Former President Donald Trump came up with a new complaint Monday about his Manhattan criminal hush money trial: it’s taking too long.
“Oh, we just heard two to three more weeks,” Trump told reporters outside the courthouse. “I thought they were finished today, and they are finished today if you look at what’s happening. I thought they were going to be finished today, and they want two to three more weeks, the judge asked them, and playing right into the judge’s hands. The judge is so happy about two to three more weeks, because they all want to keep me off the campaign trail.”
“That’s all this is about, this is about election interference, how do we stop it?” Trump continued.
This complaint was met with bewilderment from CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, who has been frequently brought on to debunk false claims made by Trump in his courthouse step rants.
“Well, obviously can’t definitively fact check what Mr. trump thought would be the timeline for the trial,” Dale told anchor Jake Tapper.
“But I can say there’s no basis for thinking the prosecution case would be done today. You know, all coverage, including ours, has emphasized that Michael Cohen is likely to be a key witness, that he’s likely to take a while to do his testimony. Well, we haven’t heard from him yet. There’s an extensive witness list. Of course not everyone will be called, but the prosecution is not near done yet.”
“So him saying he thought it was gonna be done today, I think, is a curious statement at best,” he said.
