Donald Trump Falsely Claims Judge Did Not Allow His Witness to Testify in Hush Money Trial
Donald Trump once again made false claims about his porn star hush money trial after the defense rested its case, claiming Judge Juan Merchan did not allow a witness to testify. In reality, the judge made no such decision and the former president was soon fact-checked regarding this claim.
Trump claimed that Judge Merchan would not allow the defense to call campaign finance expert Bradley A. Smith to testify in the trial. However, a fact-check by the Associated Press noted that this claim is false, adding that the Trump defense team "chose to not call on him after the judge on Monday declined to broaden the scope of questioning the defense could pursue. The ruling echoed his pretrial ruling on the matter."
Trump advocates misrepresented the ruling and repeated the statement made by Donald Trump regarding the campaign finance expert where the former president said, "The expert witness that we have, the best there is in election law, Brad Smith, he's considered the Rolls Royce, or we'll bring it back to an American car, Cadillac, but the best there is. He can't testify. He's not being allowed to testify."
The ex-POTUS then repeated these falsehoods several more times and repeatedly claimed that Merchan was blocking Smith's testimony "because he's going to say we did nothing wrong."
However, in reality, Smith was permitted to testify, as it was the defense that decided not to call him in. The defense only called in two witnesses, paralegal Daniel Sitko and Trump-aligned lawyer Robert Costello, the latter being tripped up by prosecutors with evidence of him trying to influence star witness Michael Cohen.
Donald Trump Defense During Hush Money Trial Ends in a Fizzle
Meanwhile, Donald Trump himself has been questioned why he did not testify despite all his bravado coming into the trial and vowing to testify. Much like the issue regarding his witness, Trump falsely claimed that the judge was preventing him from testifying, a claim which immediately garnered some scolding from Judge Merchan who told Trump that he could in fact testify even though there is a gag order placed for him not to attack the jury or witnesses.
Trump has uncharacteristically remained quiet regarding whether or not he would testify in his defense soon after. However, his son, Donald Trump Jr., came to his father's defense despite all the bravado the former president had previously shown.
"Why would you justify this insanity? You don't subject yourself to that," said Don Jr., "You're going in a kangaroo court, nothing more, nothing less. There's absolutely no reason or justification to do that whatsoever. Everyone sees it for the sham that it is."
Donald Trump Campaign Video Shares Nazi Reference with 'Unified Reich'
Meanwhile, the Trump Campaign has raised several eyebrows as the former president posted a 30-second video to his Truth Social platform and that video was clearly referencing Nazi Germany which called itself the "Third Reich."
In the background of the video that Trump shared, it included hypothetical newspaper front pages with headlines that read g "BORDER IS CLOSED - 15 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS DEPORTED" and "ECONOMY BOOMS." However, the controversial headline appeared twice, and it read, "Industrial strength significantly increased ... driven by the creation of a unified Reich."
Trump has long been popular with Neo Nazis, with the controversial Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally by Neo-Nazi groups being decidedly pro-Trump, with the former president only distancing himself from these groups after much criticism.
He eventually removed the controversial video and blamed its posting on his aides.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: Trump Leaves Ad with Nazi Reference Up for 18 Hours Before Deleting - Pod Save America
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!