Trump lashes out leaving court after jurors heard of 2016 ‘election fraud’ scheme in trial opening statements

Donald Trump unloaded on reporters and news cameras for nine minutes outside a Manhattan criminal courtroom on Monday, after jurors heard opening statements and the first witness took the stand to testify in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.

“It’s very unfair what’s going on and I should be allowed to campaign,” he said as he left the courthouse. “We did nothing wrong.”

The former president is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of what prosecutors called a “criminal conspiracy” to bury politically compromising stories of his alleged affairs, part of a months-long scheme to protect Mr Trump’s reputation and deceive voters ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

After four days of jury selection last week, the trial on the 15th floor of a New York City criminal courtroom began on Monday with opening statements that outlined this alleged plot to unlawfully influence the election’s outcome.

Jurors also heard from the trial’s first witness in the case: David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Inc, which publishes the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer.

The first words from Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo in the prosecution’s opening statement underscored the stakes of the case against the former president.

“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,” he said. “The defendant Donald Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his business records, over and over and over again.”

The former president, who sank in his chair and stared in front of him during the prosecution’s opening statements, is accused of drawing up an agreement for a