Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday compared the $355 million judgment against him in his Manhattan civil fraud trial to Russia’s treatment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who died in a remote Russian penal colony last week.
“It is a form of Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism,” Trump, 77, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham during a town hall event in Greeneville, SC, when asked about the massive penalty imposed on him by Judge Arthur Engoron last Friday, which will grow by more than $87,000 per day – due to interest – until he pays up.
“The guy’s a nut job,” the former president said of the 74-year-old cab driver-turned-judge. “I’ve known this for a long time and I’ve said it openly.”
“This guy ruled that I was guilty before the trial started,” Trump said of Engoron, later suggesting that the judge imposed the nine-figure fine because he revealed in deposition last year that he had cash “substantially in excess” of $400 million.
“I think he looked at my cash and he said, ‘Well, we’ll take all of his cash,’” Trump argued.
The 2024 GOP presidential front-runner went on to assert that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against him, executives at the Trump Organization and members of his family “is all coming out of the White House.”
“This is all election interference,” Trump fumed. “They’re trying to damage me so they can win another election.”
James, who like Engoron is a Democrat, brought the civil fraud lawsuit against Trump in 2022, alleging that Trump and his real estate company fraudulently inflated the value of his assets in order to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits.
Before launching into his tirade against the civil fraud trial verdict, Trump called Navalny “very brave” while suggesting that the Russian dissident should’ve stayed away from his homeland, where he was arrested in January 2021 and held in custody until his death.
Many lawmakers, as well as Navalny’s widow, believe the fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin was murdered.
“He was a very brave guy because he went back,” Trump said. “He could have stayed away. And frankly, probably would have been a lot better off staying away and talking from outside of the country as opposed to having to go back in because people thought that could happen and it did happen. And it’s a horrible thing.”
Navalny, a married father of two, was previously poisoned by a nerve agent in Siberia in 2020.
“But it’s happening in our country too,” Trump said, referring to politically-motivated oppression, arguing that the four criminal indictments and multiple civil lawsuits brought against him after his presidency are “all because of the fact that I’m in politics.”
“We are turning into a communist country in many ways,” he asserted.
