- Donald Trump invoked Mother Teresa as jurors began deliberations in his Manhattan criminal trial.
- "Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," the former president said.
- Trump is accused of helping falsify business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that the Manhattan District Attorney's case that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star is so "rigged" that not even one of the most famous modern Catholic saints could not get acquitted.
"I would say listening to the charges from the judge, who, as you know is very conflicted and corrupt, because of the confliction, very, very corrupt, Mother Teresa could not beat these charges," Trump said flanked by his attorney Todd Blanche.
Trump was addressing reporters just moments after Justice Juan Merchan gave his final instructions to the 12 jurors who will now weigh whether to render a verdict that could make Trump the first former president to become a felon.
The former president has repeatedly attacked Merchan over the justice's $15 donation to Biden's 2020 campaign. Trump also criticized Merchan's daughter to the point that the justice added her to the gag order that prohibits Trump from criticizing witnesses or the jury during the trial.
The crux of the criminal case is that in the wake of the publication of the Access Hollywood tape, Trump's presidential campaign was extremely worried about additional stories about the then 2016-Republican presidential nominee's treatment of women. On the 2005 tape, Trump told Billy Bush, then a co-host of Access Hollywood, that he could "grab" women "by the pussy" because he was a star.
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels was considering going public with her claim that she had sex with Trump after they met at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament. Michael Cohen, a Trump Organization attorney, testified that he orchestrated a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her quiet after the tape's publication and before the 2016 election. Cohen, Trump's former self-described "fixer," also claimed that Trump was aware that he was really paying Cohen back for the hush money when the then-president cut him a series of checks after the 2016 election for legal expenses.
Pope Francis formally canonized Mother Teresa as a saint in September 2016. He praised the Calcutta nun as an "emblematic figure of womanhood and consecrated life."
"May she be your model of holiness," Francis said, addressing volunteers around the world who seek to carry on Teresa's spirit of charitable giving.
Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She has faced criticism over the true intentions of her missionary work.