尽管大多数工作日他都被限制在法庭上他在纽约封口费的审判周一开始的前总统唐纳德·特朗普调整他的时间表和信息努力推动他重返白宫。
周二晚上，在审判陪审团选择的第二天结束时，特朗普参观了两年前发生致命刺伤事件的哈莱姆区的一家酒店，批评他所说的民主党在公共安全方面的失败。
特朗普点名批评了曼哈顿地区检察官，呼应了他一再指责民主党人对犯罪手软的说法，并指责对他的指控是出于党派偏见，检察官对此予以拒绝，称他们是在依法行事。特朗普否认所有不当行为。
“这是阿尔文·布拉格的错，”他在酒店里说道。“他什么也不做。他追捕像特朗普这样没做错什么的人。暴力罪犯、杀人犯——他们知道全市有数百名杀人犯。”
他在法庭后的停留不仅是为了抨击布拉格和他的刑事审判(他面临的四项审判之一)，而且还重复了他在旅途中经常描述的主要由民主党人管理的“犯罪猖獗”的城市的言论-比如他的家乡纽约，他在搬到佛罗里达州之前在那里建立了自己的国家形象。
他对亚特兰大的犯罪行为提出了类似的指控，因为他指责富尔顿县地方检察官法尼·威利斯(Fani Willis)，后者正在佐治亚州起诉他，原因是他试图推翻自己在该州2020年选举中的失败。
他说，特朗普周二应博德加协会的邀请在哈莱姆区参观的商店是2022年一起凶杀案的现场，当时商店的店员何塞·阿尔巴(Jose Alba)致命地刺伤了阿尔巴后来说袭击他的人，他是出于自卫。
杂货店内的监控录像显示，另一名男子奥斯汀·西蒙在收银台后与阿尔巴对峙并推搡了他，随后两人发生打斗。
阿尔巴最初被指控谋杀。这个案子很有争议，布拉格的办公室后来撤销了对阿尔巴的起诉，据报道称他们没有足够的证据继续下去。
尽管特朗普在犯罪问题上言辞激烈，但纽约市警方的统计数据显示显示这个城市的暴力犯罪率一直在下降.
数据显示，截至3月17日，凶杀案比2023年同期下降了19%，尽管在2020年新冠肺炎疫情爆发期间，凶杀案曾飙升30%。
犯罪和公共安全是特朗普在竞选中向选民推销的关键部分，同时抨击总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)的高通胀和移民问题。
随着他的第一次刑事审判正在进行，这位前总统既抱怨他在法庭上的义务如何干扰了他的竞选日程，又坚持说他计划在周末“到处”竞选，集会“到处都是”。
拜登竞选团队没有直接对审判发表评论，但他们通过新闻稿发出了几乎不加掩饰的攻击，并寻求对比让总统在宾夕法尼亚州这样的战场上积极竞选本周当特朗普坐在法庭上时。
在周二自己的竞选活动中，拜登抨击特朗普此前支持对富人减税，并表示特朗普“体现了”所谓的涓滴经济学的“失败”。
拜登的团队还表示，他的竞选活动在摇摆州更加活跃，甚至在特朗普的审判开始之前。
“这是一场本不该进行的审判。...我现在应该在宾夕法尼亚州、佛罗里达州和许多其他州——北卡罗来纳州和乔治亚州——参加竞选活动，”特朗普周二返回法庭时对记者说，他利用了外面无处不在的新闻报道。
周二晚些时候，特朗普在哈莱姆酒店(Harlem bodega)对媒体发表讲话，重申了他经常提出的毫无根据的批评，即这是“选举干涉”，目的是让他偏离轨道。
在纽约，他面临着34项一级伪造商业记录的指控与2016年总统竞选期间支付给成人电影女演员斯托米·丹尼尔斯的钱有关，以阻止丹尼尔斯公开她声称与他发生的性关系，丹尼尔斯否认了这一点。他不服罪。
如同陪审团的选择正在进行中特朗普在酒店表示，“任何公平的人”都是他理想的陪审员。
当被问及对目前选出的七名陪审员有何感想时，他回答说，“大约两个月后我会让你知道。”
他回避了一个关于他是否认为坐着的陪审员是公平的问题，而是说首先不应该有陪审团。
特朗普还声称，他没有违反监督此案的法官胡安·梅尔曼实施的有限禁令——此前检方周一辩称，他是通过在社交媒体上发布对丹尼尔斯和他的前律师迈克尔·科恩的攻击来做到这一点的潜在的关键证人.
