Defiant Trump speaks to family and supporters at Mar-a-Lago
‘The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation’: Defiant Trump tears into Alvin Bragg and the investigations against him at Mar-a-Lago speech to fans and family including Tiffany, Eric and Don Jr – but no Melania
- Trump addressed supporters at Mar-a-Lago
- ‘I never thought anything like this could happen in America,’ he said
- Melania was not present for his remarks
- Don Jr., Eric and Tiffany were in the ballroom with their significant others
President Donald Trump tore into the investigations against him on Tuesday night after his indictment in New York, calling them an ‘insult to our country.’
‘I never thought anything like this could happen in America. The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,’ the president said at the top of his remarks at his Mar-a-Lago home.
His focus was not as much on the crimes he was indicted for on Tuesday but on every other investigation and alleged wrong-doing he has faced since he entered politics.
Trump, 76, went through a litany of crimes he claims have been committed against him, including both impeachments, his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him, that the government spied on his 2016 presidential campaign, the FISA warrants against his advisers, and investigations into reports Russia tried to influence the election in his favor.
He attacked Alvin Bragg, saying the Manhattan District Attorney wanted to get him at ‘any cost and this before he knew anything about me.’
Trump rambled between topics during his 25-minute speech, moving from his presidential campaign talking points, his accomplishments in the White House and what he says President Joe Biden did to harm America.
President Trump addresses his supporters at Mar-a-Lago
He abruptly ended his remarks after 25 minutes – a short speech by his standards – after spending much of his time complaining about the investigations he still faces.
He repeated his argument he is the victim of the weaponization of the legal system and under political attacks from Democrats who don’t want to see him return to the White House.
‘Now they have really stepped up their efforts by indicting the 45th President of the United States,’ he said as the crowd booed in response.
And he slammed the other investigations into his actions – including Georgia’s examination of whether he and his supporters tried to illegally overturn the election results there and a federal investigation into the classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump launched a long, detailed defense on why he thinks he committed no crime by having his White House records at his Florida home. The Presidential Records Act says all material from a presidential administration is the property of the federal government and must be turned over to the National Archives.
‘There is no criminality under the Presidential Records Act,’ he said. ‘That is not what it’s all about. We were negotiating in very good faith, a proper way in order to return some or all of the documents that I openly, and in very plain sight, brought with me to Mar-a-Lago from our beautiful White House just as virtually every other president has done in the past.’
He blasted the August raid that revealed he had more documents on hand despite a subpoena from the Justice Department to return all the material he had with him at his Florida home.
Much of his ire was focused on President Biden. Trump is running for another term in the White House but first must win the Republican presidential primary before he can face off against Biden.
Trump claimed other presidents from Joe Biden to Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter also took documents. Biden was revealed to have classified documents in his possession but no other former president has.
He claimed Biden has more classified documents on hand than he did and committed a worse crime.
‘He has 1850 boxes in Delaware, which he is refusing to give up,’ Trump said of Biden. There is no evidence of this and the Justice Department has searched both of Biden’s Delaware homes, saying no more documents are there.
‘As President I have the right to declassify documents and the process is automatic. If I take them with me, it’s automatic. Declassified,’ Trump claimed, which is false.
He pointed out that Biden’s classified documents date back to when he was vice president.
‘He had absolutely no right to declassify as vice president. He doesn’t come under the non criminal Presidential Records Act. He comes under the very criminal Federal Records Act Unfortunately for him, but it’s not going to matter because they don’t follow the law, which has very severe penalties. He had classified documents that he took while he was a senator which is absolutely inexcusable,’ he said.
Donald Trump walks into the Mar-a-Lago ballroom, surrounded by security
Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberley Guilfoyle at Mar-a-Lago to support the former president
Eric Trump and Lara Trump joined the supporters at Mar-a-Lago
Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos at Mar-a-Lago
Trump mentioned the members of his family – those who were there and those who weren’t – as he thanked them for their support.
Those included Donald Trump Jr. and his fiance Kimberly Guilfoyle; Eric Trump and his wife Lara; and Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos.
But Melania Trump and their son Barron was no where to be seen. Nor was Jared Kushner nor Ivanka Trump.
