Trump goes on panicky early-morning Truth Social spree hours before his trial

Donald Trump will become the first former president to stand trial on criminal charges starting Monday, and he began the morning with a series of panicky social media posts about his legal predicament.

The ex-president again blamed President Joe Biden for his indictment in the Manhattan criminal trial involving his hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels weeks ahead of the 2016 election, and Trump demanded the case be dropped due to the statute of limitations and accused judge Juan Merchan of conflicts of interest.

"As virtually every legal scholar has powerfully stated, the Biden Manhattan Witch Hunt Case is, among other things, BARRED by the Statute of Limitations," Trump posted on Truth Social. "This 'trial' should be ended by the highly conflicted presiding Judge."

Trump was indicted on 34 separate felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal his reimbursements to his then-attorney Michael Cohen for payments made to Daniels to conceal their extramarital affair, and while the statute of limitations for that crime is five years, New York law allows for a pause on that limit if the defendant was living out of state – which he was while serving four years in the White House.

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"The Radical Left Democrats are already cheating on the 2024 Presidential Election by bringing, or helping to bring, all of these bogus lawsuits against me, thereby forcing me to sit in courthouses, and spend money that could be used for campaigning, instead of being out in the field knocking Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST President in the History of the United States," Trump posted. "Election Interference!"

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg alleges that Trump, Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker arranged to pay off Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal to keep them quiet about sexual relationships with Trump shortly before he was elected president, and just after the "Access Hollywood" recording threatened to end his campaign.