Trump says he 'expects to be arrested on Tuesday'

Not so fast. A New York grand jury will hear a final surprise witness on Monday and won't vote on Trump indictment until it's over.
Laura Italiano
Sat, March 18, 2023 at 7:02 PM MDT·

A Manhattan grand jury will continue hearing evidence Monday in the Trump hush-money investigation.

A final witness must testify before the panel can deliberate and then vote on a possible indictment.

Monday is now the earliest Trump could be indicted, though the charges would immediately be sealed.

A possible Donald Trump "hush-money" indictment is on hold until a final witness testifies before a Manhattan grand jury on Monday afternoon.

"There is one more witness," a source with knowledge of the investigation told Insider on Saturday night.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge details of the grand jury proceedings.

The source declined to identify the witness, whose testimony will cap a two-month grand jury presentation by prosecutors under District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A separate source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told Insider that the witness is not Allen Weisselberg, Trump's former CFO, who is serving a five-month sentence for admittedly masterminding a payroll tax-dodge scheme at the Trump Organization.

News of a Monday grand jury witness was first reported by CNN.

Former Trump attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen — the prosecution's star witness for his admitted role in wiring the illegal $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, days before the 2016 election — has told reporters he expected to be the grand jury's final witness when he testified last Monday and Wednesday.

The surprise final witness provides an updated clue to the timing of a possible indictment of Trump and of any co-defendants.

The grand jury, which meets in secret in a lower Manhattan office building, only gathers to hear testimony during three-hour afternoon sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

Its members — anywhere from 16 to 23 in number — could conceivably reach a vote by the end of Monday's three-hour session.

But that would be unlikely. Experts who have described the Manhattan grand jury process to Insider say there are several steps between the final testimony and the vote.

Once testimony concludes, prosecutors will "charge" the jury, meaning go through the potential counts on a charge sheet one by one, explaining each count in the potential indictment.

Sources have told Insider they expect the top count to be falsifying business records in the first degree, a low-level felony that would allege that Trump and any other co-defendant falsified documents in order to conceal another crime, such as omitting the $130,000 from campaign financial statements.

Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing or having an affair with Daniels, and has called the prosecution a "Scam, Injustice, Mockery, and a Complete and Total Weaponization of Law Enforcement in order to affect a Presidential Election!"

Once the charge has ended, the prosecutor, court officer, and stenographer leave the room, and the grand jurors begin deliberating.

If 12 or more reach a vote to indict, the foreperson would be given the hard-copy indictment to sign, at which point the former president would officially, though secretly, be under indictment.

That hard-copy indictment would then be walked over to a nearby clerk's office, where it is filed under seal. It would be unsealed at Trump's arraignment, though Bragg could ask a judge to unseal it early, given the great public interest.

It's a lot of activity to fit into three hours; if the process is incomplete, the grand jurors could return on Wednesday afternoon to keep working.

Trump had "Truthed" earlier Saturday that he "will be arrested on Tuesday of next week," telling supporters "Protest, take our nation back!" But that timing, already disputed by his attorney, could never have worked given the new final witness.

The panel has so far heard from a steady stream of witnesses, including Cohen. Former Trump advisors Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway have also appeared.

If Trump being arrested doesn't get Temple to dig himself out of the ground I don't know what will

https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/politics/republicans-trump-playbook/index.html

BREAKING: Manhattan DA Accused Of Concealing Exculpatory Evidence From Grand Jury
By Kyle Becker, March 22, 2023

Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett on “Hannity” on Tuesday night revealed that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg hid hundreds of pages of exculpatory evidence from the New York grand jury.

Jarrett furthermore called for the disbarment of the prosecuting attorneys involved in the travesty of justice.

“I mentioned it yesterday, I think, when Bob Costello got into that Grand Jury room and told them, ‘Wait a minute. You don’t have the hundreds of pages I handed over to Alvin Bragg over here? You only have six cherry-picked documents?’ You know, hiding from grand juries exculpatory information is reprehensible and unconscionable,” Jarrett said. “And the conduct of Alvin Bragg and his henchman Mark Pomerantz, who specifically says in his book, ‘We’re targeting zombies because we don’t like his beliefs,’ those guys should face disbarment proceedings.”