‘I have son here has done a great job and I have another son here has done a great job,’ the former president said referring to Don Jr. and Eric.
‘And Ivanka,’ he added. ‘And Baron will be great someday – he’s tall, and he’s smart, but I have a great family and they’ve done a fantastic job and we appreciate it very much. They’ve gone through a lot.’
Trump flew back to his home in West Palm Beach, Florida after he became the first former president to be charged with a crime. He left the courthouse to go straight to LaGuardia Airport, where he boarded Trump Force One for the flight to Palm Beach International Airport.
He left the immediate post-arraignment messaging to his team of lawyers. But the judge in the case didn’t issue a gag order against the former president – which his lawyers feared might happen – leaving Trump free to comment on the case.
And Trump made his first public comments on the arraignment in his safe space – his private club on the Atlantic coast before an all-star team of his supporters, including Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, logntime adviser Roger Stone, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
He spoke in the same ballroom where he announced his presidential campaign and where he has popped in on Saturday night weddings. When he was president, he referred to his estate as the ‘Winter White House.’
Trump greeted supporters, shaking hands as he worked the rope line
Donald Trump in his motorcade from the Palm Beach International Airport as he returns from being indicted in New York
Trump enters the crowded ballroom at Mar-a-Lago
His prime-time speech comes after District Attorney Alvin Bragg unsealed the 34-count indictment against him, charging Trump with a series of false business statements he described as part of an overarching plan to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
Bragg’s grand jury indictment not only referenced the Stormy Daniels matter, but an alleged ‘catch and kill’ scheme involving former Playboy model Karen McDougal and another payoff involving a former doorman at Trump Tower in New York.
The charges, categorized as class E felonies, could lead to an accumulated 136 years in jail if Trump is convicted on all of them.
He pleaded not guilty inside the Manhattan Criminal Court, where his image was captured by still photographers and a court sketch artist.
For a man of many words, he spoke fewer than a dozen in court on Tuesday, two of which were in answer to the judge’s question about how he would plea.
‘Not guilty,’ Trump said.
Before the former president spoke, his die-hard supporters gathered under coffered ceilings and crystal chandeliers of Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom, with the usual Trump play list refrains of Elton John and ‘Macho Man.’
Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who was endorsed by Trump and remains one of his staunchest allies, called the former president’s enemies the ‘worst people in the world.’
‘I love the man for hwat he does for our country, but I love him even more when I realize: when you look at the enemies he has – those are the worst people in the world,’ she told DailyMail.com inside the private club.
‘It looked like a bunch of copy and paste if you ask me,’ she said of the indictment. ‘Desperation.’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (left), who led a Trump protest in New York City on Tuesday morning, arrives at Mar-a-Lago, waving to the crowd; and staunch Trump ally Kari Lake (right) was on hand to cheer on the former president
Representative Matt Gaetz at Mar-a-Lago to support Donald Trump
Trump supporters filled the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago as they wait to hear from former president
Trump will adddress his MAGA faithful and the media now that he’s been indicted
Trump Force One comes in for a landing at Palm Beach International Airport
Trump supporters line the route for his motorcade
Among the early arrivals was My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, who advised Trump during his last weeks in the White House while the president fought to overturn the election results – another area that has Trump facing legal exposure.
He was unimpressed by what was in the unsealed indictment.
‘They didn’t do anything back then. In fact, I think he got money from Stormy Daniels. It’s disgusting, bringing up a misdemeanor, trying to turn them into felonies,’ he said of the prosecution’s decision to link state false business records charges to an underlying alleged crime that was only alluded to in the indictment.
He said he had his own lawyer look at it, and that ‘it’s a joke.’ A crime covering a crime or some crazy law. It’s just a reach. It’s weaponizing, weaponization of our government and it is quite frankly it’s political motivation. It’s all for politics. That’s what they’ve done with our country: FBI, CIA all of it.
Lindell did allow that the vast legal challenges Trump is facing carry a weight.
‘What do you think I do?’ said Lindell, who faces a massive Dominion lawsuit over his claims of election fraud that were tossed out of courts. ‘I got to do media. I’ve got all these corrupt companies. You’ve just got to put them – It’s a distraction.’
