Trump criticizes ongoing legal challenges in his first public statement since Congress certified his election.

In his first public statement since Congress certified his election victory, President-elect Donald Trump criticized the ongoing legal challenges against him.

Trump stated during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday that they have been playing with the courts for four years, and that they likely received more votes due to their high vote count. Despite having a great election, it did not work, but the courts are still playing with them. Trump referred to this as "lawfare" and "weaponization of justice."

On Monday, Congress certified Trump's election win, and he held a press conference to announce DAMAC Properties' $20 billion investment in new data centers across the country. DAMAC's owner, Hussain Sajwani, stated that the investment aims to facilitate the development of AI and cloud-based technologies.

During his address, Trump criticized the legal battles he has faced in the past four years, particularly targeting special counsel Jack Smith and New York Judge Juan Merchan.

"I call it the Injustice Department. The world has watched what they've done, and it took work to get me a lot of votes. I'm under a gag order and can't discuss the most vital aspects of the case, but I'm the president-elect of the United States and a former successful president."

Earlier this month, Merchan announced that he will sentence Trump in the New York v. Trump case on Jan. 10, before his inauguration on Jan. 20. Trump's legal team filed a motion to delay sentencing, which Merchan denied on Monday afternoon.

On Monday morning, Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung stated that President Trump's legal team had filed a motion to halt the unjust sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.'s Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court's landmark decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedents mandate that this baseless case be dismissed immediately.

President Trump was elected by the American People with a strong mandate to put an end to the politicization of our justice system and the ongoing witch hunts. Cheung stated that the country would come together under the new administration as Trump works to make America great again.

In May, Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in Manhattan, with the Manhattan District Attorney's office proving that he did so to hide a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, in an attempt to conceal their alleged affair in 2006. Despite this, Trump continues to maintain his innocence in the case.

Smith, who led the investigation into Trump's handling of classified documents after his first term in the White House, is set to release a final report on the investigation. However, two of Trump's former co-defendants in the classified documents case, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, filed an emergency motion on Monday in an effort to block the report's release.

"The attorneys of Nauta and De Oliveira filed an emergency motion on Monday, stating that the defendants will suffer irreparable harm as civilian casualties of the government's unlawful and persistent use of political lawfare to release the unauthorized Report. The Final Report contains materials that Smith, as disqualified special counsel, is no longer entitled to access, making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly improper."

On Tuesday, the judge hindered Smith's attempt to make public the report.

During his Tuesday remarks, Trump labeled Smith as "deranged" while celebrating the fact that the court cases against him since the 2020 election have been unsuccessful since the 2024 election. Trump has consistently maintained his innocence in the state and federal cases brought against him, claiming they were part of an attempt to obstruct his campaign to regain the presidency.

I defeated the deranged Jack Smith. He's a deranged individual. We won the biggest cases. The press made a big deal out of them, but we did nothing wrong. The people saw that when they voted for us.

Planet Chronicle Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.