Former president Donald Trump decried the multiple charges and indictments, calling them “bulls***,” during a rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday afternoon.
Mr Trump spoke during a rally in the state that holds the first presidential primary and the one that gave him his first primary win in 2016.
The twice-impeached and now thrice-indicted former president baselessly said that President Joe Biden’s administration indicted him to hamper his 2024 run, despite the fact that Attorney General Merrick Garland nominated Special Counsel Jack Smith to handle the probes into Mr Trump independently.
“How can my corrupt political opponent, crooked Joe Biden put me on trial during an election campaign that I'm winning by a lot, but forcing me nevertheless to spend time and money away from the campaign trail in order to fight bogus made-up accusations and charges,” he said.
“So what they're doing, I'm sorry, I won't be able to go to Iowa today. I won't be able to go to New Hampshire today because I'm sitting in a courtroom on bulls*** because his attorney general charged me,” he said.
In response, attendees in Windham proceeded to chant “bulls***.”
Last week, a federal grand jury indicted Mr Trump for his alleged plot to overthrow the 2020 election after a four-hour presentation by Mr Smith. The indictment came after a federal grand jury had indicted him in June on 37 charges stemming from the Department of Justice’s investigation into his possession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
On Friday, Mr Trump pleaded not guilty to a 40-count superseding indictment in the same case in the Southern District of Florida.
Mr Trump said that prosecutors are trying to restrict his rights guaranteed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution, an argument the former president’s legal team has floated recently.
“You know, they want to take away your freedom of speech, everything else would have mattered a lot less,” he said. “They waited till the election.”
Mr Trump also decried the investigation from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Mr Trump faces a potential indictment in the county that houses Atlanta for his attempts to overturn the election results in the state.
Specifically, Mr Trump decried the fact that he was indicted for spreading lies that the 2020 election was stolen and said that Democrats have acted similarly.
“And they want to indict me because I challenged the election,” the indictment said. “So does that mean that Hillary Clinton who challenge the election does that mean that Stacey Abrams and all of the other virtually every Democrat challenges the election?”
Mr Trump also railed against Mr Smith, calling him “deranged.”
The rally comes as Mr Smith’s office accused Mr Trump’s office on Monday of trying to “litigate this case in the media” after the former president objected to a proposal to limit public discussion of the case.
-Andrew Feinberg and Josh Marcus contributed reporting
