Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hold a news conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images
Donald Trump said Friday that he will testify under oath in his criminal trial, which begins Monday in New York.
“All I can do is tell the truth,” said Trump, who is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, “and the truth is, there is no case.”
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee spoke at a news conference with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., at Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.
The trial — the first ever against a former president — centers on a hush-money payment in late 2016 to porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an extramarital affair with Trump years earlier.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of facilitating that payment and others to illegally withhold information from voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which Trump would go on to win.
Trump is expected to be in court for the duration of the trial, which could last more than six weeks.
Asked at Mar-a-Lago what he will look for when the jury selection process begins Monday, Trump said: “Jury selection is largely a matter of luck. It depends on who you get.”
He went on to once again attack the president of the court, Juan Merchan, accusing him of having a conflict of interest that requires his recusal from the case.
Trump and his lawyers have said the conflict is that Merchan’s daughter works for a Democratic political firm. Merchan already rejected that argument last year, but Trump’s lawyers recently filed another recusal request on similar grounds. Trump has repeatedly targeted the judge’s daughter on social media, prompting Merchan to extend a gag order on Trump.
Johnson, whose role leading the narrowly divided House is questioned by his own party, had traveled to Florida to meet with Trump, the GOP’s de facto leader and by far its most influential member.
The two men held a news conference to announce a bill that aims to strengthen election “integrity” by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, even though it is already illegal for noncitizens to vote.