Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, told Newsmax on Monday that testimony by Michael Cohen earlier in the day during Trump's criminal trial in New York proved again what a "sham" and "waste of time" the prosecution of the former president has been.
Cohen is a former Trump attorney, disbarred from practicing in New York, who served a three-year prison term after being convicted on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud, campaign-finance violations, and lying to Congress.
He is said to be the key witnesses for Democrat Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution of Trump on charges of falsifying business records to keep quiet a $130,000 payment Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. Trump pleaded not guilty and has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
"There were definitely more lies in that courtroom today," Leavitt told "Eric Bolling The Balance." "Look we've been sitting in there for 16 days now, and Alvin Bragg's prosecution team still has yet to talk about the alleged crimes that they are charging President Trump with and that's because they know he is not guilty of any crimes.
"This case is a sham. It's utterly ridiculous, and it's a tremendous waste of time."
Leavitt, who was in the courtroom with Trump on Monday, said Americans are seeing through this "sham" prosecution of President Joe Biden's main rival in November's election. She used Saturday night's rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, where approximately 100,000 people showed up, as an example. She also mentioned the reception the former president receives when he returns to Trump Tower in Manhattan following court proceedings.
"The American people see that and that's why we pulled a crowd of more than 100,000 in deep-blue New Jersey this past weekend," she said. "We continue to tell him, and he knows it, 'Sir, as much as this stinks to be in this dirty criminal courtroom, we are winning on the outside.'
"We see it here in midtown Manhattan as his motorcade just pulled into Trump Tower. People on the streets [were] chanting 'MAGA!,' 'America First,' 'President Trump. We need you.' We saw [that] this past weekend in New Jersey. We saw it two weeks ago in Michigan. Everywhere he goes, he is increasing his support."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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