Day 5 of the Hush Money trial
Donald Trump arrives in New York for a pivotal phase as the defense and prosecution deliver opening statements
Where's the Lonnie, Mr. Trump? Donald, where's the Maloney? Thank you very much
I just want to say, before we begin, these are all Biden trials. This is done as election interference
Everybody knows it. I'm here instead of being able to, be in Pennsylvania and Georgia and lots of other places campaigning
And it's very unfair. Fortunately, the poll numbers are very good. They've been going up because people understand what's going on
This is a witch hunt and it's a shame and it comes out of Washington. It's in coordination with Washington, everything, including the DA's office
It's in coordination with Washington. I just want people to understand that
This is done for purposes of hurting the opponent of the worst president in the history
of our country. Second of all, we have another trial going on right now. That's Letitia
James. She campaigned to the fact that I will get Trump, I'm going to get Trump, and it has to do
with a bond of $175 million. First of all, she doesn't want me to participate with financial
companies in New York, so we have a company, I guess, based in California. It's a bonding company
and I put up $175 million in cash, but she says the bonding company's not good. She doesn't
like the bonding company because she doesn't know if the collateral is good and I put up
$175 billion in cash and she's questioning the bonding company. Well, when you put up cash and the
number is $175, which is what we're supposed to be putting up, but I give it in cash, she shouldn't
be complaining about the bonding company. The bonding company would be good for it because I put up
the money. And I have plenty of money to put up, but nobody is going to be putting up with this
nobody's going to be listening or coming to New York. Any more businesses are going to be fleeing
because people are treated so badly. It's got to be the most unfriendly place to do business
and that's why businesses are leaving and people are leaving as migrants come in and take over our parks and our schools and everything else
So on the Leticia James case, she's the worst attorney general in the country, by the way
and she keeps a lot of business out of New York and businesses that are here are leaving, and that means jobs and a lot of revenue
Somebody's going to step in. The governor, somebody has to step in and do something because your business is a fling
But on Latisha James, the money was put up. It's $175 million
And I don't think she's complaining about me for the first time ever. She's complaining about the company
But why would she be doing that when I put up the money? So I just want you to know that
That's taking place in front of an extremely crazed judge. It's the most overturned judge in New York State
He was overturned four or five times on that case alone. That's, you know who it is
I don't have to mention names. I want to be nice. I want to be very nice. But a thing like that, I think like what's going on right here should never be happening
It's a very, very sad day in America, I can tell you that. Thank you very much
Where's the testified, Mr. Trump? Donald Trump sat just a few feet away from Colangelo as the prosecutor read out
their allegations of a criminal conspiracy. Though he has railed against the case and prosecutors on
social media for weeks, now he had to remain silent. Alina Haba spoke for Trump during recess
Good afternoon We just left court in the civil division with the other witchman with Ms. James to come here and see our client
The fact that we have two courts, not one, criminal and civil
Being used against one man because they cannot beat him in the polls is a disgrace in the American judicial system
He should not have two teams of lawyers here today. He should not even be here today because he did nothing wrong
It is the epitome of a witch hunt. I just left where a judge asked us whether our cash, cash bombed, cash, sitting in
Ms. James wanted to argue and say that our cash somehow isn't green enough. We wasted time
The judge made a comment saying he thought that money market accounts could go down under the amount
He doesn't even understand basic principles of finance, but this was the man that decided that we owed money and my client committed fraud
We are going to attack every single one. One hour, the Attorney General and that judge realized quickly
that they had no idea what they were talking about. We came to an agreement that everything would be the same
We would modify terms, and that was it. This is where your taxpay dollars are going, America
Right here, which hunt? After which hunt, President Trump's company was worth more in that case
case than it is now. And now what? We're here because of something that happened when he was in
the White House that wasn't even wrong. It was not wrong. You hire lawyers to solve problems
or solve those problems, you pay them. That's it. This is a joke. It's an affront to the
American Constitution. It's an affront to our judicial system, and it's an affront to every lawyer
that cares about their license, that cares about what is right and wrong. I am sick of coming in front
of the press and saying this, but you have to because you people need to understand what is going on
God forbid you put an accounting thing in for a legal counsel
It's legal counsel. And now our taxpayer dollars, my time, our attorney's fees, are all here because they're afraid of 2024
And you know what? They should be because the American people are not stupid. They see what's going on
Thank you. Alia, one question. There's some family who gets across the street
The former publisher of the National Inquirer David Pecker, who bought and buried damaging stories about Trump, is the first witness for the prosecution
He is the former CEO of American Media Inc., which published the National Inquirer tabloid in the period before the 2016 election
Prosecutors have claimed that, in August 2015, Pecker met with Trump and his then-personal fixer Michael Cohen at Trump Tower in Manhattan to discuss using the tabloid to suppress negative stories that might be
damage Trump's presidential run. The practice, known in media circles as catch and kill
involves buying the exclusive rights to stories but never publishing them. Pecker was only up for
about 30 minutes before the jury was excused. One juror had a dentist appointment, so the judge
decided the day was done. Tomorrow, Pecker will be back on the stand to continue his testimony
Here's what Trump said as he left court. I think it won't very well
So you heard that yourself. This is a case that nobody wanted to bring, including Alvin Brett
It was just at the last minute they decided that it's a case that if you're looking back
it goes back many, many years, 2015, maybe before that. And it a case as to bookkeeping which is a very minor thing thing in terms of the law in terms of all the violent crime that going on outside as we speak right outside as we speak But this is a case where you pay a lawyer as a lawyer and they call it a legal expense
