Donald Trump defended his behavior hours later on Tuesday becoming the first indicted former president in US historyduring a speech sharply criticizing the investigation against him.

“Never thought this could happen in the United States”said the former president in front of a group of worshipers in the ballroom of his mansion in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.

“It is an insult to our country”, he declared upon his return from New York. “The only crime I have committed is fearlessly defending our nation against those who would destroy it.”

From home, Trump resumed his election campaign, demonstrating if necessary that the legal scandals will not stop the path set for a return to the White House.

In a speech of about 20 minutes, He said he was subject to “massive electoral interference” and called the prosecutors investigating him in several cases “radical leftists”.

The celebratory atmosphere, with applause for Trump and boos for his rivals, was reminiscent of one of the tycoon’s usual gatherings. As are the chosen topics, such as his attacks on the Democrats and the accusation without evidence that he was robbed of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden.

An unprecedented load

Hours earlier, in his hometown, the former president pleaded not guilty to falsifying accounting records at a criminal hearing that paved the way for a trial that could begin in January 2024a few months before the presidential election in which he tries to return to the White House.

The 76-year-old billionaire facing 34 charges related to the paymentin 2016, from $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged extramarital affairl that goes back to 2006 and he has always denied that.

This maneuver, according to the New York prosecutor’s office, It is designed not to damage Trump’s image in light of that year’s election.

In the early afternoon, he turned himself in to a courthouse in Manhattan, where he arrived in a vehicle escorted by the Secret Service. In court, the police mediated between supporters and opponents of the ex-president to avoid violent confrontations.

Trump had to follow the ritual imposed on each defendant: state his name, age and occupation and have fingerprints taken, although he seems to have avoided being mugshot of himsource of so much public humiliation for stars in America.

In addition to the payment to Stormy Daniels, the mogul bought third-party silence at least two more times, according to court documents. He paid $30,000 to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have information about the tycoon’s son from an extramarital affair, and another $150,000 to a woman who claimed to be having an affair with the former president.

Trump’s attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, arranged the payment to Daniels, and the mogul reimbursed him, reportedly as legal fees to his company’s Trump Organization accounts.

The payment to the actress was therefore not reported in the campaign accounts of the then candidate for the 2016 presidential election.a possible violation of New York State election laws.

“Major criminal behavior cannot be normalized,” the prosecutor in the case, Alvin Bragg, said at a news conference after Trump’s appearance. “Everyone is equal before the law,” he added.

Trump faces other criminal investigations related to his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss in the state of Georgia. his handling of classified documents and his possible involvement in the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

It is still unknown what effect these cases will have on his aspirations to return to the White House, but the former president has shown resistance to scandal.

He survived two Congressional impeachments, has a large fan base, and so far most of his fellow Republicans have rallied around him. Among them is the one posing as his big rival in the party’s primaries, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who described the accusation against Trump as “un-American.”