Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly made false and unsubstantiated claims whereas denouncing the Manhattan criminal case against him over his alleged falsification of enterprise data associated to a hush cash scheme executed through the 2016 presidential election.
With Trump’s trial scheduled to begin Monday, here’s a reality verify of a few of Trump’s remarks.
Trump’s baseless claims that Biden is secretly working the case
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Manhattan case has been secretly orchestrated by President Joe Biden, Biden’s White Home or the Biden-era federal Justice Division. As supposed proof, Trump has cited the truth that Matthew Colangelo, who had served as a senior Justice Division official underneath Biden, left the division in 2022 for a job within the workplace of the Manhattan district legal professional who’s prosecuting the case, Alvin Bragg.
For instance, Trump said in February: “What it’s, is election interference. It’s being run by Joe Biden’s White Home. His high particular person was positioned right here with a view to be certain that all the things goes proper.” He continued, “His high particular person, Colangelo, and a few others have been positioned into the DA’s workplace to ensure they do job of election interference.” Trump claimed in a social media post in March that unspecified Biden “Thugs” despatched Colangelo to the district legal professional’s workplace to “oversee” Bragg, “maybe to be sure that Bragg adopted their unlawful orders and instructions.” In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump wrote, “BIDEN’S DOJ IS RUNNING THE CASE.”
Info First: There isn’t any foundation for Trump’s claims. First, there is no such thing as a proof that Biden, his White Home or his Justice Division has had any position in launching or working Bragg’s case, not to mention that Biden operatives are issuing secret instructions within the case – and Bragg is a regionally elected official who doesn’t report back to the federal authorities. Second, there is no such thing as a proof the White Home or the Biden administration had something to do with Colangelo’s decision to leave the Justice Department and join the district attorney’s office as senior counsel to Bragg; Colangelo and Bragg had been colleagues earlier than Bragg was elected Manhattan district legal professional in 2021. Third, there is no such thing as a foundation for the declare that Colangelo oversees Bragg; Bragg is Colangelo’s boss.
Earlier than Colangelo labored on the Justice Division, he and Bragg labored on the identical time within the workplace of New York’s state legal professional basic, the place Colangelo investigated Trump’s charity and Trump’s monetary practices and was involved in bringing various lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration.
On a minor level, Colangelo was by no means Biden’s very high official on the Justice Division. Colangelo served as appearing affiliate legal professional basic within the first months of the Biden administration in early 2021 and then as principal deputy affiliate legal professional basic. As appearing affiliate legal professional basic, he was third in control of the division.
Trump’s false claims that Manhattan has hit all-time highs for homicide and violent crime
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Bragg is spending time prosecuting him regardless of a record-high variety of murders and violent crime in Manhattan, one among New York Metropolis’s 5 boroughs.
Info First: Trump’s claims usually are not even near true; Manhattan, like New York City as a whole, is nowhere close to file highs for homicide or violent crime extra broadly. In 1990, when New York Metropolis set its all-time homicide file, Manhattan recorded 503 murders; it recorded 73 murders in 2023, a decline of about 85%. Manhattan’s numbers for different kinds of violent crime are additionally far decrease right this moment than they had been within the early Nineteen Nineties.
For instance, Manhattan recorded 252 rapes in 2023, down about 63% from the 689 in 1990; 3,841 robberies in 2023, down about 86% from the 26,907 in 1990; and 5,116 felony assaults in 2023, down about 49% from the ten,089 in 1990.
It’s additionally price noting that homicide in Manhattan has declined since 2020, Trump’s final full calendar yr in workplace, when there have been 84 murders within the borough; it has declined, too, from 2022 (78 murders) and 2021 (92 murders). Nonetheless, another sorts of violent crime, reminiscent of theft and felony assault, have elevated in Manhattan since 2020, although they declined from 2022 to 2023.
Crime ranges are at all times affected by a sophisticated combine of things, and it’s unclear how a lot affect Bragg has had on both the upticks or the declines. The fluctuations in Manhattan have been broadly aligned with tendencies in New York City as a whole.
“We tend to need to blame one particular person, or credit score one particular person, when in actuality these are advanced techniques that rise and fall for sometimes advanced, random causes that we don’t have the flexibility to clarify – but it surely’s simpler to say, ‘It was Joe Schmoe over there,’” Jeff Asher, against the law knowledge knowledgeable and co-founder of the agency AH Datalytics, told CNN when Trump was making comparable claims about Manhattan final yr.
Trump’s doubtful declare that the decide’s daughter posted a picture of him behind bars
Trump has accused the decide presiding over the Manhattan trial, Decide Juan Merchan, of getting a battle of curiosity as a result of his daughter Loren Merchan has been a Democratic political consultant at a agency that has labored for distinguished federal purchasers, together with Biden’s 2020 marketing campaign. However Trump additionally claimed in a social media put up in March that Loren Merchan “has simply posted an image of me behind bars, her apparent objective,” and he questioned in another March post how it’s truthful for him to be subjected to a Merchan gag order whereas, amongst different issues, “the Decide’s daughter is allowed to put up footage of her ‘dream’ of placing me in jail.”
Info First: There isn’t any proof that Loren Merchan was the one who posted an image of Trump behind bars on social media. A spokesperson for the court docket, Al Baker, mentioned Loren Merchan didn’t make the put up.
Baker mentioned in a March assertion that another person had began utilizing Loren Merchan’s former deal with on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter, after she deleted her personal account and thus deserted the deal with a few yr prior. A review of the proof by The Spectator, a conservative-leaning British outlet, helps Baker’s denial.
