Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) hold a news conference at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Donald Trump said Friday he will testify under oath at his criminal trial on hush money charges, which is scheduled to begin Monday in New York.
“All I can do is tell the truth,” said Trump, charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, “and the truth is there is no case.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke at a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s vacation home in Florida.
The lawsuit — the first ever filed against a former president — focuses on a hush-money payment in late 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had an extramarital affair with Trump years earlier.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of facilitating this and other payments to illegally withhold information from voters before the 2016 presidential election, which Trump would go on to win.
Trump is expected to be in court throughout the trial, which could last more than six weeks.
Asked at Mar-a-Lago what he would look for when the jury selection process begins Monday, Trump responded: “Jury selection is largely a matter of luck. It depends on who you choose.”
He then once again attacked the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, accusing him of having a conflict of interest that necessitates his disqualification from the trial.
Trump and his lawyers have said the conflict lies in the fact that Merchan’s daughter works for a Democratic political firm. Merchan previously rejected that argument last year, but Trump’s lawyers recently filed another recusal request on similar grounds. Trump repeatedly targeted the judge’s daughter on social media, prompting Merchan to extend the silence on Trump.
Johnson, whose role leading a closely divided House is contested within his own party, had traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party and by far its most influential member.
The two held a press conference to announce a bill intended to strengthen the “integrity” of elections by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, even though it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote.
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