Former President Donald Trump revealed that he would personally testify at any one of his looming trials in his own defense.
When asked by radio host Hugh Hewitt about the possibility on Wednesday, the former president said that “yes, absolutely” he would testify during one of his four trials. When asked about whether he would take the stand, he also said, “That, I would do—that, I look forward to ... at trial, I’ll testify.”
The former president faces four separate trials, including two brought by federal prosecutors that allege he mishandled classified documents and interfered in the 2020 election. The Fulton County district attorney’s office in Georgia charged President Trump and 18 other co-defendants in a racketeering scheme, alleging they participated in a plan to overturn the 2020 election results, while the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged him with falsifying business records in connection to the 2016 election.
He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges that were brought against him in Washington, D.C., Georgia, Florida, and New York.
During the interview, the former president did not indicate at which trial he would be willing to testify. Mr. Trump declined to testify in a civil battery and defamation trial that was brought by writer E. Jean Carroll this year. He also declined to testify during his second impeachment trial in 2021, although he has sat for closed-door depositions over the years.
“They’ll get dismissed, but we’re going to be asking, we’re going to be asking for dismissals of these politically motivated cases,” he said. “This is a scam. This is election interference,” he argued.
“Because that’s just like Russia, Russia, Russia,” President Trump continued to say, referring to the 2016 FBI investigation that was often leaked to the press that claimed the campaign was colluding with the Russian government to interfere in the 2016 election. A special counsel investigation did not find evidence of any Trump–Russia collaboration.
“Remember when the dossier came out and everyone said oh, that’s so terrible, that’s so terrible, and then it turned out to be it was a political report put out by Hillary Clinton and the DNC?” he said, referring to the collusion narrative that dominated cable news airwaves for several years. “They paid millions for it. They gave it to Christopher Steele. They paid millions and millions of dollars for it, and it was all fake.”
At one point, Mr. Hewitt asked Mr. Trump about the classified documents case: “If you do and they ask you on the stand, did you order anyone to move boxes, how will you answer?”
In response, President Trump stated, “I’m not answering that question for you, but I’m totally covered under the law
“If you read the Presidential Records Act, just read it. You take a look at it. I’m totally covered under the law. It’s a civil act. It’s civil. Now Biden had no civil act,” he said, referring to President Joe Biden having had classified documents in his possession from when he was vice president.
Elaborating, President Trump said that what the current president did is “criminal,” adding that “he doesn’t have a deranged person on his case. You know, they gave me deranged Jack Smith. He’s got a man who’s a normal person. What can I tell you?”
Despite the former president’s legal woes, he is close to—or, depending on the poll, is even leading—President Biden in the polls. A recent survey showed the President Trump outperformed his Democratic counterpart among unlikely voters in a hypothetical 2024 presidential matchup.
Released Wednesday, a Suffolk University-USA Today poll showed about 15 percent of unregistered voters said they preferred President Biden, 27.5 percent said they preferred President Trump, 28 percent said they preferred another candidate, and 8 percent said they preferred Green Party candidate Cornell West.
Among registered voters, when asked in the poll, some 13 percent said President Biden, 32 percent said President Trump, and about 33 percent said they were undecided or other. Another 3.5 percent said Mr. West or didn’t answer.
