Donald Trump will not be given a day off from being present at his criminal hush money trial to attend his son Barron’s high school graduation in Florida, Judge Juan Merchan said on Monday.
The former president had asked for the proceedings to be suspended on Friday, May 17 so he could be at the ceremony, but his request fell flat. If Trump plays hooky and attends the graduation anyway, he will be jailed, Merchan said.
After being told “no,” Trump addressed reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom.
“Looks like the judge will not let me go through the graduation of my son who’s worked very, very hard, and he is a great student,” Trump said. “I’m very proud that he did so well and I’m looking—[he] was looking forward for years to have his graduation with his mother and father there. It looks like the judge will not allow me to escape this scam, the scam trial.”
Trump then complained that he was not being afforded a fair shake, rambling about his “presidential immunity” claim pending before the Supreme Court, people across the United States “being mugged and killed all day long” while prosecutors handle his case.
“It’s perfect for the radical left Democrats—that’s exactly what they want,” he added. “This is about election interference, and that’s all it’s about.”
Trump on Monday became the first former U.S. president to face a criminal trial, after being charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in an alleged coverup of a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
The embattled ex-president also began the day with a bitter diatribe about the trial, addressing reporters gathered outside the 15th-floor courtroom with a firehose of misinformation about the situation being “political persecution… like never before,” and that it was not a prosecution of him for something he did wrong, but rather, “an assault on America.”
“And that’s why I’m very proud to be here,” he said. “This is an assault on our country. And it’s a country that’s failing.”
Trump has denied the charges.
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