7 months ago
20
Donald Trump kicked off the courthouse-steps portion of his 2024 campaign Monday with a scathing indictment of the U.S. justice system, casting it as the enemy of The People—or his people, at least.
Trump, facing a $250 million civil fraud trial in New York that could ruin him financially, voiced renewed disgust for the judicial system threatening to hold him to account for allegedly engaging in a massive scheme to defraud the state.
"Take a look at what's going on in Georgia, take a look at Jack Smith," Trump told reporters at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, invoking the criminal indictments he's facing at the state and federal levels related to 2020 election tampering. "This is called election interference," Trump said, specifically referencing the "presidential election of 2024."
Trump went on to blast New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled last week that he had persistently defrauded financial institutions to build his business empire. Engoron will ultimately decide the outcome of the non-jury civil trial that commenced Monday.
"This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he's doing. He's interfering with an election, and it's a disgrace," Trump said, in a diatribe dripping with animosity.
Trump's rancor—along with his assertion that the U.S. justice system is depriving him and his voters of a free and fair election—is sure to become a staple of the presidential campaign he will increasingly be forced to conduct from courthouses across the country in New York, Washington D.C., Georgia, and Florida. It's the 2.0 version of Trump's false 2020 "rigged election" claim, only this time the supposed miscarriage of justice is being perpetrated by the justice system itself, in Trump's view.
