Trump Claims Without Evidence That District Attorney ‘Already Dropped’ the Stormy Daniels Case
Following his lie-laden Waco rally, Donald Trump claimed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg “already dropped” the case against him for allegedly covering up a hush money payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels. Bragg has made no public statement that he is dropping the case. Meanwhile, Trump’s attorneys have warned him to be prepared to lose if Bragg indicts him.
“I think they’ve already dropped the case. From what I understand, I think it’s been dropped,” Trump said on his plane after the rally, per NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard. Trump did not cite a source for this, but a deepfake video of Bragg where he appears to say he will drop the Trump investigation has been making the rounds on Twitter over the last couple days, thanks to far-right activist Jack Posobiec. The original video used to create the fake came from a 2022 event where Bragg spoke to law students.
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Trump also said that the attorneys in the Manhattan DA’s office “have no case” against him. “I believe that if anything ever happened with the case, it’s a fake case. It’s just a fake case,” he said. “They have absolutely nothing. They have it in reverse. They should indict Michael Cohen for all the lies that he told.” Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, was disbarred and served approximately 13 months in prison after admitting he made the $130,000 payment to Daniels and that Trump reimbursed him for it.
Trump said he did not know the check to Cohen was for the payment to Daniels, saying he only found that out “later.” He also tried to distance himself from Cohen, alleging the attorney “didn’t do very much for us” and “wasn’t a big shot lawyer.”
During his speech, Trump denied the affair with Daniels and made fun of her looks. “I never liked horseface. It’s just not… it’s terrible. That would not be the one! There is no one. We have a great First Lady,” he said. That same day, Rolling Stone published an account from adult film actress Alana Evans, who said Daniels told her about the affair with Trump at the time and that both of them invited her to join in on it.
Trump told reporters on his plane that his supporters would be “very angry” if Bragg proceeds with the case and seemed to suggest they might turn to violence. “But the people — and it’s not just 75 million people, I think it’s double that and maybe more than that — get very angry at the weaponization, and there’s never been weaponization like that, like what’s going on right now,” he said, adding, “No, but I’m not in favor of violence.”
At the rally, Trump played video of the assault on the Capitol to the soundtrack of Jan. 6 defendants singing the national anthem. Along with the music, a recording of the former president reciting the pledge of allegiance played.
Afterward, when Hillyard asked about that moment and whether Trump believed the violence on Jan. 6 was “justifiable,” Trump responded, “I don’t like violence, and I’m not for violence at all. 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. Mueller was bad news.”
It’s hard to square Trump’s claims that he is “not for violence at all” when he is glorifying it at his rallies.
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