‘He has one thing. He wants to save our country,’ he said of Trump. ‘This is part of the battle. He’s getting hit. His focus – he loves this country. He loves people, and he will keep going and he’s not going to let this stop him. Is it a distraction? Yes. But that’s all he’s going to make it. It’s a distraction. He’s going to use it for positive, just like his numbers have been up ten points today. It’s going to be a great positive.’
‘If you go back 20 years you can pick out anything and make anything up and it would hurt somebody. I know this – like myself,’ said Lindell, who wrote about his struggles with addiction. ‘ I told everything so you couldn’t attack me. I wrote a book about it. I was a crack addict. So you couldn’t attack me.
Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday night
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell is on hand to cheer on Trump
Trump’s motorcade makes its way from the Palm Beach airport to Mar-a-Lago
Also there was Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House spokesman who has no formal role with Trump’s camp.
‘Polling is more in Trump’s camp solidly than anywhere else as far as the country’s concerned,’ said Gidley, who days ago joked that Trump would be able to milk a mugshot if the NYPD were to take and release one.
‘The American people don’t like the weaponizing government, they don’t like the politicization of the justice system,’ he said.
‘I would imagine you’re going to hear some information about how important it is to stand up and protect people in this country,’ said Gidley, who was at Mar-a-Lago but has no formal role with Trump’s camp.
A federal Appeals Court panel in the District of Columbia ruled that key aides including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows must testify in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s separate grand jury investigation of the election overturn effort.
Meadows was a key advisor who kept close touch with Trump and a web of Trump allies through his last days in the White House – even traveling to Georgia amid the election overturn effort there.
In Tuesday’s historic trial, Trump sat in one of the places he seemed to think he would never be – at the defense table in the court of law.
The former president sat alongside his defense team in the Manhattan courtroom with his hands folded on his lap and a stony-faced look for the unprecedented hearing.
The charges against him are related to a $30,000 payoff to a doorman trying to sell information about a child that Trump allegedly fathered out of wedlock; $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The prosecution claims the incidents show Trump plotted to buy damaging stories about himself to keep it under wraps and help his chances of winning the 2016 presidential race.
Donald Trump made history on Tuesday when he stood in a Manhattan court and became the first former President of the United States in history to be indicted on criminal charges
‘It’s not just about one payment,’ District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at a press conference after the hearing. ‘It is 34 business records – 34 false statements and business records. They were concealing criminal conduct.’
All together, the charges – falsifying business records in the first degree – carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison under New York law, but even if convicted on all charges, it’s unlikely Trump would be sentenced to that much time. Each charge is a low-level felony that carries a maximum of four years in prison for each count.
There was no formal conspiracy charge, but the state of facts released by prosecutors describes how Trump ‘orchestrated a scheme’ with others ‘to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the Defendant’s electoral prospects.’
During the hearing, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Conroy argued the payments were part of ‘an unlawful plan to identify and suppress negative information that could have undermined’ Trump’s presidential campaign.
The hearing lasted about an hour. Judge Juan Merchan did not put a gag order on Trump but did warn him not to post anything on social media that could cause unrest among his supporters.
The former president was silent as he entered the courtroom and then as he left. He was released on his own recognizance. The next court hearing is set for December 4th.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina, after the hearing, told reporters: ‘This was not a good day.’
‘There’s nothing the indictment itself. It is boilerplate. It doesn’t allege any federal crime and the state crime that’s been violated. It doesn’t allege what the false statement is, and it’s really disappointing. It’s sad and we’re going to fight it. We’re going to fight it hard.’
Tacopina said Trump is ‘frustrated. He’s upset, but I’ll tell you what, he’s motivated. And it’s not going to stop him, and it’s not going to slow him down.’
Dino Sajudin, a former Trump doorman, claimed the president had a love child and was paid hush money.
Trump allegedly paid $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep quiet about an affair – which he denies.