“不应该有禁言令，”特朗普说，称这是“违宪的”。
在他的酒店停留时，他还被问及两位共和党强硬派议员最近的努力驱逐众议院议长·迈克·约翰逊约翰逊支持对外援助投票。
“我们将看看会发生什么，”特朗普说。“我认为他是一个非常好的人。”
Trump, campaigning after court, comments on jurors in historic trial and seeks to spotlight crime
Though he remains confined to a courtroom on most weekdaysfor his New York hush money trial, which began on Monday, former President Donald Trump isadapting his schedule and his messageto try and boost his bid to return to the White House.
On Tuesday evening, at the end of the second day of jury selection in his trial, Trump visited a bodega in Harlem, the scene of a fatal stabbing two years ago, to criticize what he said were Democratic failures in public safety.
Trump singled out the Manhattan district attorney by name, echoing his repeated accusations that Democrats are soft on crime and that the charges against him are motivated by partisanship, which prosecutors reject, saying they are following the law. Trump denies all wrongdoing.
"It's Alvin Bragg's fault," he claimed at the bodega. "He does nothing. He goes after guys like Trump, who did nothing wrong. Violent criminals, murderers -- they know there are hundreds of murderers all over the city."
He used his stop after court not only to take a jab at Bragg and his criminal trial, one of four he faces, but also to repeat his rhetoric about what he often describes on the trail as "crime-ridden" cities largely run by Democrats -- like New York, his hometown, where he built his national profile before moving to Florida.
He has made similar claims about crime in Atlanta as he's railed against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who is prosecuting him in Georgia related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.
The shop that Trump visited in Harlem on Tuesday, at the invitation of the Bodega Association, he said, was the scene of a homicide in 2022 when the shop's then-clerk Jose Alba fatally stabbed someone whom Alba later said was attacking him and he was acting in self-defense.
Surveillance footage from inside the bodega showed the other man, Austin Simon, confronting Alba behind the cash register and shoving him before the two were drawn into a fight.
Alba was initially charged with murder. The case was controversial, and Bragg's office later dropped the case against Alba,reportedly sayingthey had insufficient proof to proceed.
Despite Trump's rhetoric about crime, statistics from New York City policeshow violent crime in the city has been falling.
Through March 17, homicides were down 19% from the same period in 2023, according to the data -- though homicides previously surged 30% in 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crime and public safety are key parts of Trump's pitch to voters on the trail, along with attacking President Joe Biden for high inflation and immigration.
With the first of his criminal trials now underway, the former president has both complained about how his obligations in court are interfering with his campaign schedule and he has insisted he plans to campaign "all over" on the weekends, with rallies "all over the place."
The Biden campaign isn't directly commenting on the trial, though they have issued thinly veiled attacks through press releases and sought a contrastby having the president actively campaign in battlegrounds like Pennsylvaniathis week while Trump sits in court.
At his own campaign stop on Tuesday, Biden went after Trump for previously supporting tax cuts on the wealthy and said Trump "embodies" the "failure" of so-called trickle-down economics.
Biden's team has also said that his campaign has been more active across swing states, even before Trump's trial began.
"This is a trial that should have never been brought. ... I should be right now in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in many other states -- North Carolina, Georgia -- campaigning," Trump told reporters as he headed back to court on Tuesday, taking advantage of the omnipresent news coverage outside.
Speaking with the press at the Harlem bodega later on Tuesday, Trump repeated his frequent, baseless criticism that it's an "election interference" to keep him off the trail.
In New York, he faces34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degreerelated to money paid to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential bid, in order to stop Daniels from going public about what she claimed was a sexual encounter with him, which he denies. He has pleaded not guilty.
Asjury selection is underway, Trump said at the bodega that "anybody that's fair" is his ideal juror.
Asked how he feels about the seven jurors selected so far, he responded, "I'll let you know in about two months."
He dodged a question about whether he believes the jurors seated are fair, instead saying there shouldn't be a jury in the first place.
Trump also claimed he has not violated the limited gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan overseeing the case -- after the prosecution on Monday argued he did so by posting social media attacks on Daniels and his former attorney Michael Cohen, who arepotential key witnesses.
"There shouldn't be a gag order," Trump said, calling it "unconstitutional."
At his bodega stop, he was also asked about recent efforts by two GOP hard-line lawmakersto oust House Speaker Mike Johnsonover Johnson's support for voting on foreign aid.
"We'll see what happens with that," Trump said. "I think he's a very good person."
ABC News' Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Mary Bruce, Peter Cha
