While speaking in an interview on Sunday, former President Donald Trump said that his hush money trial and conviction was “very hard” on his wife and former First Lady Melania Trump.
The remarks from Trump came while speaking on “Fox and Friends,” where he discussed his conviction of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents.
Trump maintains his innocence and has appealed the ruling.
The former president was asked about his wife, to which he said, “She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her.” He also noted that it was sometimes “tougher” for his family than it was for him.
The charges Trump was convicted of stem back to payments made weeks before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair. The alleged relationship between the two occurred in 2006, a year after Trump and Melania were married.
Still, Trump maintains the affair never happened.
“I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time. They do that for this reason. They do that, all these salacious names that they put in of these people, and I’m not even allowed to defend myself because of the gag order. Think of it,” Trump said.
Note that the judge in the hush money case imposed the gag a few weeks before the start of the trial, after prosecutors raised concerns about Trump using his platforms to attack people involved in the case. The gag order does not prohibit him from talking about the case but it does bar him from publicly commenting about witnesses and jurors.
“But they put this stuff in to create havoc. These are bad people,” Trump continued. “I know everything they’re doing. I know every move they make; I get it.”
During the same interview, Trump noted that he would be “okay” with going to prison. He could face up to four years behind bars, though most experts are not expecting his punishment to be so harsh.