'Just not true': Reporter instantly debunks latest Trump complaint about trial
Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to show up outside the courthouse where he's standing trial, and he falsely suggested they might meet with resistance from police.
Testimony continues Tuesday in his trial for falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money payment before the 2016 election, and the former president claimed his supporters would be blocked by police from getting near the courthouse and complained they were being treated worse than "radical" protesters trying to "rip the colleges down" at nearby Columbia University.
"People that want to come down and protest at the court and they want to protest peacefully," Trump said outside the courtroom. "We have more police presence here than anyone has ever seen. We're blocked – you can't get near this courthouse."
However, NBC News reporter Vaughn Hillyard was outside the courthouse as Trump was speaking, and he recorded video of the scene that showed the ex-president's claims were false.
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"Trump just claimed that the police have shut down the streets around the courthouse for blocks & that his protesters can’t be here," Hillyard said. "Just…not true."
His video showed a phalanx of news photographers stationed across the street along a cyclone fencing barricade, but the streets were clearly open to traffic and vehicles were parked along each side of the street while two police officers stood by chatting in a relaxed posture at a nearby crosswalk.
"There is one pro-Trump person here & the main street along the courthouse is open to traffic," Hillyard reported.
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