CNN
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Former President Donald Trump went on a conspiracy theory-laden rant at a information convention Thursday after his attorneys wrapped up their closing arguments at his civil fraud trial in New York.
As he usually does, Trump bashed the state prosecutors who’re seeking more than $370 million from him and his co-defendants, a request that got here after a New York choose dominated they had been accountable for repeated enterprise fraud.
He additionally peddled the baseless conspiracy idea that President Joe Biden is pulling the strings and personally initiated the civil and legal circumstances that he’s going through as a option to undermine Trump’s presidential marketing campaign.
Right here’s a fact-check of a few of Trump’s feedback on Thursday.
Trump blamed Biden for his authorized troubles, and accused the president of weaponizing regulation enforcement to dam him from returning to the White Home.
“My authorized points, each considered one of them, civil and the legal ones, are all arrange by Joe Biden … they’re doing it for election interference,” Trump mentioned.
Information First: That is false. Biden doesn’t have any function in Trump’s authorized circumstances, particularly the New York case, which was initiated by state investigators.
There isn’t any validity to the declare that Biden is liable for the New York civil trial. New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James, a Democrat, opened the investigation in 2019 earlier than Biden was even president.
Biden’s most direct connection to a Trump case is that he appointed Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland, who appointed the particular counsel who indicted Trump in two federal legal circumstances, associated to the 2020 election and categorised paperwork at Mar-a-Lago. However this doesn’t imply there was any substantive involvement by Biden.
Different circumstances creating complications for Trump don’t have anything to do with Biden or any Democratic prosecutors. As an example, the columnist E. Jean Carroll is a personal citizen, with no ties to the Biden White Home, and she or he is suing Trump again for defamation. A jury discovered final 12 months that Trump sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he denied her sexual assault allegations.
Trump lauded a brand new report from a notorious right-wing conspiracy site, Gateway Pundit, to say that James improperly met with Biden on the White Home whereas she was pursuing Trump in state courtroom.
“Letitia James visited Joe Biden within the White Home quite a few instances throughout the Trump witch hunt,” Trump mentioned. “This simply got here out. … it’s all a conspiracy to attempt to get Biden, who can’t put two sentences collectively, to attempt to get him into workplace.”
Information First: That is extremely deceptive. Sure, James visited the White Home 3 times after submitting the fraud swimsuit towards Trump. However she attended occasions in her official capability and there’s zero public indication that she personally met with Biden or mentioned the Trump investigations with anybody.
The primary go to was on April 8, 2022. White Home customer logs present that James was on the South Garden. That’s the identical date and site as a major public event the place Biden hailed the Senate’s affirmation of his Supreme Court docket nominee, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Tons of of individuals had been in attendance.
The second go to was on July 18, 2023. James attended a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris and different state attorneys basic about addressing the fentanyl disaster. James was on the official attendee record.
The third go to was on August 31, 2023. The logs point out that James was on the vice chairman’s residence. That’s the identical day Harris hosted an event honoring elected officers who’re Black ladies – and a White Home official informed CNN that James was in attendance.
There are not any indications of some other visits by James to the White Home, in accordance with official logs.
James’ workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the White Home visits.
Trump accused James’s workplace of misusing a New York fraud regulation to go after him and his corporations.
“It is a statute, a client fraud statute, that has by no means been used for something like this earlier than, and it’s a disgrace,” Trump claimed.
Information First: That is false. The regulation has been used earlier than, even in a case towards Trump College years in the past.
CNN’s Daniel Dale previously fact checked this declare in December.
He wrote: “New York Government Regulation 63(12), the 1956 statute that New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James invoked in submitting the lawsuit that led to the civil trial, has been used for many years by New York attorneys basic towards a variety of entities, starting from an e-cigarette firm to highschool bus corporations to grease and fuel large ExxonMobil… In actual fact, it had additionally been used towards Trump College and the Trump Basis.”
The previous president additionally claimed that a few of his authorized rights had been violated – like being disadvantaged the correct to a jury.
“We didn’t have a jury. We had no rights to a jury,” Trump mentioned.
Information First: This wants context. New York prosecutors used a civil fraud regulation that doesn’t assure a proper to a jury trial, however Trump’s legal professionals didn’t press the difficulty firstly of the case, so he acquired a bench trial.
Each American’s proper to a trial by jury is well-known from the Sixth Modification to the US Structure – however that solely applies to “legal prosecutions.” It is a civil case with completely different guidelines.
New York Decide Arthur Engoron famous firstly of the trial that “neither aspect requested for” a jury, and “in any occasion, the cures sought are all equitable in nature, mandating that the trial be a bench trial, one {that a} choose alone decides.”
However CNN previously reported that Trump’s legal professionals may have filed motions in courtroom and tried to get a jury to listen to the case – and filed appeals in the event that they misplaced – despite the fact that it might’ve been an uphill climb.
Later in his feedback, Trump mentioned James introduced the lawsuit as a result of she promised to research him whereas she was campaigning in 2018 to turn out to be New York’s legal professional basic.
“She campaigned on, ‘I’ll get Trump,’” the previous president mentioned.
Information First: He’s proper. James campaigned on a pledge to make use of her workplace to go after Trump.
Throughout her 2018 marketing campaign, James singled out Trump and mentioned she’d examine him if she gained.
In one video, she mentioned, “I’ll by no means be afraid to problem this illegitimate president,” referring to Trump, and promised to “struggle again” towards him, if elected. She additionally mentioned he must be indicted for obstruction of justice, doubtless referring to the Russia investigation, and vowed to scrutinize his actual property dealings.
And on the evening she was elected in November 2018, she mentioned, “I shall be shining a shiny gentle into each darkish nook of his actual property dealings, and each dealing, demanding truthfulness at each flip.”
Nevertheless, it must be famous that James hasn’t completely focused Trump or his fellow Republicans. For instance, she investigated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, and issued a blistering report concluding that he sexually harassed a number of ladies, together with state staff. This spurred Cuomo’s resignation in August 2021.
Trump blamed James’ litigiousness for the oil large ExxonMobil relocating from New York to Texas.
“She went after Exxon they usually determined to maneuver to Texas,” Trump mentioned.
Information First: James’ workplace did sue ExxonMobil, however that didn’t spur its transfer to Texas, which occurred in 1989.
The Exxon Company introduced that it was leaving Manhattan and shifting to the Dallas space in October 1989, in accordance with a contemporaneous report in The New York Occasions. On the time, James was a current regulation faculty graduate and had simply been admitted to the state bar, in accordance with New York attorney records. Additional, she started her profession as a public defender, not as a prosecutor.
It’s clear that James had nothing to do with Exxon’s relocation greater than 30 years in the past.
However in more moderen years, the New York legal professional basic’s workplace filed a local weather change-related lawsuit towards the oil large. The lawsuit was filed in 2018 by James’ predecessor, and James took over the case after she grew to become legal professional basic. A choose later ruled in Exxon’s favor, concluding that James’ investigators fell wanting proving that Exxon mislead shareholders concerning the dangers of local weather change.
The corporate formally moved its headquarters from the Dallas space to a Houston suburb final 12 months.