Jarrett also added this in a new Fox News column:

In a sudden turn of events, Cohen’s former attorney Robert Costello —no longer bound by the attorney-client privilege that was waived by his ex-client— testified before the grand jury on Monday. According to Costello, in April of 2018 Cohen repeatedly stated that the Daniels payment was intended to protect the candidate’s wife, not the campaign. Moreover, Cohen insisted that he acted all on his own and not at the behest of Trump. While testifying for over two hours, Costello said he realized that Bragg had been hiding from the grand jury nearly all of the files he had previously turned over to the DA that corroborated Cohen’s original story.

Concealing exculpatory evidence from a grand jury is reprehensible conduct. But the overarching question is this: was Cohen lying at the outset of the investigation or is he lying now? I doubt even he knows. Inveterate liars tend to lose track of their lies.

Bragg’s determination to snooker a grand jury into indicting Trump is an egregious abuse of government authority. It constitutes the weaponization of the law for political gain. But it is also—and importantly—selective prosecution of the worst kind.



Harvard Law Professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz added his perspective on the charges being brought by the Manhattan D.A.

“You know, in my new book, “Get Trump,” I go through all of those four allegations and I say, there’s plenty of smoke, but there’s no fire,” Dershowitz argued. “And if there were a fire, it would be set by arsonists.”

“There is no crime committed in any of the four allegations, and I prove that categorically in my book “Get Trump,” he added. “Where did I get the name? Get Trump. I got that from Letitia James’ campaign slogan. Her campaign promise was, ‘I promise you I will get Trump’.”

“And I want to add something new that hasn’t been said before,” he continued. “I think that Bob Costello has changed this case dramatically. I think that Bragg note now only has two possible results from that. Number one, he can say, alright, ‘I’m going to try to make the case without Cohen.’ He cannot use Cohen as a witness anymore.”

“That would be unethical because of the testimony that Costello gave,” he went on. “Or he could say, ‘Look, I have to drop the case.’ He may not be able to make it without Cohen. But if he can’t make it without Cohen, he can’t make it, because no ethical prosecutor is allowed to put on as a witness, somebody who has told the lies and has contradicted himself so much.”

“So I think that Bob Costello — it’s a game changer,” he added. “I think maybe that’s a reason for the delay here. I think ethical experts are now telling Bragg, wait a minute, you cannot use Cohen. So if you can make it through Pecker, if you can make it through some of the other people, okay, go ahead. But if you can’t make it without Cohen, you cannot bring this charge.”

“That’s a powerful statement,” Sean Hannity remarked.

On Tuesday, a former legal adviser to Michael Cohen, attorney Robert Costello, was called as a key witness in the New York grand jury investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged payment to adult actress Stormy Daniels. Costello claimed that testimony from the former Trump attorney is “far from solid evidence.”

Costello told reporters following his testimony that Cohen is “totally unreliable” in the probe against Trump. He added that the disgraced lawyer is “a convicted perjurer.”



“I’m the one who decided to do this. A lot of people cautioned me against it because I have nothing to gain. The only thing I’m doing is trying to tell the truth to the grand jurors because I read all these lies in the media that are being promoted by one side,” said Costello. “If you see the full picture … If they want to go after Donald Trump and they have solid evidence, so be it.”

“But Michael Cohen is far from solid evidence,” added Costello. “This guy, by any prosectors’ standard—and I used to be deputy chief of the criminal division in the Southern District of New York—I wouldn’t have touched a guy like Michael Cohen, especially if he’s a convicted perjurer.”

As noted by the Epoch Times, Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to “charges of tax evasion, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and campaign finance violations in connection with an alleged $130,000 payment to a lawyer representing adult actress Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.”

“Cohen claims that Trump, during his 2016 presidential campaign, directed him to arrange the payment to Daniels as ‘hush money’ in order to buy her silence after she claimed to have had an affair with Trump,” the report added. “The money was allegedly paid using campaign funds, a violation of campaign finance law.”

Donald Trump is expected to face a potential indictment from the grand jury on Wednesday. The former president will reportedly turn himself in to authorities to face trial.

