Trump attorney says Manhattan is an 'unfair venue' for the former president, calling it 'pro-Joe Biden.' Yet that's where he built his empire.
Andrew Harnik/AP
- Donald Trump's attorney argued the former president can't get a fair trial in Manhattan.
- Donald Trump was born in New York City, where his family built their empire.
- Trump was once happy to have Manhattan "all to myself" as a real estate developer.
An attorney for Donald Trump echoed the former president's claims on Sunday that Manhattan is not a fair location for a trial because it favors Democrats.
While the Trump family built their whole empire in New York, the city now overwhelmingly dislikes the former president.
"The issue with the venue is that Manhattan is like 87% pro-Joe Biden the last election," attorney Jim Trusty said on "This Week" on ABC News on Sunday. "It's a real stronghold of liberalism, of activism, and that infects the whole process."
Trusty was not wrong. Exactly 87% of Manhattan voters chose Biden during the 2022 presidential election. Trump did better in the more conservative borough of Staten Island, where he received 57% of the vote, leading Trump's legal team to consider asking for the trial to be moved there, Insider previously reported.
Overall, Biden received 76% of the vote across the city in 2020, according to the Gotham Gazette, which after the election described Trump as "deeply unpopular" in his home city.
Trump pleaded "not guilty" last week at his arraignment in Manhattan to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Even before he was officially charged, Trump complained that the investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was politically motivated. On Truth Social, he called Manhattan a "VERY UNFAIR VENUE." Trump has also questioned the impartiality of the judge who will be hearing the case.
Ahead of Tuesday's arraignment, Trump posted on Truth Social that "THIS CASE SHOULD BE MOVED TO NEARBY STATEN ISLAND," suggesting it would be a "VERY FAIR AND SECURE LOCATION FOR THE TRIAL."
Trusty, who represents Trump in the investigation of classified documents found in Mar-a-Lago, told ABC News the priority in the Manhattan case would be filing motions to dismiss in order to "amputate this miscarriage of justice early on."
"The president is obviously a very resilient guy. He's upset by this situation in terms of being targeted, and that's really the key," Trusty said.
Trump, a native New Yorker, was born in Queens in 1946. As a teenager, he attended the New York Military Academy, which is about 60 miles from the city.
The son of German immigrants, Trump's father — Fred Trump — spent much of the mid-1900s building a real estate empire in Queens and Brooklyn. At his death in 1999, a New York Times obituary lauded Fred Trump as a "Master Builder of Housing for Middle Class," crediting him with building "27,000 apartments and row houses" across the city.
The obituary also credited Fred Trump with supporting his "flamboyant son Donald" in his career as a developer. Donald Trump was quoted in the obituary saying he was grateful that his father focused his construction business in Brooklyn and Queens.
''It was good for me,'' a chuckling Donald Trump said, according to the Times. ''You know, being the son of somebody, it could have been competition to me. This way, I got Manhattan all to myself!''