Trump claims the hush-money porn-star case is so 'rigged' against him that not even Mother Teresa could get acquitted
- Donald Trump invoked Mother Teresa as jurors began deliberations in his Manhattan criminal trial.
- "Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," the former president said.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the Manhattan district attorney's case that he falsified business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn star was so "rigged" that not even one of the most famous modern Catholic saints could get acquitted.
"I would say, listening to the charges from the judge — who, as you know, is very conflicted and corrupt, because of the confliction, very, very corrupt — Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," Trump said, flanked by his attorney Todd Blanche.
Trump was addressing reporters just moments after Justice Juan Merchan gave his final instructions to the 12 jurors who will now weigh whether to convict Trump and make him the first former president to become a felon.
The former president has repeatedly attacked Merchan over the judge's $15 donation to President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. Trump also criticized Merchan's daughter to the point that the judge added her to the gag order that prohibits Trump from criticizing witnesses or the jury during the trial.
The crux of the criminal case is that after the publication of an "Access Hollywood" tape in October 2016, Trump's presidential campaign was extremely worried that additional stories about the Republican nominee's treatment of women would be revealed. On the 2005 tape, Trump told Billy Bush, then a cohost of "Access Hollywood," that he could "grab" women "by the pussy" because he was a star.
The adult-film actor Stormy Daniels was considering going public with her claim that she had sex with Trump after they met at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament. Michael Cohen, a former Trump Organization attorney, testified that he orchestrated a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her quiet after the tape's publication and before the 2016 election in November. Cohen, Trump's former self-described "fixer," also said Trump was aware he was paying Cohen back for the hush money when Trump cut him a series of checks after the 2016 election for legal expenses.
Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa in September 2016. He praised the nun as an "emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life."
"May she be your model of holiness," Francis said, addressing volunteers around the world who seek to carry on Teresa's spirit of charitable giving.
Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, though she has faced some criticism over the intentions of her missionary work.