Lashing out at New York Judge Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James, former President Donald Trump praised the appeals court reduction of his bond from $454 million to $175 million in an impromptu press conference Monday at his 40 Wall Street property.
“It’s a sad day in our country in many respects, but the good day is that the appellate division was fair,” Trump told reporters in an unscripted 21-minute news conference where he took open questions from the media without notes or prompting. “It’s a lot of money still, but the judge is corrupt.
“In my opinion, he’s the most overturned judge. He’s been overturned five times in this case alone. He ruled against me before he even knew anything about the case. He ruled against me. The whole case was all about damages and there were no damages.”
Trump also claimed there were settlement negotiations between his team and the judge in the case that further exposed what Trump felt was the hyperpartisan nature of Engoron’s massive $454 million ruling amid the 2024 presidential election cycle.
“Perhaps you’ll get him to tell you about what took place in terms of a settlement negotiation because those weren’t the numbers he was discussing,” Trump continued. “Those weren’t the numbers.”
Trump was appearing in New York City court Monday for District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment for what Trump calls a misdemeanor of business records at best, but Democrats and the anti-Trump media calls the Stormy Daniels hush-money case from the 2016 election interference allegations.
“It’s a disgrace what’s happening in our country and we have to get our country back and we’re going to get our country back,” Trump said, using the media’s time to get his campaign messaging out amid the legal wrangling in New York City, a place he used to call home before politics attacks from Democrat justice system operatives — many of which are elected and, like James, campaigned on the vow to sue Trump.
“That’s what’s going to happen: Nov. 5, I believe, will be the most important day in the history of our country.
“We’ll get these people out of there and we’ll seal up the borders and we’ll, as I say, Drill baby drill. We’ll be drilling. We’ll get energy costs down. We’ll get rid of the ridiculous electric car mandate — nobody’s ever heard of anything so foolish and so stupid — and will bring crime back to law and order.
“We’re going to get those words law and order back because our cities are a disaster.”
Trump celebrated the fairness of the New York appellate court decision to cut Engoron’s bond by more than half Monday.
“I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division and we will abide by that,” Trump said. “We’ll put up cash or bond very quickly. Securities or bond, whatever it is, we’ll put it up very quickly, and we’ll win the case.”
Trump has long argued that the cases are intended as election interference to bolster President Joe Biden’s campaign and to tarnish Trump in the public eye — saying if they weren’t, the cases would have been brought years ago instead of the final months of the presidential campaign.
“If I were doing poorly, this wouldn’t be happening and none of these trials would have been happening,” Trump said. “If I wasn’t running, they wouldn’t be happening.”
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