- Trump told reporters traveling with him that he believed the case was over
- It comes seven days after he said that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday
- But the week came and went with apparently no grand jury indictment
Donald Trump has claimed Manhattan’s DA has dropped a criminal probe into a hush money payment to a porn star, a week after claiming he’d be arrested within days.
The former president told a small group of reporters aboard his private jet Saturday night that prosecutors would have had no choice but to give up in the face of recent evidence.
With an open necked shirt and bottle of Diet Coke by his side, Trump cut a relaxed figure as he traveled back from the first rally of his campaign in Waco, Texas – and grew angry at any suggestion he found recent days ‘frustrating.’
‘I have no idea what’s going to happen…’ he said. ‘I think they’ve already dropped the case. From what I understand … I think it’s been dropped.
‘But I believe that if anything ever happened with the case, it’s a fake case.’
Earlier on Saturday, Trump told fans in Waco that Bragg had ‘nothing’ on him. He insists a $130,000 payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels weeks before the October 2016 election wasn’t a campaign finance violation. Trump also denies a 2006 one- night-stand with the performer.
It makes for a remarkable turnaround. Last Saturday he posted a message that he was expecting to be arrested on Tuesday and calling on supporters to protest.
But the day came and went. And a grand jury hearing evidence in New York did not sit on Wednesday or Thursday, sparking speculation in Trump world that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s case was foundering.
Trump spent the days following his usual routine of heading to his West Palm Beach golf course, maintaining a picture of business as usual.
On Saturday evening, as he flew home from addressing what aides said was a crowd of 25,000 supporters in Waco, Texas, he scoffed at any idea that the probe had been a distraction.
‘I’m not frustrated by anything,’ he said in response to a question. ‘I just did a speech for two hours. I’m not first frustrated to do that.
‘I just had polls that came out where I’m 40 points ahead. See, this is what I hate about fake news.’
But he faces growing legal peril from a series of criminal investigations. The most immediate is related to an alleged hush-money payoff to Daniels during his 2016 White House campaign.
He was recently invited to give evidence to a Manhattan grand jury, a sure sign that it wrapping up its work and could be about to hand down an indictment.
Trump painted the case as politically motivated, and has used it to raise money. New York’s former governor Andrew Cuomo – an avowed Democrat – said Saturday he thinks the case against Trump is political.
On Saturday, Trump said he was convinced that testimony from lawyer Robert Costello had thrown doubt on evidence given by his former fixer Michael Cohen, who said he made the payment and the was then reimbursed by Trump.
And he said the emergence of a letter by Cohen’s lawyer, stating in 2018 that Cohen had not been reimbursed, had destroyed the case against him.
‘Two of the most respected lawyers in the country, one wrote a letter about Cohen which made him want to be a liar,’ said Trump.
‘The other one did even more so he went before the grand jury and he explained that this guy was a liar.’
Trump has kept up a steady stream of attacks on Bragg. On Friday, he was accused of going to far when she shared a picture of himself wielding a baseball bat next to an image of the Manhattan prosecutor.
He also warned of ‘death’ and ‘destruction.’
But he told reporters traveling with him that violence was not the answer.
‘I don’t like violence and I’m not not for violence,’ he said. ‘But a lot of people are upset and you know they rigged an election, they stole an election, they spied on my campaign. They did many bad things. They did a fake dossier.’
He referenced the case during his 90-minute speech in Waco, along with other probes and investigations he has faced since winning the 2016 election.