NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump was mocked Wednesday for his evidence-free claim that Manhattan court officials were brought to tears by his historic arraignment and told him they were sorry to see him busted.
Hours after Trump claimed that “people were crying” over his arrest, officials rejected the fanciful account that cops or court officers got all verklempt at the sight of the former president in custody, Yahoo News reported.
“There were zero people crying,” a law enforcement official told the site. “There were zero people saying ‘I’m sorry.’”
“Absolute BS,’ the source added.
Officials say Trump, who is running for president in 2024, had limited interaction with court officers during his processing at the lower Manhattan courthouse prior to his court appearance, and the officers acted professionally at all times.
One officer even allowed the door to close behind him as Trump strode out of a private area on live television and headed to the courtroom, forcing the billionaire former president to push the door open himself.
Trump told a very different, self-serving story in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a chat in which he also praised dictators Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un.
“When I went to the courthouse ... they signed me in, and I’ll tell you, people were crying,” Trump told Carlson. “It’s a tough, tough place, and they were crying. They were actually crying. They said, ‘I’m sorry.’
Trump even claimed the officers told him they backed his 2024 White House comeback campaign.
“They said, ‘2024, sir. 2024,’” Trump said. “And tears were pouring down their eyes.”
Trump was arraigned on 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents, making him the first former U.S. president to ever be charged with a crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says Trump created the bogus ledger items as part of a scheme to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump and many Republicans deride the case as a partisan witch hunt aimed at derailing Trump’s comeback.
The former president faces more serious potential charges stemming from a Georgia investigation into election interference.
He could also be indicted as a result of federal special counsel probes into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Trump’s mishandling of confidential government documents taken to his Mar-a-Lago resort home.