Donald Trump and Stormy Daniels – the case is tied to $130,000 hush money payments made to Daniels
President Trump with his defense team in Manhattan court: (left to right) Todd Blanche, Susan Necheles, Joe Tacopina and Boris Epshteyn
A stony-faced former President Donald Trump snubbed reporters and walked silently into the courtroom after being fingerprinted and processed at the New York Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon
As part of Tuesday’s court process, Trump surrendered, was placed under arrest and fingerprinted. He avoided handcuffs and being placed in a cell but glared at the cameras as he made his way from the booking area to face the judge.
He did not have his mug shot taken. And he did not have to pay bail to be released.
At the end of the hearing, Trump spoke briefly to his lawyers before turning to the door and walking slowly out, staring ahead and not meeting anyone’s gaze with four Secret Service agents and eight lawyers behind him.
Ahead of the arraignment, Trump expressed disbelief about his situation.
While his motorcade drove him from Trump Tower to downtown Manhattan early Tuesday afternoon, he posted on Truth Social that he couldn’t ‘believe this is happening in America’.
The president didn’t speak in public but raised his fist in a gesture to the crowd – and the cameras.
Judge Juan Merchan ruled against cameras in the courtroom – depriving the former reality TV star of a made-for-television moment – but allowed still photographers inside to take photos.
Trump had been defiant ahead of the arraignment hearing, declaring himself to be the victim of a weaponized legal system and a political target by Democrats who don’t want to see him win another term in the White House.
The case, based on prosecutor statements and a statement of facts document, appears to involve three different payments, two of which involve the National Enquirer and one of which involves a $130,000 hush-money payment that his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in the final days of the 2016 campaign.
The first involved the Enquirer paying $30,000 to Dino Sajudin, a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed that Trump fathered a child out of wedlock. The tabloid later determined that was not true.
The Enquirer then made another payment to Karen McDougal, Playboy’s playmate of the year in 1998. She wanted to sell her story of an affair with Trump during the 2016 campaign. The tabloid paid her $150,000 for rights to her story and then suppressed it — a practice known as ‘catch and kill.’
The third involves the payment to Daniels.
Cohen said he made the payment at Trump’s direction to ensure Daniels would not go public with her story of a sexual encounter with the married Trump.
Trump reimbursed Cohen while he was president and prosecutors said that is when the fraud accord. Trump’s company falsely classified the repayment to Cohen as legal expenses but prosecutors say there were no such expenses.
The alleged affair with Daniels happened in 2006, long before Trump entered politics, and shortly after his wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron.
Trump denies both affairs with both McDougal and Daniels. He also denies any legal wrongdoing.
Ahead of the trial, Trump took an aggressive approaching, demanding his supporters rise up in protest and attacking Bragg, a Democrat.
And polls show Trump’s strategy may be working as he is more popular than ever with Republican voters and getting a massive political boost as he seeks a second term in the White House.
National polls and state surveys in New Hampshire and Massachusetts show voters are still supporting his third bid for president.
Trump leads his closest competition, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by double digits.
DeSantis originally took a few digs at Trump – saying he didn’t know what went into paying hush money to porn stars – but as polls showed Trump’s popularity, the Florida governor switched tactics, saying he would block New York if it attempted to extradite Trump.
The former president voluntarily went to Manhattan and appeared in court, meaning an extradition attempt was unnecessary. Other Republicans have spoken in Trump’s defense, saying the former president is a victim of politics.
Donald Trump raises his fist as he leaves Trump Tower on the way to the Manhattan Criminal Court to turn himself in
Additionally, Trump’s campaign said it had raised $10 million since news of his pending indictment broke.
A conviction would not prevent Trump from running for or winning the presidency in 2024.
Defiance and defensive attacks are the cornerstones of any Trump strategy – tactics he has used throughout his business career, his two presidential runs, and his time in the White House.
It helped him when he was impeached twice by the U.S. House of Representatives – but he was never convicted in the U.S. Senate.
The former president faces other possible indictments: the Justice Department is investigating him on two separate cases: the discovery of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and attempts to overturn the 2020 election results. Georgia is also examining Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results there.
The only other U.S. president charged with a crime was Ulysses S. Grant, arrested in 1872 for speeding down the streets of Washington, D.C., in his horse and buggy. He was taken to jail and paid a $20 fine.
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