Trump unleashes Truth Social rant as he wakes to historic first day of criminal hush money trial

Donald Trump has lashed out on Truth Social on the morning he makes history by becoming the first former American president to face a criminal trial, calling for the New York hush money case against him to be dropped and once more claiming without evidence that the indictments he faces are part of a plot by “Radical Left Democrats” to prevent him from campaigning.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee to take on Joe Biden in November’s election is due in court in today for the start of a trial brought about by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg charging him with 34 felony counts relating to the falsification of business records in order to conceal a “hush money” payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election to ensure her silence over an extramarital affair she alleges she had with the businessman a decade earlier.

Mr Trump denies the affair and any wrongdoing in the case after being hit with 34 felony charges by Mr Bragg.

Writing on his social media platform on Monday morning, the candidate claimed in a post: “As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations. This ‘trial’ should be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge.”

In a follow-up post, he added: “The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States. Election Interference!”

After a third, less characteristic post in which he pointed to the absurdity of Russia calling for restraint from Israel in response to the drone attack from Iran it suffered over the weekend, Mr Trump return to his own plight, asking: “Why didn’t they bring this totally discredited lawsuit 7 years ago??? Election Interference!”

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