Baker mentioned: “The X, previously Twitter, account being attributed to Decide Merchan’s daughter not belongs to her since she deleted it roughly a yr in the past. It isn’t linked to her e mail tackle, nor has she posted underneath that screenname since she deleted the account. Reasonably, it represents the reconstitution, final April, and manipulation of an account she way back deserted.”
Trump’s exaggerations about Merchan’s gag order
Trump, denouncing Decide Merchan’s gag order on him, claimed in social media posts in early April that Merchan “just isn’t permitting me to speak.” At a campaign rally Saturday in Pennsylvania, Trump mentioned, “On Monday, in New York Metropolis, I will probably be pressured to sit down, totally gagged. I’m not allowed to speak. Are you able to imagine it? They need to take away my constitutional proper to speak.”
Info First: Trump’s claims are exaggerations. Merchan did situation a gag order, however it’s far narrower than Trump steered. Merchan has not typically forbidden Trump from speaking; Trump remains to be permitted to defend his conduct at situation within the case (each in public and in any testimony he chooses to supply), to assault Merchan and Bragg, and to marketing campaign for the presidency with rallies, interviews, social media posts and different commentary.
The gag order forbids Trump from three particular classes of speech: 1) talking publicly or directing others to talk publicly about “recognized or fairly foreseeable witnesses” within the case – particularly regarding their potential participation within the case; 2) talking publicly or directing others to talk publicly about prosecutors within the case apart from Bragg, about workers members in Bragg’s workplace and the court docket, and in regards to the members of the family of prosecutors, staffers or the court docket – “if these statements are made with the intent to materially intrude with, or to trigger others to materially intrude with, counsel’s or workers’s work on this prison case, or with the information that such interference is more likely to consequence”; 3) talking publicly about or directing others to talk publicly about jurors or potential jurors within the case.
In early April, after Trump criticized Merchan’s daughter, Merchan expanded his earlier gag order to cowl members of the family of the court docket and district legal professional.
He wrote: “The typical observer, should now, after listening to Defendant’s current assaults, draw the conclusion that in the event that they develop into concerned in these proceedings, even tangentially, they need to fear not just for themselves, however for his or her family members as nicely. Such issues will undoubtedly intrude with the truthful administration of justice and constitutes a direct assault on the Rule of Regulation itself.”
Trump has appealed the gag order, so it’s potential the order will probably be overturned or narrowed by an appeals court docket. Submissions on the matter are due on April 29.
Trump’s unexplained claims about Bragg and Soros
Whereas attacking Bragg, Trump has repeatedly invoked liberal billionaire and Democratic donor George Soros with out explaining the character of their connection. For instance, he referred to as Bragg “this Soros Prosecutor” in a social media post on Wednesday; in a press release final yr, he claimed that Bragg was “hand-picked and funded by George Soros.”
Info First: Trump’s claims about Soros and Bragg want context. Soros didn’t make any donations to Bragg’s election marketing campaign, and a Soros spokesperson, Michael Vachon, informed CNN in 2023 that the 2 males have by no means as soon as communicated in any approach; there is no such thing as a proof that Soros had any position in Bragg’s resolution to prosecute Trump. Nonetheless, Soros, a longtime supporter of Democratic district legal professional candidates who favor prison justice reform, did help Bragg’s election marketing campaign not directly: he was a serious donor to a liberal political motion committee, Colour of Change PAC, that claims it spent simply over $500,000 on an impartial expenditure effort in help of Bragg’s candidacy.
Vachon informed CNN in 2023: “Between 2016 and 2022, George Soros personally and Democracy PAC (a PAC to which Mr. Soros has contributed funds) have collectively contributed roughly $4 million to Colour of Change’s PAC, together with $1 million in Might 2021. None of these funds had been earmarked for Alvin Bragg’s marketing campaign. George Soros and Alvin Bragg have by no means meet in particular person or spoken by phone, e mail, Zoom and so forth. There was no contact between the 2.”
Soros has been a frequent goal of antisemitic conspiracy theories portray the Jewish philanthropist as a puppetmaster behind varied US and worldwide occasions. In 2023, Colour of Change president Rashad Robinson referred to as Trump and his allies’ newest invocations of Soros each “antisemitic” and “anti-Black”; he informed CNN that the assaults overstate each Soros’ position within the PAC’s decision-making and the PAC’s position in Bragg’s election victory.
You’ll be able to learn an extended reality verify on this topic here.
Trump’s false claims that he has been indicted greater than Al Capone
As Trump has denounced his 4 indictments – the one in Manhattan, one other native indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, and two federal indictments – he has repeatedly claimed that he has been indicted “greater than Al Capone,” the notoriously vicious Nineteen Twenties and Nineteen Thirties gangster.
Info First: Trump’s claim is false. Trump has been indicted 4 instances, whereas Capone was indicted not less than six instances, as A. Brad Schwartz, the co-author of a e-book on Capone, informed CNN in 2023. (You’ll find particulars about Capone’s indictments here.) And that doesn’t embody varied prison prices in opposition to Capone that didn’t contain an indictment, reminiscent of some misdemeanors, or obscure Capone instances for which CNN couldn’t instantly decide whether or not there was an indictment.
Schwartz additionally famous: “This isn’t a race, after all, however it might be price noting that Capone can be approach forward in particular person counts (the 1931 Prohibition indictment alone added as much as 5 thousand conspiracy prices).” Trump faces a complete of 88 counts over the 4 indictments.