Former United States President Donald Trump has accused Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in his prosecution, of being biased.
Trump was arrested on Tuesday and was temporarily in police custody ahead of his arraignment.
In an indictment sheet released by Alvin Bragg, Manhattan district attorney, the former president was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Bragg said the main accusation against Trump is that he “repeatedly and fraudulently falsified New York business records to conceal criminal conduct that hid damaging information from the voting public during the 2016 presidential election”.
He said Trump and others involved in the scheme “violated election laws and made and caused false entries in the business records of various entities in New York” after identifying and suppressing harmful stories about him from going public before the election.
The sheet adds that Trump and his allies “also took steps that mischaracterized, for tax purposes, the true nature of the payments”.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts.
Delivering his first public remarks on the case at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, the former president said he is a victim of Democratic conspiracy to jeopardise his re-election bid.
“We are a nation in decline, and now these radical left lunatics want to interfere in elections by using law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,” he said.
“They can’t beat us at the ballot box, so they try to beat us through the law.”
Trump maintained his claims of innocence and accused the judge of bias, describing him as a “Trump-hating judge from a Trump-hating family”.
He accused the DA of falsifying information and called for his prosecution.
According to Trump, the only crime he has committed “is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it”.
“With all of this being said, and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt nevertheless we will make America great again,” Trump said.
Trump’s team will have until August to file any motions against the case. The next court hearing is set for December, a few months before the Republican political campaigns begin.
Source: Top Stories