That's the exact term they use, legal expense in the books. And another thing that wasn't even said was we never even deducted it as a tax deduction
So that takes a whole venture. Most people want to deduct everything
We never even took it as a tax deduction. But they called a payment to a lawyer a legal expense in the books
They didn't call it construction. They didn't say you're building a building. It called a payment to a lawyer
Because as you know, Cone is a lawyer. It represented a lot of people over the years
Now, I'm not the only one. And it wasn't very good in a lot of people
lot of ways in terms of his representation, but he represented a lot of people. But he puts in
an invoice or whatever, a bill, and they pay and they go in a legal expense. I got indicted for that
What else would you call it? Actually, nobody's been able to say what you're supposed to call it
If a lawyer puts in a bill or an invoice and you pay the bill and in the book, it's a little line
that's a very small little line. I don't know if you can even write more than two words
It's not like you could tell a life story. They marked it down to a legal expense
This is what I got indicted over. Think of it. I got indicted
I'm the leading candidate. I'm beating Biden. I'm beating the Republicans now
I have the nomination. And this is what they try and take me off the trail for
That checks being paid to a lawyer. He is a lawyer or was a lawyer
And also the things he got in trouble for were things that had nothing to do with me
He got in trouble and went to jail. This had nothing to do with me. This had to do with the taxi cab company that he owned
which is just something he owned, and medallions and borrow the money and a lot of things
but had nothing to do with me. He represented a lot of people over the years
But they take this payment, and they call it a legal expense
and you heard it today for the first time. This is what I got indicted over. This is what took me off and takes me off the campaign trail
Because I should be in Georgia now I should be in Florida now
I should be in a lot of different places right now campaigning And I'm sitting here
And this will go on for a long time It's very unfair
The judges conflicted as you know It's very unfair what's going on
And I should be allowed to campaign And whoever heard of this
You got indicted for that People in the court just said to me
I can't believe it This is the case. So we did nothing wrong
The other thing is if this were such a great case, why didn't the Southern District bring it
who looked at it, turned to death, why didn't numerous other agencies
and law enforcement groups look at it? Because it was shown to everybody
And very importantly, why didn't the federal elections do anything about it
Because this is federal. It's not state. They're trying to make it a state case, whatever
And it's not state. It has nothing to do. It's never happened before, I believe, never happened before
This has never happened before where the state tries to insert itself in federal elections
Nobody's ever seen it. But you know, federal elections took a total pass on it
They said essentially nothing was done wrong. Well, they would have done something about it
They're tough. They would have done something about it. But they said nothing, and they said, we're going to take a pass
because they couldn't even believe it. Actually if you read their letter they couldn even believe it They were incredulous And yet Bragg picks it up Now with Greg if you look when he first came in he didn want to do it
He didn't want to do it. Now, when are they going to look at Pomerance and what Pomeran's did? Because that's bad stuff
And when are they going to look at all the lies that Colin did in the last trial
He got caught lying in the last trial. So he got caught lying, pure lying
And when are they going to look at that? Now, we'll go to another subject because just a few blocks away, as you know
they had a trial on the $175 million. That's Letitia James. It's all coming out of the White House, by the way
And that's in front of Judge Ingoron. And the judge really didn't know anything
He didn't know about collateral security. He said, supposing it goes down, well, it doesn't go down because it's cash
I put up $175 million in cash. and we have a bonding company to it
And he challenged the funding company that maybe the bonding company was no good
Well, they're good, and they also have $175 million of collateral, my collateral
But the judge didn't know anything about it. He didn't know what the $175 million cash meant
He had no idea what anything meant, and he had no idea what he did in the trial
He charged hundreds of millions of dollars, on something where I'm totally innocent
But if you look at what happened today, Judge Engenoran should not have done that trial
It should have gone to the business division where they have complex business trials
But actually, it should have never been broad because I didn't overestimate
You know, they say I overestimate. If you look at the numbers, they're underestimated
I underestimated. I did the opposite of what they said. And the reason that they tried to, and they did it for their own narrative, they valued a billion dollar asset at $18 million
They valued other assets in order to build their narrative. They went to build the narrative
But if you look, and I have a complete record of what happened, Judge Ann Gorent had no idea what was going on, didn't understand the most simple concepts
And this is the man that took a case. said, this is why businesses are moving out of New York
because they can't be subject to this. They'd be put out of business. They're moving out of New York because of it
But Judge Engeneggert had absolutely no idea what had happened. He didn't realize we put up 175
but when he found out we put it up, he said, what happens if it goes up or down
I said it doesn't do it. They said it doesn't go up and down. It's cash that we put up, all cash
Very few people could do that. And the deal was approved with the Attorney General
You can believe that. But the deal was approved. She just tried to embarrass everybody
and she tried to embarrass a very good bonding company by saying they weren't credit worthy
Well, they were credit worthy, and what was more important is they had a security
$175 million that I put up. But the point here is that the judge had no idea what was happening
And this is the same judge that two months ago made a ruling that shook the world
It shook the world because everyone knows going to that trial. I did nothing wrong
And over here, I did nothing wrong also. This is a Biden witch hunt to keep me off the campaign trail
So far, it's not working because my poll numbers are higher than they've ever been
because the public understands that it's a witch hunt. Thank you very much
Mr. Trump, what was it like you're in to access Hollywood today? Are you working on certain against you
With Melania