Prior to his appearance in a New York courtroom for a fraud prosecution, former President Donald Trump reiterated his criticisms of Attorney General Letitia James during a press conference.

President Donald Trump stated:

So while Israel is being attacked, while trade is being attacked, while inflation is eating our country alive, I’m down here that these are all political opponents. Attack ads by the Biden administration. Their poll numbers on terrorism show what happened today. The New York Times and CBS came out with a poll that I’m leading all over the place. But it’s a very unfair situation. This is really election interference. And so let me just try this (is how) ridiculous the numbers are. Much greater than on the financial side, and we’ve already proven that they said Mar-a-Lago resort, $18 million … Mar-a-Lago was anywhere from probably 50 to 100 times more than that.

And it’s a terrible, terrible thing. These are political operatives that I’m going to be dealing with right now. You have a racist attorney general who’s made some terrible statements and we see some more that came out the wires today. And it’s a very sad situation for our country. We shouldn’t have this. Discredit the third world countries. And it’s very unfair. It’s very unfair. But in the meantime, the people, as they understand it, they see it and they don’t like it… Political warfare, as you would call it, political warfare…. usually it takes place in third world countries and banana republics. Nobody’s ever seen that to this extent. We’ve never seen it here. But we will go along and we will obviously do very well in every regard and we’ll win the election and we will make America great again. That’s all I need to do. We’re going to make America great again. But we have to take away from the circus that.

“What you heard there was a campaign speech,” as Trump essentially restated all of his Truth Social posts on the subject repeatedly, as accurately described by CNN’s John Berman.

Following that, Donald Trump took the witness stand in New York, marking an unprecedented juncture in history. With prudence, the former president proceeded into the box, ascending a short distance before raising his palm to receive the oath.

Former presidents consistently receive official protection from the Secret Service and are encircled by a force field of deference on account of their esteemed status.

In contrast, Trump is seated alone on a leather chair flanked by wooden panels in the witness box. He is currently adorned in a blue suit, shirt, and tie, which differs from his typical campaign attire consisting of a red tie and white shirt. He is seated with his hands clasped in his lap, and to his left are a screen that exhibits court documents and two smaller and one large bottles of water.

This is a civil proceeding, not a criminal one. In addition, it is not broadcast on television, which prevents the American public from viewing it. Nevertheless, the realities of the 2024 campaign became evident at this juncture. In addition to being a multipleading defendant, Trump is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination and a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States.

This campaign is, in a microcosmic sense, the most extraordinary in modern history.