Donald Trump, the former US president, attacked successor Joe Biden, saying “the country is going to hell” hours after he was accused of paying money to a porn star.
The 76-year-old, who pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts, was addressing supporters and the media from his Mar-a-Lago home, Florida.
“I never thought anything like this could happen in America – never thought it could happen,” he said, “The only crime I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our country from those who want it.” want to destroy”.
Trump – the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination – said from a stage with American flags in a lavish gold and cream ballroom that “radical left” prosecutors across the country were out to get him “at any cost”.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged that Trump covered his tracks by suppressing negative information and falsifying his company’s business records in a two-year scheme to boost his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump is facing a separate criminal investigation by a county prosecutor in Georgia into whether he tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state. He also faces two US Justice Department investigations led by a special counsel into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his handling of classified documents after leaving office.