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Trump says he would have 'loved' to testify in New York criminal trial
Former President Trump delivered lengthy remarks Friday morning from Trump Tower in New York following his unprecedented trial resulting in the conviction of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 election, said that he wished he testified in his criminal trial N.Y. v. Trump, though it appears he was given counsel otherwise.
“I would have testified. I wanted to testify,” Trump said from the podium.
“The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify – anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they’ll sue you for perjury.”
“But I didn’t care about that. I wanted to,” Trump reiterated.
LEGAL EXPERTS SAY TRUMP CONVICTION IS A ‘TARGET RICH ENVIRONMENT’ FOR APPEAL
Former President Trump speaks during a news conference at Trump Tower on Friday, May 31, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
However, he said, Judge Juan Merchan “allowed them to go into everything that I was ever involved in. Not this case – everything that I was ever involved in, which is a first.”
“In other words, you could go into every single thing that I ever did. Was he a bad boy here? Was he a bad boy there? And my lawyer said, ‘Why do you need to go through it? All you wanted to do is testify simply on this case.’”
“Because I would have loved to have testified, to this day I would have liked to have testified,” Trump said.
“But you would have been, you would have said something out of whack like it was a beautiful sunny day, and it was actually raining out,” Trump said, seemingly recalling a conversation with his legal counsel.
“And I very much appreciate the big crowd of people outside. That’s incredible what’s happening. The level of support has been incredible,” Trump immediately added.
Trump was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.
TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL
Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, May 30, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)
Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a former porn star, in the lead-up to the 2016 election – in an effort to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. They were ultimately successful. Trump has denied the affair throughout the trial.
“So the whole thing is this legal expense was marked down as legal expense,” Trump said on Thursday. “Think of that.”
Trump said fighting the case against him is “very important, far beyond me. And this can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents. It should never be allowed to happen in the future. But this is far beyond me. This is bigger than Trump. This is bigger than me. This is bigger than my presidency.”
Sentencing is slated for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years behind bars.
NY V TRUMP: PROSECUTION SAYS THEY HAVE PRESENTED ‘POWERFUL EVIDENCE’ AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT
Former President Trump holds a rally in the historically Democratic South Bronx on May 23, 2024 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“We’re losing our country,” Trump said during his remarks that lasted roughly 40 minutes. He took no questions from the media.
“And I really think that this is an event… what took place yesterday with this judge that we have conflicted… he’s a crooked judge. And you’ll understand that. And I say that knowing that it’s very dangerous for me to say that. And I don’t mind because I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and to save our Constitution. I don’t mind,” Trump added.
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Break up the Orioles! The O’s continued their winning ways yesterday afternoon with an emphatic 8-2 victory in the rubber game at Fenway. The Birds’ bats blistered Boston’s Brayan Bello for six runs in the top of the first inning and cruised from there, sealing the Orioles’ fourth consecutive series win or split. Check out Andrea SK’s recap of the resounding victory.
The Orioles improved to 9-4 in their last 13 games, breathing new life into their 2026 season. Two weeks ago, the O’s were on the brink of collapse after getting swept in Tampa and falling to a season-worst eight games under .500. Last year’s Orioles, frankly, probably would have continued to spiral. But this group has rallied.
The O’s are playing their best baseball of the year right now, mostly against divisional opponents. The offensive approach has noticeably improved, with hitters up and down the lineup contributing quality at-bats, and previously underperforming hitters like Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser starting to swing the bats better. In the rotation, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, and Brandon Young are delivering quality starts more often than not. And we’ve seen signs of a resurgence from Trevor Rogers, who yesterday rattled off his second start in a row of 5+ scoreless innings before fading as he reached the 70-pitch mark. His command looks much better; now he just needs to work sustaining that pace deeper into games.
I’m not sold yet that the Orioles are a legitimately good ball club. The nature of a 162-game season is that a team can play like gangbusters for a while and then fade just as quickly. We could be back here in two weeks after the O’s go, like, 2-8, and reminiscing wistfully about this hot streak that didn’t last. But right now almost everything is clicking for the Orioles, and if they can sustain their solid play, the idea of the O’s being part of the playoff race this summer and fall isn’t so outlandish.
Will Orioles move on from Tyler O’Neill? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
As the rest of the roster starts to gel, O’Neill’s continued lack of production sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe the only thing saving him right now is that the O’s don’t currently have any healthy, productive outfielders in the minors ready to replace him. Tommy Pham ain’t it.
For Jackson Holliday, he wants to re-create his late season 2025 walk rate this year – Steve Melewski
Holliday has always struck me as a guy with a keen batting eye, so it’s weird that he wasn’t taking a lot of walks in the majors until late last year. If he can add that to his repertoire, it’ll lengthen the O’s lineup that much more.
Turns Out Adley Rutschman Is OK After All – FanGraphs
In April I was convinced that Adley was so back, but his dismal May had me wondering if he was falling apart again. Michael Baumann (not that one) offers some reasons to be optimistic about Adley’s 2026.
Jon Meoli: How Rico Garcia assembled the pitch mix that’s saving the Orioles’ bullpen – The Baltimore Banner
Rico has been thriving in large part based on his dad’s advice: throw everything hard. I’m starting the “Eddie Garcia for Orioles pitching coach” campaign right now.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You share your day with ex-Orioles catcher Robinson Chirinos (42) and right-hander Russ Ortiz (52).
