Washington
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump delivered a barrage of false claims to media cameras this week as he entered and exited the Manhattan courtroom the place he’s on trial on prices of falsifying enterprise data in relation to a hush cash scheme throughout the 2016 presidential election.
Right here’s a reality test of 4 of the claims he made in regards to the trial. (For this explicit article, we’ll depart apart the false claims he made within the courthouse about a wide range of different topics.)
Courthouse safety
After The New York Instances published a story that stated Trump was sad with the meager crowd he noticed when he arrived on the courthouse for opening statements on Monday, Trump advised reporters contained in the courthouse on Tuesday: “For blocks you possibly can’t get close to this courthouse.”
He added on social media on Tuesday: “1000’s of individuals have been turned away from the Courthouse in Decrease Manhattan by metal stanchions and police, actually blocks from the tiny facet door from the place I enter and depart. It’s an armed camp to maintain individuals away.” And he stated in feedback contained in the courthouse on Thursday: “This courthouse is locked down; there’s not an individual inside 5 blocks.”
Info First: Trump’s claims are all false. The police haven’t turned away “1000’s of individuals” from the courthouse. And whereas there are numerous safety measures in place within the space, together with some road closures enforced by law enforcement officials and barricades, it’s not true that “this courthouse is locked down,” that “for blocks you possibly can’t get close to this courthouse” or that “there’s not an individual inside 5 blocks.” In actuality, there’s a designated protest zone for the trial at a park directly across the street from the courthouse – and persons are permitted to drive proper as much as the entrance of the courthouse and stroll into the constructing, which stays open to the general public. If individuals present up early sufficient within the morning, they’ll even get into the trial courtroom itself or the overflow room that reveals near-live video of the proceedings.
The truth is that few of Trump’s supporters have chosen to point out up. There have been nicely underneath 100 seen Trump supporters gathered within the protest zone on the outset of the trial in mid-April, and there have usually been three or fewer there on subsequent days, in keeping with CNN journalists who’ve been reporting from the courthouse space.
You possibly can learn extra here.
Michael Cohen’s crimes and Trump
On Monday, Trump stated upon leaving the courtroom that the crimes dedicated by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen “had nothing to do with me.”
Cohen is anticipated to be a key witness for the prosecution. Trump stated: “The issues he received in hassle for have been issues that had nothing to do with me. He received in hassle; he went to jail. This has nothing to do with me. This needed to do with the taxicab firm that he owned, which is simply one thing he owned – and medallions and borrowing cash and lots of issues – but it surely had nothing to do with me.”
Info First: Trump’s declare that Cohen’s jail sentence “had nothing to do with me” is fake. Cohen’s three-year sentence in 2018 was for multiple crimes, a few of which have been instantly associated to Trump. Most notably, Cohen was sentenced for campaign finance offenses connected to a hush money scheme throughout the 2016 presidential marketing campaign to hide Trump’s alleged extramarital relationships – the identical hush cash scheme that’s central to this prosecution towards Trump. Cohen was also sentenced to two months in prison, to run concurrently with the three-year sentence, for lying to Congress in 2017 in relation to previous talks about the possibility of building a Trump Tower in Moscow, Russia, together with in regards to the extent of Trump’s involvement in the aborted Moscow initiative and about when in 2016 the discussions ended. (The discussions continued into June 2016, the month after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and didn’t conclude in January 2016 earlier than the primary votes have been solid, as Cohen had claimed.)
Referring to Trump as “Particular person-1,” Cohen said on the time of his 2018 responsible plea for making false statements to the US Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence: “I made these statements to be in step with Particular person-1’s political messaging and out of loyalty to Particular person-1.” When Cohen pleaded responsible in 2018 to the marketing campaign finance violations, he said he broke the legislation “in coordination and on the path of a candidate for federal workplace,” Trump.
The gag order on Trump
Upon leaving the courtroom on Tuesday, Trump approached the cameras, started speaking, and complained that he’s “not allowed to speak.”
Trump was criticizing Decide Juan Merchan’s gag order on him. Merchan had held a listening to on Tuesday morning to think about prosecutors’ allegations that Trump violated the gag order with a sequence of online posts, together with some wherein the presumptive Republican presidential nominee shared others’ articles related to the case on social media.
Trump claimed, “Can’t even permit articles to be put in.” He claimed the articles he’s referring to say “the case is a sham.” He added, “I don’t even know in the event you’re allowed to place them in.” He additionally claimed that though others are permitted to lie and talk about him, “I’m not allowed to say something.”
“I’d love to speak to you individuals, I’d like to say the whole lot that’s on my thoughts, however I’m restricted as a result of I’ve a gag order,” Trump stated.
Info First: As he has before, Trump made Merchan’s gag order sound far broader than it’s. The gag order doesn’t prohibit Trump from declaring the case a sham or from sharing others’ claims that the case is a sham. It additionally doesn’t prohibit Trump from talking to the media in regards to the case, from defending his conduct at problem within the case, from denouncing the choose and district lawyer concerned within the case, or from campaigning for the presidency with speeches, media interviews and on-line posts.
Reasonably, the gag order forbids Trump from three particular classes of speech:
1) Talking publicly or directing others to talk publicly about recognized or foreseeable witnesses, particularly about their participation within the case
2) Talking publicly or directing others to talk publicly about prosecutors (aside from Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg), members of the district lawyer’s employees and the courtroom employees, or relations of any of those individuals together with Bragg, if these statements are made with the intent to intrude with the case
3) Talking publicly or directing others to talk publicly about jurors or potential jurors
In his feedback on Tuesday, Trump made the purpose that an article might have a sure headline that usually denounces the case however, “someplace deep” within the physique of the textual content, might point out any person’s identify he’s not permitted to say due to the gag order.
It’s not clear how Merchan would view Trump having shared an article wherein, say, a witness’s identify was solely talked about deep within the textual content. Up to now, although, articles that prosecutors have alleged Trump violated the gag order by sharing featured headlines that made it fully clear the articles mentioned possible witness Cohen.
Biden and the case
On Tuesday, Trump said upon leaving the courtroom: “By the best way, this trial is all Biden. You understand, that is all Biden, simply in case anyone has any query.” He added, “He’s the one which has us in all these totally different lawsuits.” He stated upon his departure Friday: “That is all a Biden indictment.”
Info First: There isn’t a foundation for Trump’s claims. There isn’t a proof that Biden has had any position in launching or working Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg’s prosecution – and Bragg is a regionally elected official who doesn’t report back to the federal authorities. The indictment within the case was authorized by a grand jury of abnormal residents.
Trump has repeatedly invoked a lawyer on Bragg’s crew, Matthew Colangelo, whereas making such claims; Colangelo left the Justice Division in 2022 to join the district attorney’s office as senior counsel to Bragg. However there isn’t any proof that Biden had something to do with Colangelo’s employment determination. Colangelo and Bragg had been colleagues earlier than Bragg was elected Manhattan district lawyer in 2021.
Earlier than Colangelo labored on the Justice Division, he and Bragg labored on the identical time within the workplace of New York’s state lawyer basic, the place Colangelo investigated Trump’s charity and Trump’s monetary practices and was involved in bringing various lawsuits towards the Trump administration.