BWAHAHAHA:

BREAKING: Bombshell Document From Cohen’s Lawyer in 2018 Blows Up Manhattan DA’s Case
By Chris, March 22, 2023

A new bombshell document has been leaked in the potential Trump indictment. The letter from 2018, sent by Michael Cohen’s lawyer to the Federal Election Commission, shows that Cohen had used his own personal funds to pay adult film actress Stormy Daniels $130,000.

The letter also stated that neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign were involved in the transaction and did not reimburse Cohen for the payment, either directly or indirectly.

Michael Cohen’s 2018 letter to the FEC regarding the payment to Stormy Daniels appears to contradict his sworn testimony to Congress a year later. In his testimony, Cohen stated under oath that Donald Trump instructed him to use his own personal funds, obtained from a Home Equity Line of Credit, to pay off the adult film actress with whom he had an affair.

Cohen further testified that Trump made this request to avoid any potential negative impact on his campaign by ensuring that the payment couldn’t be traced back to him. This discrepancy between the letter and Cohen’s testimony raises questions about the legitimacy of his statements and the motivations behind them.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States federal government that is responsible for administering and enforcing campaign finance laws in federal elections. Its main mission is to disclose campaign finance information, enforce the provisions of the law such as contribution limits and expenditure rules, and oversee the public funding of presidential elections.

SEE BELOW:




Daily Mail writes:

After canceling today’s [Wednesday’s] session, the grand jury has been asked to return at noon Thursday, when prosecutors ‘may present one more witness,’ a court official told DailyMail.com.

The letter appears to be in direct conflict with Cohen’s sworn testimony to Congress given a year later.

Cohen said under oath that Trump ‘asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair,’ and that ‘Mr. Trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a Home Equity Line of Credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign.’

But in a February 8, 2018 letter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Cohen’s attorney Stephen Ryan wrote: ‘Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds’, and that ‘Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.’

The letter was written in response to an FEC probe launched after complaints of campaign finance violations, lodged by Paul Ryan and the organization Common Cause.

‘In a private transaction in 2016, before the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Cohen used his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford,’ Cohen’s lawyer, who worked at McDermott Will & Emery, wrote.

‘Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.

BREAKING: Grand Jury Cancels Wednesday’s Session, Delaying Possible Trump Indictment
By Chris, March 22, 2023

The grand jury investigating Trump’s ‘hush-money’ case in Manhattan received a cancellation notice for Wednesday, just as it was preparing for a potential vote on an indictment of the former president. Although there is a lot of ambiguity surrounding the case, a law enforcement member informed Insider that it’s improbable that the grand jury would convene this week.

Last week, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, informed reporters that he would be the grand jury’s last witness. The jury would have then started deliberations and proceeded to vote, following his testimony. However, the sudden halt in the grand jury’s proceedings today, particularly if they decide to adjourn for the rest of the week, is likely to postpone the process until next week.

Here’s the report from Business Insider:

The Manhattan ‘hush-money’ grand jury has been told not to come in on Wednesday, a cancellation that comes on the brink of a possible historic indictment vote of former President Donald Trump, according to two law enforcement officers.

And while nothing beyond Wednesday is set in stone, it is unlikely that the grand jury will meet at all this week, said one of the law enforcement sources, who spoke to Insider on condition of anonymity.

The grand jury has been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to hear evidence of Trump’s alleged role in approving a 2016 election-eve payment of $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, money that federal prosecutors have called an illegal campaign expenditure.

As the investigation of Trump’s case faces delay, uncertainty looms over the potential indictment of the former president. The delay in the grand jury proceedings raises questions about the prosecution’s case and what might have caused the delay.

The order in which witnesses appear before a grand jury can affect the timing and outcome of the proceedings, but being the last witness for Cohen does not necessarily hold any special significance on its own.

A delay in the grand jury proceeding can have various implications, depending on the circumstances, such as: additional witnesses or evidence, juror availability, and or legal issues involving the case.

On Wednesday, Trump commented on the possible indictment, “The Rogue prosecutor, who is having a hard time with the Grand Jury, especially after the powerful testimony against him by Felon Cohen’s highly respected former lawyer, is attempting to build a case that has NEVER BEEN BROUGHT BEFORE AND ACTUALLY, CAN’T BE BROUGHT.”

