Former President Trump said Wednesday he would “absolutely” take the stand to defend himself in his impending trials, saying he looks “forward” to doing so.
The former president and 2024 Republican front-runner appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Wednesday morning.
Trump is the first former president of the United States history to face criminal charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in all three jurisdictions.
On Wednesday, Trump was asked if he would testify in his own defense at any of the trials stemming from the four separate indictments he faces.
“Oh yes, absolutely,” Trump said.
When asked if he would take the stand, Trump replied: “That, I would do—that, I look forward to . . . At trial, I’ll testify.”
“Because that’s just like Russia, Russia, Russia,” Trump said, referring back to the FBI’s original 2016 investigation into whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
That probe eventually spun into a special counsel investigation led by Robert Mueller. After two years, Mueller’s investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
“Remember when the dossier came out and everyone said oh, that’s so terrible, that’s so terrible, and then it turned out to be it was a political report put out by Hillary Clinton and the DNC?” Trump said. “They paid millions for it, They gave it to Christopher Steele, They paid millions and millions of dollars for it, and it was all fake.”
The dossier contained allegations of purported coordination between Trump and the Russian government. It was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer.
The Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the dossier through the law firm Perkins Coie.