Former president Donald Trump proclaimed his innocence Thursday evening after being booked at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia on racketeering charges.
The former president spoke to reporters after he was booked and had his mugshot taken at the Fulton County Jail after a grand jury indicted him for his scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
The now twice-impeached, four-times indicted Mr Trump called his arrest a sad day for the country.
“This should never happen,” he said. “If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election.”
The former president faces 13 charges for his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia after he tried to convince Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough non-existent votes to change the results from President Joe Biden to Mr Trump.
Mr Trump repeated his false claim that the election was rigged against him, saying that other presidential candidates such as Hillary Clinton and former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams who said their elections were stolen from them.
“When you have that great freedom to challenge, you have to be able to, otherwise, you’re going to have very dishonest elections,” he said. “What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong, and everybody knows it. I’ve never had such support.”
The former president also denounced his two federal indictments–one for his handling of classified documents and another for his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election–and his indictment in New York County related to his hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
“It’s election interference, they’re trying to interfere with an election,” he said. “There’s never been anything like it in our country before. This is their way of campaigning.”
