Donald Trump again compares his criminal indictments to imprisonment and death of Putin’s top rival

By BILL BARROW and JONATHAN J. COOPER
Associated Press

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Donald Trump is doubling down on comparing his criminal indictments to the circumstances of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. Navalny died in a remote arctic prison after being jailed by Russia’s autocratic leader Vladimir Putin. Trump held a town hall with Fox News on Tuesday in which he suggested he also could become a political prisoner. Trump bemoaned Navalny’s death, which President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed on Putin. Trump then pivoted to himself, repeating his assertions that the prosecutions against him are driven by politics despite no evidence that Biden or the White House ordered them.