Former President Donald Trump defied a leftist judge’s order and made a brief closing pitch on Thursday in the New York fraud case against him.
“I’m an innocent man, persecuted,” said Trump, according to Fox News. “I did nothing wrong; they should pay me for what I’ve been put through.”
Trump had plenty more to say after the proceeding, and one legal analyst believes that he made a strong case that the proceeding was a political hit job driven by Democrats.
Read: Wife Of Georgia Prosecutor In Trump Case Alleges He Left Her Bank Account Empty And In ‘Dire Need’
Outside the Manhattan courtroom Thursday, Trump called the trial “election interference.”
“My legal issues, every one of them, every one — civil and criminal ones — are all set up by [President] Joe Biden. Crooked Joe Biden,” he continued. “This is something that’s never happened in this country, even when you look at this, this is all about Biden.”
Trump added that his ongoing legal issues could be seen as “part of the campaign.”
“It’s never been done like this in this country. It’s like we’re a Third World country, a banana republic,” he continued. “Joe Biden and his thugs … they’re trying to get a man in office who can’t put two sentences together.”
“This is their new form of cheating,” he said.
On Newsmax on Thursday, judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano said Trump made a “compelling” argument that New York Attorney General Letitia James was motivated by politics and not a sense of justice.
Read: ‘The View Co-Host Accuses Trump Of Being ‘Selective’ About When He Supports ‘His Grieving Wife’
“The former president makes a compelling argument that the case was brought for political reasons,” Napolitano told Newsmax’s Carl Higbie.
“He bases that on the words out of the mouth of the AG herself when she was running for AG: ‘I’m going to get Trump.’ We know that,” Napolitano said.
“She did make a prima facie case. She did show that some of the buildings on which loans were taken, the amounts of pledge, the security for the loan was not consistent with the true value,” Napolitno allowed.
“But,” he added “Trump showed that nobody lost a nickel, that jobs were created, that everybody was paid back, and that the bank that he supposedly defrauded said it would do business with him tomorrow.”
“He’s going to lose in the trial court and, in my opinion, prevail in the appellate court,” Napolitano concluded. “This judge [Arthur Engoron] has been appealed five times during the trial; he’s lost all five times.”
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