Former President Donald Trump wished his wife Melania Trump a happy birthday on Friday before stepping into a New York City courtroom to continue an ongoing criminal trial over an alleged non-disclosure payment he made in 2016.
“I want to start by wishing my wife, Melania, a very happy birthday,” President Trump said outside the courtroom. “It would be nice to be with her but I’m in a courthouse for a rigged trial. It’s a rigged trial. Terrible.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought charges against the former president for an alleged hush money payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, arranged in 2016 to suppress allegations being raised by adult performer Stephanie Clifford, known in the business as Stormy Daniels, that she and then-candidate Trump had had an affair years earlier. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office contends that this effort to pay Ms. Clifford to enter into a non-disclosure agreement and remain silent about the alleged affair was done in an effort to protect Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and that the payment thus constitutes an illicit campaign donation.
Mr. Bragg’s office has charged President Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records, arguing that by listing periodic reimbursements to Mr. Cohen for Ms. Clifford’s non-disclosure agreement as a “legal expense,” the former president had created false records of his business expenses.
Since accepting the non-disclosure payment, Ms. Clifford has come forward anyway, alleging she had an affair with the media and real estate mogul in 2006, while his wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant with their son, Barron Trump.
Melania Trump is remaining in Florida for the duration of the trial. The former first lady of the United States has not joined her husband at the New York courthouse so far during the trial.
“I’ll be going [to Florida] this evening after this case finishes up; this horrible, unconstitutional case,” President Trump said before entering the courtroom on Friday.
President Trump’s comments about being away from his wife on her birthday mark at least the second occasion on which he has lamented that the New York trial is pulling him away from his family.
On April 15, President Trump’s legal team requested that his trial be paused on May 17 so he could attend Barron Trump’s high school graduation. Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the case, declined to rule on the former president’s request for an accommodation to attend his son’s graduation, instead saying whether he will eventually grant the request “really depends on how we’re doing on time and where we are in the trial.” Judge Merchan further warned that he would order President Trump’s arrest if he didn’t show up for his court dates.
Commenting to the press on Friday, President Trump said that despite a “rigged trial” keeping him from his wife on her birthday, he felt confident in his trial odds.
“We’re doing very well in this rigged trial,” he said. “Everybody knows it.”
Speaking before the trial on Friday, the former president said, “Yesterday was a big day.”
On Thursday, Mr. Bragg’s prosecution team concluded their initial examination of witness David Pecker, the former publisher for the National Enquirer. Prosecutors had asked Mr. Pecker on the stand about past arrangements he had made to buy up the rights to salacious celebrity gossip stories, including those involving Donald Trump.
Mr. Pecker described engaging in “checkbook journalism” whereby his publication would buy up story rights, and prevent those stories from ever being published if they were paid. He described engaging in these business practices with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen.