He continued on Truth Social, “If he spent this time, effort, and money on fighting VIOLENT CRIME, which is destroying NYC, our once beautiful and safe Manhattan, which has become an absolute HELLHOLE, would be a much better place to live!”

They'll get him next time! For sure! No doubt about it! He's off to jail! Guaranteed!

Manhattan DA Bragg Fires Off Desperate Response to House Republicans
Jon Dougherty, March 24, 2023

It’s not been a great week for the George Soros-backed leftist district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg.

After news broke last week that the grand jury he convened to investigate Donald Trump for an alleged improper “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, the former president got out in front of the story and managed to rake in $1.5 million for his 2024 campaign. There has been no arrests yet, as reports suggested there would be; in fact, not only has there not been an indictment at all, but Bragg released the grand on Thursday for at least a week, according to various news outlets.

Even more embarrassing for him and his office, now he’s attempting to grasp every law he can in order to avoid having to appear before a Republican-led House committee to answer what will no doubt be tough questions from GOP lawmakers who are already highly suspicious that Bragg’s investigation of Trump was motivated not by any possible legal infractions, but strictly by politics as Democrats appear desperate to keep Trump off the ticket next year at any cost.

On Thursday, a spokesperson from Bragg’s office responded to House Republicans after they launched an investigation earlier in the week into his Trump probe, stating that they do not have a “legitimate basis” for their inquiry.

Leslie Dubeck, the in-house general counsel for the prosecutor leading the investigation, referred to the lawmakers’ request for communications, documents, and testimony as “an unprecedented inquiry into a pending local prosecution.”

Their requests, Dubeck noted further, “are an unlawful incursion into New York’s sovereignty. Congress’s investigative jurisdiction is derived from and limited by its power to legislate concerning federal matters,” according to the Daily Wire.

In response to reports suggesting that an indictment against Trump was imminent, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil (R-WI) wrote a letter to Bragg on Monday, warning of “an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority: the indictment of a former President of the United States and current declared candidate for that office.”

During the weekend, Trump stated that he anticipated being arrested on Tuesday and urged his supporters to protest. However, a spokesperson for the former president later clarified that Trump had not received any official “notification” and suggested that media reports about law enforcement preparing for a potential indictment were “illegal leaks.”

In Bragg’s response to GOP leaders, Dubeck claimed their inquiry “only came after Donald Trump created a false expectation that he would be arrested the next day and his lawyers reportedly urged you to intervene.”

“Neither fact is a legitimate basis for congressional inquiry,” Dubeck added in the correspondence, which was posted online by Punchbowl News.

Dubeck referred to a New York Times report which stated that Trump’s lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, had written to Jordan last month, urging Congress to investigate the “egregious abuse of power” by what he characterized as a “rogue local district attorney.”

Dubeck concluded by saying that Bragg’s team “will not allow a Congressional investigation to impede the exercise of New York’s sovereign police power,” but added that his office “will always treat a fellow government entity with due respect.” As such, Dubeck added, Bragg’s team is requesting a “meet and confer to understand whether the Committee has any legitimate legislative purpose in the requested materials that could be accommodated without impeding those sovereign interests.”

On Wednesday night, Jordan revealed that he was expanding his investigation into Bragg by sending inquiries to Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz, the prosecutors who were leading the Trump investigation and had resigned last year due to their frustration with Bragg’s hesitation to pursue an indictment at that time.

“Alvin Bragg should focus on prosecuting actual criminals in New York City rather than harassing a political opponent in another state,” the House Judiciary Committee, which Jordan chairs, tweeted following details of Bragg’s response letter being reported. “Make Manhattan Safe Again!

