The $350 million verdict against Donald Trump in the New York civil fraud trial is a “form of Navalny,” according to the former president.
Trump discussed the recent death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny during a town hall event with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Tuesday night, where he compared Navalny’s death in a Russian prison last week to the multiple civil and criminal trials he faces.
“Navalny is a very sad situation and he’s very brave, he was a very brave guy,” Trump said. “He went back, 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.”
The leading Republican presidential candidate then said what happened to Navalny is “happening in our country too,” adding that the U.S. is “turning into a communist country in many ways.”
“I’m the leading candidate, and I got indicted four times … I have eight or nine trials all because of the fact that I’m in politics,” he said. “They indicted me with things that are so ridiculous.”
Trump on the death of Alexei Navalny:
"It's happening in our country too." pic.twitter.com/w4sssKuN6J
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) February 21, 2024
“It is a form of Navalny,” Trump added. “It is a form of communism, of fascism.”
Trump says it is “a form of Navalny” when asked about how he was going to pay the nearly $355 million he and his companies were ordered to pay in his New York civil fraud trial. pic.twitter.com/XkBmGuQoif
— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) February 21, 2024
Last week, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his organization to pay more than $350 million and banned him from running his businesses in the state for three years. The civil fraud trial started after New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, alleging that he inflated his net worth and misled lenders. The verdict came down a month after a New York jury ordered Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83 million in a defamation case.
Trump also faces four criminal trials in connection to his handling of classified documents after leaving office and his challenging of the 2020 election results.
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The former president compared Navalny’s death to his trials just a day after he was criticized for his first public statement on the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critic. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump wrote, “The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country.”
“It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction,” Trump continued. “Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.”
Trump’s GOP rival Nikki Haley slammed the former president over his statement on Navalny, saying it appeared to come out of the “liberals’ playbook.”
“Donald Trump could have condemned Vladimir Putin for being a murderous thug. Trump could have praised Navalny’s courage. Instead, he stole a page from liberals’ playbook, denouncing America and comparing our country to Russia,” Haley said.
Navalny’s death was immediately viewed as suspicious by the White House, and President Joe Biden said in a press conference hours after initial reports that “Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”
Trump made no mention of Putin in his initial statement on Truth Social nor in his answer to Ingraham’s question about Navalny on Tuesday night.