Former President Donald Trump arrived at the Manhattan courtroom for his criminal trial and declared that the charges against him represent “an assault on America.”

The former president has been accused of falsifying records about his “hush money” payment to Stormy Daniels. Trump claimed that Democrats were using the hush money lawsuit as a political tool to force him to spend money and sit in court rather than traveling the country, raising awareness of his candidacy.

Trump delivered six powerful words: “This is an assault on America.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened before. There’s never been anything like it. Every legal scholar says this case is nonsense. It should never have been brought. [indecipherable] anything like this. There is no case and they’ve said it. People that don’t necessarily follow or like Donald Trump said, this is an outrage that this case was brought. This is political persecution,” Trump said.

“This is a persecution like never before. Nobody’s ever seen anything like it. And again, it’s a case that should have never been brought. It’s an assault on America. And that’s why I’m very proud to be here. This is an assault on our country. And it’s a country that’s failing. It’s a country that’s run by a competent man who is very much involved in this case. This is really an attack on a political opponent. That’s all it is. So I’m very honored to be here. Thank you very much,” Trump added.

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The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan threatened to jail the former president for repeated violations of a very restrictive gag order that does not apply to many of the witnesses in the case.

On Monday, Judge Juan Merchan, a known donor to Democratic candidates, cited new examples of Trump violating the order after he fined the 45th president $9,000 last week for similar violations. “Merchan warned Trump that continued violations of the order could result in incarceration — a threat he made again on Monday after fining him the maximum of $1,000 for the most recent violation,” NBC News reported.

“It appears that the $1,000 fines are not serving as a deterrent,” Merchan said during early proceedings on Monday.

“The last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well. There are many reasons why incarceration is truly a last resort for you,” he continued, adding that taking that step would be “disruptive to the proceedings.”

However, Merchan warned Trump that “his continued willful violations of this court’s orders threaten the administration of justice and constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. I cannot allow that to continue.”

Merchan noted that the offending statement was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account and that it must be removed by 2:15 p.m. on Monday.

NBC noted that the order forbids Trump from discussing witnesses or the jury with the intent of influencing them.

Meanwhile, the attorney who also acts as Trump’s spokeswoman criticized the Democrat-dominated justice system in New York City as “third world” and suggested that Merchan routinely infringes upon Trump’s constitutional rights to a fair trial.

Lawyer Alina Habba specifically addressed the nearly unprecedented gag order on Trump’s business records criminal trial in Manhattan, the first against a former president.

“The gag orders, the unconstitutionality. I mean, what is more Colombia? Russia? What is more third world?” Habba told Newsmax TV host Carl Higbie. “This is why we have people pouring into our country, running for freedom. And now we’re gonna be like that. You know, we are that. It’s disgusting.”

During a courtroom session last week, Merchan chastised Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, as he vigorously defended Trump against the gag order. Blanche contended that Trump’s responses to political attacks shouldn’t warrant punishment, but Merchan rebuked him, stating that he was “losing all credibility” on the matter.

“What happened in court today with the gag order and the anger that you’re seeing from these judges; it’s very concerning for me,” Habba said.

Many have criticized the entire trial, including Fox News analyst and former legal eagle for then-President George W. Bush, who said last week he believes that Trump is turning the trial into “political gold” that is dramatically improving his polling numbers.

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