does not report to the federal government.of indictment The lawsuit was approved by a grand jury of members of the public.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly called out Matthew Colangelo, a lawyer on Mr. Bragg’s team, while making such claims. Mr. Colangelo left the Justice Department in 2022 to join the district attorney’s office as a senior advisor to Mr. Bragg. But there is no evidence that Biden had anything to do with Colangelo’s hiring decision. Mr. Colangelo and Mr. Bragg were colleagues before Mr. Bragg was elected Manhattan district attorney in 2021.
Before Mr. Colangelo worked at the Justice Department, he and Mr. Bragg worked simultaneously in the New York State Attorney General’s Office, where Mr. Colangelo investigated Mr. Trump’s philanthropic activities and Mr. Trump’s financial practices and filed various charges against the Trump administration. was involved in filing a lawsuit.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this article.
