In his first public remarks since being charged with paying hush money payments to a porn star on Tuesday, Donald Trump delivered a ferocious defense of his actions, calling the criminal investigation "an disgrace to our country."
In a dramatic hearing in New York hours earlier, the 76-year-old former US president entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts, captivating the nation and starting the countdown to the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America — never thought it could happen,” Trump told a crowd of several hundred donors, political allies and other supporters after returning to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront mansion in southern Florida.
“The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it... It’s an insult to our country.”
Trump — the frontrunner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination — said that “radical left” prosecutors across the country were out to get him “at any cost.”
In a dramatic hearing in New York hours earlier, the 76-year-old former US president entered a not guilty plea to 34 felony counts, captivating the nation and starting the countdown to the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America — never thought it could happen,” Trump told a crowd of several hundred donors, political allies and other supporters after returning to Mar-a-Lago, his beachfront mansion in southern Florida.
“The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it... It’s an insult to our country.”
Trump — the frontrunner in the race for the 2024 Republican nomination — said that “radical left” prosecutors across the country were out to get him “at any cost.”