From what I've heard about this, i think Bragg has bitten off more than he can chew ... One of the committees (judicial?) sent him a letter questioning his prosecution, and i heard they're considering calling him before the committee..
... I've been trying to avoid a lotta politics lately cuz it's just so fucking depressing ... It doesn't appear that house republicans will (or cant) stop the Biden admin and democrats from doing whatever they want and destroying the friggin country .. By the time they're done we won't be able to vote our way outta the mess they've created .. If we don't get nuked off the fucking planet the way these assholes are handling our foreign affairs

Dershowitz Says Bragg Could Be Disbarred For Trump Case
Carmine Sabia, March 26, 2023

Attorney Alan Dershowitz believes that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg could be disbarred for his case against former president Donald Trump.

He appeared on the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures” with host Maria Bartiromo when he said that having Michael Cohen as a witness could damage the district attorney, Mediaite reported.

“I don’t think an indictment can actually come forward now after the comments made by [Robert] Costello,” the attorney said.

He said that “he has proved that the main witness is going to be a perjuring liar on the witness stand, and that puts the district attorney in a terrible position.”

“If he uses Cohen as a witness, he could actually lose his bar license. It’s unethical to put a witness on the stand who you know is lying, and he has to know that Cohen will be lying. Or he tries the case without Cohen, which would be very difficult, or he does the right thing: he drops the case,” he said.

BREAKING: Grand Jury in Trump’s NY Case to Reconvene Monday
By Mark Steffen, March 27, 2023

A grand jury in the hush-money case against former President Donald Trump is expected to reconvene Monday following a prediction by Mr. Trump that the case would be dismissed.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal that the probe into President Trump’s finances is still very much ongoing and that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg continues to weigh if and how to bring the first criminal charge against a former president in the nation’s history.

Despite President Trump last week claimed that an indictment would soon be coming, none ever materialized, leaving court watchers to wonder whether DA Bragg still believed in the strength of his case. A docket for the grand jury’s latest meeting was not available, however prosecutors could call additional witnesses or present formal charges, the final step before a jury would vote to indict.

Over the weekend, President Trump spoke at a rally in Waco, Texas about his perceived “corruption” in the justice system.

“The Biden regime’s weaponization of law enforcement against their political opponent is something out of the Stalinist, Russia horror show… The weaponization of our justice system, a banana republic. That’s what we have become… You will be vindicated and proud, and the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited, and totally disgraced. That’s what’s happening. From the beginning it’s been one witch hunt and phony investigation after another,” said Trump.

WATCH:



The Manhattan case against President Trump rests on a novel legal argument that seeks to show he obfuscated business records to hide a political campaign contribution. The payment, made by his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen, involved adult film star Stormy Daniels and was made days before the 2016 presidential election. For DA Bragg to be successful, he will need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Trump made the contribution to limit damage to his political campaign and did not properly report it.

oliver clotheshoffe wrote:

Dems can't get Trump... trannies are running around shooting up schools... gas is going up and banks are going down... why do I get the feeling Jimmy Carter is about to die to provide a convenient distraction from it all...

If Carter does die, I hope his last words are "Epstein didn't kill himself."

BREAKING: Brand New Witness Testifies In Trump Grand Jury
By Paul Aubert, March 27, 2023

A new witness testified in front of the Manhattan grand jury that is investigating former President Donald Trump on Monday.

The witness is the former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, according to the New York Post. Pecker was a part of the Enquirer when the parent company of the outlet bought the publishing rights to report on a former Playboy model named Karen McDougal’s accusations that she had an affair with Trump.

The Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc, appeared to be a part of a “catch-and-kill” plan where a company buys the publishing rights of a story but not publishing it, to ensure it does not spread.

MSNBC reported that the grand jury may want to question Pecker about Robert Costello’s witness testimony made last week. Costello told the jury last week that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, without Trump’s direction or knowledge.

Costello said Cohen made the Daniels payments “on his own, that’s what he told us.” In Feb. 2019, Cohen’s lawyer told the FEC in a letter that, “neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly.”

On Sunday, the former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg could be disbarred if he uses Michael Cohen’s testimony to indict former President Donald Trump.

Dershowitz warned against Bragg using Cohen’s testimony because Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, is “a perjuring liar,” Mediate reported.

Dershowitz is not confident an “indictment can actually come forward now after the comments made by [Robert] Costello.”

“He has proved that the main witness is going to be a perjuring liar on the witness stand, and that puts the district attorney in a terrible position,” Dershowitz continued, referencing a 2018 incident where Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.

