WINDHAM, N.H. (Tribune News Service) — Former President Donald Trump continued his assault on Special Counsel Jack Smith during a rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday, less than a day after the government asked a judge to limit his speech.

Trump, by far and away the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, was at Windham High School for a packed rally when he said that despite any assertions by the Department of Justice he would continue to publicly discuss legal allegations against him.

“Whenever more Biden corruption is exposed, his henchmen charge me with another crime,” Trump told an audience of about 2,000 supporters.

“I will talk about the case, I will,” he said. “They aren’t taking away my rights.”

Trump, who had billed the rally as an event focused on veterans’ issues, spoke for about an hour and a half in a stiflingly hot room before an enthusiastic crowd. He touched on a range of issues, from abortion to border policy. But he frequently returned to the criminal case filed against him in Washington, D.C.

On Friday the special counsel, whom the president described as a “deranged lunatic,” asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to issue a protective order barring Trump from sharing information received during discovery as part of his defense against charges he conspired to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after losing the presidential election in 2020.

Chutkan has ordered a hearing to be held on the matter Friday.

Trump continued to maintain throughout his speech, as he has since leaving office, that the last presidential election was “rigged” against him, ignoring the fact every attempt to litigate the vote count or electoral college results has been rebuffed by the courts. After several recounts in close states, President Joe Biden garnered over 7 million more votes than Trump and beat him in the electoral college 306-232.

“They rigged the presidential election in 2020. We’re not going to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024. We’re not going to allow it to happen,” Trump declared.

At one point, the former president asked the crowd whether they thought he should debate his Republican opponents ahead of party primaries. Trump has previously suggested he would not participate in party debates.

The audience initially shouted an enthusiastic “yes” but tempered their response when Trump suggested he might not want to participate in any debates ahead of the primary.

“It doesn’t make sense to do when you’re leading so much, but some people like it for entertainment purposes,” he said. “We’re killing everyone in the polls.”

The crowd seemed most invigorated by Trump’s assertions he would ban the use of gender-affirming care by the Department of Veterans Affairs and reinstate his ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military. He said he would prohibit transgender athletes from playing in sports designated for genders other than that into which they were born, which brought the audience to their feet.

“Leave the kids alone!” someone shouted from the crowd.

The former president said he would ban the use of Critical Race Theory and he frequently attacked the man who beat him in 2020, calling Biden “Crooked Joe” and declaring that he would appoint a special counsel to investigate the “Biden crime family.”

The former president described the sitting commander-in-chief as a “Manchurian candidate,” saying his unsubstantiated business dealings with China are why “he allows blimps to fly over the U.S.”

“He’s a compromised candidate,” Trump said.

The New Hampshire Democratic Party responded to Trump’s visit by pointing to achievements by Biden.

“While Granite Staters celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act, bringing manufacturing jobs back to America, and capping prescription drug costs for seniors on Medicare, what does Trump have to show for himself? A tax law that created new incentives to ship manufacturing jobs overseas, repeated attempts to gut Granite Staters’ Social Security and Medicare, and a dangerous anti-abortion record that he’s itching to parlay into a national abortion ban if he’s elected,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“With a platform like that, it’s no wonder New Hampshire rejected Donald Trump twice,” they said.

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