Former President Donald Trump spoke to reporters shortly after surrendering into custody and being booked by Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. He declared that “What has taken place here is a travesty of justice.”
“I really believe this is a very sad day for America. This should never happen. You should be able to challenge an election. The election was a rigged election, the stolen election, and I should have every right to do that,” Trump told reporters.
🚨President Trump makes 1st statement since leaving jail:
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) August 25, 2023
“You should be able to challenge an election.
I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election.
What has taken place here is a travesty of justice."
pic.twitter.com/vjAKq3gISv
Trump was booked on his fourth indictment in five months on Thursday after a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury handed down a 98-page, 41-count indictment against Trump and 18 others.
Trump compared his situation to that of Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams, who previously questioned the legitimacy of elections, yet never faced criminal prosecution.
“As you know, you have many people that you’ve been watching over the years do the same thing, whether it’s Hillary Clinton or Stacey Abrams or many others. When you have that great freedom to challenge, you have to be able to. Otherwise you can have very dishonest elections,” Trump said.
The former president then described the situation as a “travesty of justice” and maintained his innocence.
“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, and that goes with the other ones too,” Trump said, mentioning the other three criminal cases he is facing.
Trump said the various indictments against him are an example of “election interference.”
“What they’re doing is election interference. They’re trying to interfere with an election. There’s never been anything like it in our country before. This is their way of campaigning,” Trump said. “This is one instance, but you have three other instances. It’s election interference.”
“So I want to thank you for being here. We did nothing wrong at all. And we have every right, every single right, to challenge an election that we think is dishonest, and we think it’s very dishonest. So thank you all very much, and I’ll see you very soon,” Trump concluded. “Thank you very much.”
Trump has been released on a $200,000 bond, the highest amount of any of his co-defendants.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at