President-Elect Donald Trump blasted Judge Juan Merchan - to his face - on Friday. 

Trump did so, according to Fox News, in a statement that Trump made in the courtroom, before the judge.

The statement came after Merchan sentenced Trump in the so-called hush-money case.

Courtroom audio of Donald Trump speaking following sentencing in New York hush money case.

He slams the indictment, the gag order, says he’s been treated “very unfairly”, tells the court that voters saw through the whole thing & that he’s “totally innocent” then starts going… pic.twitter.com/duSQeqN7hi

— J Stewart (@triffic_stuff_) January 10, 2025

Background

Before we look at what Trump had to say, we will quickly catch you up to speed on the situation.

This all has to do with the "hush-money" case brought against Trump by Manhattan Attorney Alvin Bragg (D). This is the one in which Bragg claims that Trump committed an illegal act by improperly recording the "hush-money" payment that he allegedly made to an adult film star.

Despite the fact that legal experts, on both sides of the aisle, have concluded that Bragg had no case, Bragg managed to get a jury to side with him and to find Trump guilty. This took place months ago.

The only thing left was for Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, to sentence Trump. Merchan delayed the sentencing many times, no doubt for political reasons. But, the judge finally released the sentence this past week.

Merchan decided not to impose any real penalties on Trump. However, not that Trump is sentence, Democrats can officially refer to him as a "convicted felony." And, given that this case is considered by most legal experts to be a sham, this is a fairly harsh punishment. Trump is still appealing the conviction.

"Great embarrassment"

On Friday, Trump was offered the opportunity to make a statement, in the courtroom, about the case, and Trump seized that opportunity to expose the case for what it is - a "political witch hunt."

Trump, in part, said:

This is been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback for New York and the New York court system. This is a case that Alvin Bragg did not want to bring and he thought it was, from what I read and from what I hear, that inappropriately handled before he got there.

Trump went on to defend his actions, insisting that he did nothing illegal. He noted how legal experts have said that the case "should never have been brought."

He said:

It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election and obviously that didn’t work . . .  I just want to say, I think it’s an embarrassment to New York, and New York has a lot of problems, but this is a great embarrassment . . . And this has been a weaponization of government. They call it lawfare. Never happened to any extent like this, but never happened in our country before. And I’d just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly.

Trump's full statement can be read here.