Hello, everyone, I'm Jay O'Brien in Washington.
We're following breaking news at this hour with the criminal
trial of Donald Trump.
It is adjourned now for the day.
The judge in that trial saying opening statements will begin
on Monday.
The former president speaking just moments ago.
Take a listen.
OK. Thank you very much.
Appreciate
it. We just had another hearing
and the trial starts on Monday,
which is long before a lot of people thought the
judge wants us to go as fast as possible.
That's for his reasons, not for my reasons.
And this is really a concerted witch hunt,
very simple. Everything you heard in there,
this is a witch hunt
by numerous judges, Democrat judges.
You take a look at it.
And Goran is a whack job.
What he did was a disgrace.
It's being reviewed by the Appellate Division
and I hope they do justice because everybody's looking and
nobody,
no business is coming into the city,
none whatsoever. They're looking at that case.
That case is a threat
to democracy, frankly, what took place with the AG,
a crooked AG, Letitia James,
who campaigned in the fact,
who campaigned in the fact that I'm going to get
Trump,
I'm going to get Trump.
That's all she said for
two years. And it's people don't want to see this
stuff
when you have violent criminals all over the streets of
New York and nothing happens.
So even when they catch him,
they let him go. No bail,
no bail whatsoever. So this is just a concern in
which whether it's Judge Kaplan
with a person, I have no idea until they called
and said they're suing us.
I had no idea who this person was or this
judge.
Or if you look at ignorant where he said that
Mar a Lago,
which if it was worth a billion or a billion
and a half dollars,
he said it was worth
$18,000,000 because that suited his narrative.
But what? What's happening in this city and all over
the country,
but what's happening in particular in this city?
Some are very good, by the way.
Some are very fair. Those are really the cities that
are thriving.
But what's happening here with the
judicial system is an outrage.
And all over the world,
they're watching it. And all over the world they're saying
it.
This is a giant witch hunt to try and hurt
a campaign that's beating the worst president in history.
Biden's the worst president in the history of our country,
beating him by a lot.
And this is the only way they think they can
win.
But it's not going to work.
Thank you very much.
A sight you have seen before and you will see
again.
The former president emerging from a courtroom.
They're talking about the confluence of his his campaign and
his legal woes.
I want to bring in ABC News legal contributor and
trial attorney Brian Buckmeyer.
Now, Brian, First things first,
we have a jury today.
They got the requisite alternates they needed.
Is this case moving faster than you thought it would?
Absolutely. I think even the judge had projected that we
would have a jury selected after two weeks.
We've got it after not even a full week because
don't forget,
there was a lot of of housekeeping that was done
on Monday.
And so I think this is faster than anyone expected.
And I'll go on the record.
I know John Santucci likes it.
I was wrong. I thought it was going to be
3 weeks,
but we have a jury and we're expecting to have
opening statements come Monday,
probably with some more housekeeping early on in the morning.
Before we jump into it,
don't forget there's still that argument that Donald Trump should
be held in contempt of court,
according to the prosecutors,
forgiven because jury selection got off to a rocky start.
There were a lot of people who said,
look, they just didn't feel like they could be impartial
here.
Also, there's a lot of back and forth going on
in that courtroom between the Trump defense attorney and the
prosecutors and the judge.
I want to read you something the judge said,
according to our Aaron Katersky,
who has been in court.
He said this to Trump's attorneys today when they were
filing another request for another thing.
There comes a point where you have to where you
accept my rulings.
That was him saying to them,
give it a rest stop,
challenging everything I do. Is that a strategy on behalf
of the Trump legal team here?
If it's a strategy, it's not a smart one.
I understand the the reasoning behind it.
I just don't think the execution is appropriate.
I, I've said this before,
both in the court and on air.
When you're in a trial court like this,
sometimes you're talking to two judges at once,
both the judge in front of you who is making
the decision for the trial,
but also the judge who ultimately will review this judge's
decisions if you are to lose and go to appeal.
So we understand raising the arguments of saying,
yes, I want to make an emergency stay,
I want to have a change of venue.
I want to object to your fore cause challenge of,
of allowing this juror to come in.
I want to object to this.
I, I get that. But once the judge makes the
ruling,
it's very similar to any kind of sports analogy you
want to give where the ref or the UMP,
whoever, once they make that decision,
it's done. Then you move on to an appropriate appeal
of the appropriate time,
but you don't hash it out with the judge then
and there.
Brian Buchmeier, breaking it all down for us,
The first week ever in American history with a former
president on trial has concluded.
Brian, thank you.