President-elect Donald Trump railed against ongoing “lawfare” against him in his first public comments since Congress certified his decisive election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

“They are playing with the courts, as you know, they have been playing with the courts for four years. They probably got me more votes because I got by far the highest number of votes that a Republican has ever gotten, actually from a Republican.” And, you know, we had a great election, so I guess it didn’t work. But to this day they play with the courts and are friendly judges who like to try to make everyone happy. . It’s called lawfare. “They call it the weapon of justice,” Trump said Tuesday during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump held the news conference, his first since Congress certified his election victory on Monday, to announce that DAMAC Properties will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the country. DAMAC owner Hussain Sajwani said the investment aims to facilitate the development of AI and cloud-based technologies.

JUDGE MERCHAN REJECTS TRUMP’S REQUEST FOR DELAY OF JUDGMENT

DAMAC Properties CEO Hussain Sajwani (right) delivers a speech alongside President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 7, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Trump targeted the legal battles he has faced over the past four years in his address, criticizing special counsel Jack Smith and New York Judge Juan Merchan.

“I call it the Ministry of Injustice. What they did is so bad, the whole world saw it. And it took work, but it got me a lot of votes because if you explain it, we have a judge in New York who is a very corrupt judge,” he said, referring to Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case New York against Trump leads. “I am under a silence order. I can’t even talk about aspects of the case, which are the most important aspects that I will do. You know that I am the President-elect of the United States of America.” I am a former very successful President.

Merchan announced earlier this month that he will convict Trump in New York v. Trump on Jan. 10 ahead of his inauguration as president on Jan. 20. Trump’s legal team filed a motion for a stay of sentencing, which Merchan rejected Monday afternoon.

TRUMP files motion to stay “wrongful conviction” in New York case

“Today, President Trump’s legal team took steps to stop the wrongful conviction in the Manhattan District Attorney’s witch hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on immunity, the New York State Constitution“And other established precedents demand that this baseless hoax be immediately rejected,” Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox Digital on Monday morning.

President-elect Donald Trump delivers a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on January 7, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

“The American people elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that calls for an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and any remaining witch hunts. “We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration as President Trump makes America great again,” Cheung continued.

​​Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of forgery Business documents in the Manhattan case in May. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was working to prove that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to support her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.

NEW YORK JUDGE MAKES TRUMP VERDICT DAYS BEFORE INAUGURAL

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

Judge Juan M. Merchan poses in his chambers in New York on March 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

“These defendants will suffer irreparable harm as civilian victims as a result of the government’s improper and repugnant use of political laws, which includes the publication of the unauthorized report,” lawyers for Nauta and De Oliveira wrote in an emergency motion filed Monday. “The final report relies on materials to which Smith no longer has access as a disqualified special counsel – making his attempt to share such materials with the public highly inadmissible.”

The judge presiding over the case blocked Smith’s efforts to release the report on Tuesday.

Trump called Smith “deranged” during his remarks Tuesday while taking a victory lap that legal cases filed against him since the 2020 election have fizzled out since the 2024 election. Trump has maintained his innocence in the various state and federal lawsuits filed against him, arguing that they are examples of “lawfare” designed to hamper his campaign to retake the White House.

New York judge announces Trump’s unconditional release on January 10th

Special Counsel Jack Smith speaks during a press conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, August 1, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I defeated the deranged Jack Smith. He is a mentally disturbed person. I guess he’s on his way back to The Hague. And we won those cases. Those were the biggest. And the press made a big deal about it. But we.” “We didn’t do anything wrong. And people saw that when they voted Republican,” he said.

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Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.