Trump pleads not guilty, slams criminal charges as ‘insult to America’

Kathmandu: Former US president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty during the historic hearing in a New York court on Tuesday.

In his first remarks since being charged over hush money payment to a porn star, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges. The 76- year-old former president also slammed the criminal prosecution as ‘an insult to our country’.

‘I never thought anything like this could happen in America — never thought it could happen,’ Trump told an audience of his supporters after returning to his mansion in southern Florida. ‘The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,’ he said, ‘It’s an insult to our country.’

He also said that America is going through the darkest hours of history and is a declining state.  ‘Incredibly, we are now a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement. We can’t let that happen,’ he told the crowd.

Trump is the first former or current US president in American history to face the criminal charges. And reactions to his arraignment were split along party lines.

Republicans see the arraignment as an abuse of the legal system and call it a weaponization of the system for political purposes. For them, it was aimed at derailing Trump’s bid for second term in 2024 presidential election.

‘Put aside for a moment whether you like Trump or don’t like him, whether you’re for him or not for him. Today is a bad day for all of us. Today American politics crosses a line that it’s never going to come back from,’ said Republican senator Marco Rubio from Florida.

But Democrats like Rashida Tlaib opines that all are equal before the law and calls for the powerful to be held to account. ‘No one is above the law, no matter how rich or powerful they are,’ Michigan Representative Tlaib said in a statement.