Trump's Talking Points About His N.Y. Trial 

Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty by a jury in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an effort to conceal election law violations after buying the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels, shortly before the 2016 election.

Throughout the trial, Trump has repeatedly made false and misleading statements about the case and trial. He continued to do so after the verdict, and you can expect to hear more of it in the coming months. 

Four of our staffers reviewed remarks Trump has made about the trial outside the courthouse, in speeches and on social media in recent weeks -- including those he made immediately after he was found guilty.

After the verdict was rendered, Trump falsely claimed, "This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent.” But, as we write, this is a New York state case, and Biden has no control over it.

Trump also said in his post-verdict remarks that the judge in this case — New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan — is “corrupt” and “conflicted.” But one of Trump’s own lawyers last year said Merchan “has a very good reputation" and he had “no issue … whatsoever” with the judge.

Read the full story, "Trump’s Repeated Claims on His New York Hush Money Trial."

Reader: Did the FBI actually find classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, or did they make up the story for political reasons?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: There are those who choose not to believe the FBI, but it has been well documented that its agents did find classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. In fact, former President Trump acknowledged having classified documents at Mar-a-Lago when he gave various reasons for why he was allowed to keep them after he left office. 

As we have written, Trump has said that he had a “standing order … that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified the moment he removed them.” Richard Immerman, an assistant deputy director of national intelligence in the George W. Bush administration, told us in an email: “I have been engaged in declassification issues since the 1970s, and I can attest that there is no precedent for such a standing order. Further, had he issued a standing order, it surely would have been ‘leaked’ by someone and then challenged.”

Trump acknowledged there is no evidence of a written “standing order,” when he falsely claimed: “You’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it.”

He has also falsely claimed that the Presidential Records Act “allowed” him to take classified documents after leaving office. As we have written, former presidents may keep personal materials, but not presidential documents, which the act says should be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

He also has misleadingly claimed that Biden had “25 times” more boxes of documents than he did. As we have written, that’s a reference to 1,850 boxes of Biden’s personal Senate records that Biden donated to his alma mater, the University of Delaware, in 2012. 

For more about the investigation and the materials taken from Mar-a-Lago, see our article “Timeline of FBI Investigation of Trump’s Handling of Highly Classified Documents.” 

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Lake Ad Makes Misleading Claim About Gallego and Noncitizen Voting": Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego has consistently said that he opposes allowing anyone other than United States citizens to vote in Arizona and in federal elections. But in a campaign ad attacking him, Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake misleadingly claims that the congressman “supports … allowing illegals to vote.”
• "Posts Misleadingly Link Town Clerk’s Case to 2020 Presidential Election": A Michigan town clerk pleaded no contest in 2023 to a charge of misconduct in office. Social media posts misleadingly highlight her case to push the false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged.” The clerk’s case was related to her local primary race, not the presidential election.
• "Trump, Allies Misrepresent FBI Order on Document Search at Mar-a-Lago": FBI agents who searched for classified documents held by former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 followed standard protocol. But Trump supporters and social media posts now falsely claim the raid was an “attempted assassination” of Trump. The claim is based on a misquote of FBI policy in a legal motion — and Trump wasn’t in Florida during the search.

• "Afirman infundadamente que Biden paga el alquiler a ‘inmigrantes ilegales’": Funcionarios de Michigan han declarado que solo las personas que el gobierno federal determina que están legalmente en los EE. UU. son elegibles para un programa estatal que paga temporalmente el alquiler para refugiados y otros inmigrantes que califican. Pero un súper PAC que apoya al expresidente Donald Trump afirma que el presidente Joe Biden “está pagando el alquiler a ilegales”.
• "Afirmaciones engañosas sobre raro y bien conocido riesgo de la vacuna contra el COVID-19 de AstraZeneca": A principios de 2021 se identificó e informó de un riesgo poco común de coágulos sanguíneos peligrosos asociados con la vacuna contra el COVID-19 de AstraZeneca. Este mes, la compañía anunció que retiraría la vacuna del mercado en todo el mundo, citando una disminución en la demanda. Publicaciones en las redes sociales vincularon engañosamente la decisión con el hecho de que la compañía había “admitido” el raro efecto secundario “por primera vez” en documentos judiciales y lo utilizó para desacreditar a todas las vacunas.