- Former President Donald Trump says he didn’t fall asleep during his secret trial in Manhattan.
- Trump says he closes his “beautiful blue eyes, sometimes” so he can “listen intently.”
- The trial, which began April 15, is expected to last approximately six weeks.
Former President Donald Trump says he didn’t fall asleep during his secret trial.
Several journalists from media outlets including the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post published reports indicating that Trump appeared to be dozing during his first criminal trial.
Trump has appeared regularly in a Manhattan court since the trial began on April 15. He is accused of falsifying business records to conceal a sexual affair with porn star Stormy Daniels.
But reports of him dozing off, Trump says, are not true at all.
“Unlike FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I am not falling asleep during the Crooked DA’s witch hunt, especially not today,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social article Thursday. “I just close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes I listen intently and I take it all in!!!”
Trump’s remarks come just a day after The Times’ Maggie Haberman told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that it was “100 percent true“that he slept at times during his trial.
Haberman, however, acknowledged that there were times when Trump simply turned a blind eye.
“That’s how he tries to stay calm and deal with it. And if that then leads to sleep or something, who knows?” » Haberman said. “But he sits there with his eyes closed for long periods of time. He doesn’t always sleep.”
This is not the first time the Trump campaign has refuted reports that he turned a blind eye while in court. A representative for his campaign said in a statement to The Independent last month that the reports were “100% fake news.”
But that hasn’t deterred people from making jokes at Trump’s expense.
“Imagine committing so many crimes that you get bored at your own trial,” Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show,” said of Trump during an episode that aired April 15.
Besides the Manhattan case, Trump has been indicted in three other criminal cases, including a criminal case in Georgia over accusations that he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The former president is also in line in two federal cases: one relating to his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and another in which he is accused of hoarding classified documents at his Mar- a-Lago after leaving office.
No trial date has yet been set for any of the three cases.
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