On this date in 1982, Cal Ripken Jr., who had been lifted for a pinch-hitter the previous day, played the full game against the Twins to start a consecutive-inning streak that eventually reached 8,243. It ended in September 1987 when he was taken out for a pinch-runner during a loss to the Blue Jays.
And on this day in 1985, Orioles right-hander Dennis Martínez notched his 100th career victory in grand style, throwing a one-hit shutout against the Angels at Memorial Stadium. A Jerry Narron third-inning single was the only blemish for Martínez, who faced just one batter over the minimum. Even though he didn’t get his 100th win until age 31, the Nicaraguan-born Martínez finished his career with 245 of them, setting the MLB record for wins by a Latin pitcher (later broken by Bartolo Colon).
Random Orioles game of the day
On June 5, 1974, the Orioles won a dramatic walkoff against the Royals, 5-4. The O’s trailed, 4-2, heading to the bottom of the ninth as Kansas City starter Bruce Dal Canton dominated them for eight innings. But the Orioles got to Dal Canton for two walks in the ninth, then jumped on reliever Doug Bird to complete the comeback. Brooks Robinson’s RBI single brought the O’s within one, Elrod Hendricks tied the game with a sac fly, and Mark Belanger doubled to shallow center to bring home pinch-runner Frank Baker with the game-winning run.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have looked for reliable bullpen arms and right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski displayed exactly what they need this season.
Mlodzinski earned a four-inning save for the Pirates in the 5-1 win over the Houston Astros in the series finale at Daikin Park on June 5, playing a big role in a massive road series win.
He allowed just one run and four hits, while posting three strikeouts, shutting down a strong Astros offense for an important win.
Mlodzinski has a new role with the Pirates, but it’s one they need more performances like this one to help out an area of weakness on their pitching staff.
How Mlodzinski Shut Down the Astros
It wasn’t a great start for Mlodzinski, who gave up a solo home run to Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning.
Mlodzinski threw just his second pitch, a 94.6 mph four-seam fastball that was in the top part of the strike zone, which Paredes sent 101.3 mph off the bat and 356 feet into the left field seats.
The Pirates pitcher then got out of the inning quickly, with two ground outs and a fly out to end it.
Mlodzinski faced some adversity in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving up back-to-back singles with one out and faced Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, who was 7-for-11 and drove in five RBI prior to this at-bat.
He managed to get Alvarez out on a sinker at the top of the zone, that Mlodzinski noted postgame as, “unintentional”, and then got a ground out to strand both runners.
Mlodzinski got a 1-2-3 eighth inning and then after giving up a single in the ninth inning, he got a double play to end the game on a backdoor slider.
it was an outing that Mlodzinski relied less on striking batters out and more on inducing weak contact and relying on his defense to get the job done.
He allowed just five hard hits on 12 batted ball events and saw some nice defensive plays made, including a diving catch from left fielder Jake Mangum and a good stop from third baseman Nick Gonzales and then the pick from first baseman Spencer Horwitz for a big out.
“Yeah it was fun,” Mlodzinski said postgame to DK Pittsburgh Sports. “Not ideal second pitch in. I just felt like trusting my stuff to go right after guys. We had a five-run lead, so the thought was, ‘Let’s be efficient.’ Kind of had an idea going in that I might be able to finish this one, so efficiency was definitely in the back of my head and no walks and the defense made some plays behind me. Just pitching to the game, in a sense.”
Mlodzinski Filling New Role Admirably for Pirates
It wasn’t an easy week prior to this game for Mlodzinski, who lost his spot in the starting rotation after two months, following the return of Jared Jones from inury.
Jones took Mlodzinski’s role and the Pirates placed Mlodzinski on the restricted list for the 9-3 win over the Minnesota Twins in the series finale at PNC Park on May 31.
Mlodzinski came back off the restricted list the following day and eventually resumed his role in the bullpen, where he followed Jones in this game.
Jones had thrown five scoreless innings in his second start back and Mlodzinski came through with a solid outing for himself.
This is a big moment for the Pirates, who now have Jones improving and able to take on a bigger workload each time he comes out, while Mlodzinski is an effective reliever that can fill that bulk role after Jones.
Pittsburgh managed to give the seven other bullpen arms a rest, crucially important as they take on the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, a weekend road series against the team with the best record in baseball at 42-21.
The Pirates bullpen had just blown a 9-5 lead in the eighth inning the game prior, in a 11-9 loss to the Astros on June 3, which marked their 13th blown save of the season.
Pirates manager Don Kelly now has one of his best arms back in his bullpen and will want to see more outings like this one from Mlodzinski as the season continues, who will help the Pirates maintain leads and give them a chance to make comebacks as well.
“We’re gonna be smart with it,” Kelly said postgame to SportsNet Pittsburgh. “He’s extremely important to us, with the starts he’s made, coming out of the ‘pen, filling four.
“We’re going to smart about the usage with him and it keeps him stretched out. It’s not to say we might not see some shorter, but the ideal length is probably for him to get up there in pitches and to do exactly what he did tonight.”
Make sure to visit Pirates OnSI for the latest news, updates, interviews and insight on the Pittsburgh Pirates!
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