New York:

Former US president Donald Trump railed against his criminal conviction on Friday, calling his New York trial “very unfair”, attacking the process as politicized and vowing to appeal.

“It was very unfair… You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side — they were literally crucified,” Trump said in a rambling speech at Trump Tower in Manhattan in which he called his adversaries “sick” and “fascists.”

He vowed to challenge his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, declaring “we’re going to be appealing this scam… on many different things.”

Trump claimed that he wanted to testify, as was his legal right, but that he was not permitted to.

Legal observers had suggested that it would expose the Republican candidate for the presidential election in November to outsize legal and political jeopardy if he had been cross examined by prosecutors.

Trump said he was “honored” to take on the legal establishment but that “it’s very bad for my family, it’s very bad for my friends and businesses.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Donald Trump hit out Tuesday at a New York judge for extending a gag order preventing the former US president from attacking those involved in the case, calling it “election interference” ahead of November presidential polls.

On Monday the New York judge presiding over Trump’s trial for allegedly making pre-election hush money payments to a porn star expanded a gag order against him to include comments about family members of the magistrate and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

The move came after the Republican presidential candidate lashed out at Judge Juan Merchan and his daughter in a series of posts on Truth Social.

“I just was informed that another corrupt New York Judge, Juan Merchan, GAGGED me so that I can not talk about the corruption and conflicts taking place in his courtroom,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“They can talk about me, but I can’t talk about them??? That sounds fair, doesn’t it?

“ELECTION INTERFERENCE at its worst!”

In his order on Monday, Merchan said Trump’s “pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose.”

“It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well, are ‘fair game’ for defendant’s vitriol.”

Trump faces charges of falsifying business records for payments made by his lawyer Michael Cohen on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to porn star Stormy Daniels to make sure she did not publicize a sexual encounter.

The case will kick off on April 15 and marks the start of the first ever criminal trial of a former president.

Asked by reporters if he would take the witness stand, Trump has said he “would have no problem testifying.”

Trump now has four criminal indictments to his name and faces 88 felony counts for a wide variety of alleged criminality.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

Donald Trump said his civil fraud trial starting in New York Monday is a “sham” and called the state attorney general who brought the case a “horror show.”

Also calling the trial a “scam,” Donald Trump told reporters outside the courthouse that the judge in charge was a “rogue judge.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)