Former President Donald Trump said the investigation into alleged “hush money” payments in New York City was coming to a close over the weekend after his 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas.
Trump told reporters aboard his private plane that he believed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had dropped the case.
“I think they’ve already dropped the case,” Trump said aboard his plane, Trump Force One. He repeated his claims that he was being unfairly targeted.
“It’s a fake case,” he said. “Some fake cases, they have absolutely nothing.”
The 45th president didn’t clarify why he believed the case was dropped. Bragg’s office declined to comment, the New York Post reported.
Trump took a different stance at the rally Saturday in Waco, disparaging the prosecutors investigating him and predicting his vindication as he rallied supporters in a city made famous by the Branch Davidian cult’s deadly resistance against law enforcement.
In typical Trump fashion, his speech was brimming with resentments and framed the probes, including a New York grand jury investigation, as political attacks on him and his followers.
“You will be vindicated and proud,” Trump said. “The thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system will be defeated, discredited and totally disgraced.”
Trump’s event at the airport grounds in Waco was part of a broader effort by the former president to use the potential indictment as a rallying cry for supporters to maintain his status as the GOP frontrunner in what is expected to be a crowded primary.
Trump also declared his innocence in the Manhattan investigation into a hush money payment made during the 2016 election. A grand jury hearing the case is expected to meet again on Monday.
Trump said the Manhattan district attorney was investigating him “for something that is not a crime, not a misdemeanor, not an affair.”
Trump declared Saturday that his “enemies are desperate to stop us” and that “our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will.”
He added: “But they failed. They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”
At several points, Trump criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to run for president and is seen as his strongest potential challenger for the GOP nomination. Trump called his onetime ally disloyal and said he was “dropping like a rock.”
Audience members were holding red and white signs handed out by the campaign that said “Witch Hunt,” “Trump 2024” and “I stand with Trump.”
Trump has spent weeks now railing against the New York probe and in a post on his social media site on Friday warned of “potential death & destruction in such a false charge” if he’s charged with a crime.
In addition to the Manhattan case, Trump is also facing an investigation in Georgia over his efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election as well as federal investigations into his handling of classified documents and possible obstruction at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article