If D.A. Bragg “uses Cohen as a witness, he could actually lose his bar license. It’s unethical to put a witness on the stand who you know is lying, and he has to know that Cohen will be lying.”

“Or he tries the case without Cohen, which would be very difficult, or he does the right thing: he drops the case,” Dershowitz added.

WATCH:

In his return to Fox News, Trump labels the Manhattan DA's probe a 'new way of cheating in elections'
Ethan Miller | NBC News
Tue, March 28, 2023 at 12:04 AM MDT

Former President Donald Trump returned to Fox News on Monday night and aired a host of grievances about investigations he's facing, mail-in voting and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his first interview with the network since legal filings showed network leaders privately condemning him.

There was no hint of the acrimony detailed in those communications, made public as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network. Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner, spoke for nearly an hour with prime-time host Sean Hannity, long one of his most outspoken Fox News backers.

Trump found a welcome environment for his attempt to tie a potential indictment he faces in New York City to the 2020 election-rigging myth that led to his supporters' attack on the Capitol, defend rioters who were arrested in its aftermath and say he and DeSantis — his chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination — were never friends.

"It's a new way of cheating in elections," Trump said when asked about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's hush money probe. "It's called election interference."

On March 18, Trump predicted he would be arrested in three days, which turned out to be wrong. But he has shared more heated rhetoric about a potential indictment in recent days, including warning of "potential death and destruction" should he be indicted.

Trump said Monday he was not calling for violence and added that his Truth Social post of an article featuring a split photo of him holding a baseball bat opposite Bragg was done unknowingly.

"We didn’t see pictures. We put up a story that was very exculpatory, very good story from the standpoint of what we’re talking about," he said.

He expressed relatively little emotion when he was asked about how he was handling the chance of arrest, later shifting in his answer to a riff involving the supposed emptying of South American prisons and "mental institutions."

"Well, I deal with it," he said of a possible indictment. "We’re dealing with very dishonest people. We’re dealing with thugs. We’re dealing with people I actually believe that hate our country."

Elsewhere in the conversation, Trump promoted the "Justice for All" song, which features a choir of men incarcerated for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol singing the national anthem, interposed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Trump began his rally Saturday in Waco, Texas, by playing a video version of the recording, which also featured images of the insurrection.

"The J6 is beating Taylor Swift," Trump said, pointing to the song's success on a variety of music charts. "It’s Donald Trump and the J-Sixers on iTunes and on Amazon and on Billboard, which is the big deal. No. 1, Donald Trump.

"That’s a tribute to the fact that people feel the J6 people have been very unfairly treated," he added.

Reflecting on some of his personnel decisions during his presidency, Trump said he "may have made a mistake" in choosing FBI Director Christopher Wray and added he "didn't like" Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

But Trump's saved his harshest criticism for DeSantis.

"Not friends," Trump said of their relationship before DeSantis became a presidential prospect. "I didn't know him well."

Trump described DeSantis as a "desperate" politician who, he claimed, came to him with "tears in his eyes" asking for an endorsement in a 2018 primary race for governor against Adam Putnum, then the Florida agriculture commissioner.

As Trump sees it, DeSantis owes him for his good fortune and shouldn't run against him in 2024.

"I helped a lot of people get elected," he said, adding: "But some I got in. Ron, I got in. He was losing. There was no way. It was over. He was dead. He was going to drop out. He was gone."

A DeSantis spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DeSantis' polls far and away as the second-most-favored contender in the GOP's 2024 field, but amid intense attacks by Trump, some donors and allies have questioned whether he is ready for what would be a bruising primary fight. Trump has increasingly focused on DeSantis since he wrongly predicted his arrest date.

The interview was the first Trump has conducted with a prime-time Fox News anchor since September.

After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in emails that the network wanted “to make Trump a nonperson” and was “pivoting as fast as possible," recent legal filings as part of Dominion's lawsuit revealed.

But Trump's team has felt Fox's coverage of him this year is an improvement over its coverage in 2016, the last time he faced a seriously contested primary.

“They were openly hostile to him in 2016," an adviser said this month. "They’re not as openly hostile" now.