Donald Trump and his Republican allies are united in their outrage at the guilty verdict handed down by the New York jury in the former president’s hush-money trial, slamming the salacious weeks-long trial as an exercise in political partisanship designed to hamstring the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Trump spoke to the press after his conviction and strongly criticized the “rigged, disgraceful trial” in Manhattan.
“I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our constitution,” Trump said on Thursday. He blamed the prosecution on the Biden administration’s effort to damage its political opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
“This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent — a political opponent. And I think it’s just a disgrace and we’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight to the end and we’ll win because our country has gone to hell. We don’t have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We’re a nation in decline.”
Florida governor Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s main Republican primary opponents, immediately came out in support of Trump following the verdict.
“Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America—all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump,” DeSantis said.
“In America, the rule of law should be applied in a dispassionate, even-handed manner, not become captive to the political agenda of some kangaroo court.”
Republican congressional leaders reacted similarly to Trump’s guilty verdict, from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) on down.
“Today is a shameful day in American history. Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon. This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one,” Johnson said in a statement, referring to convicted felon and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness.
Cohen is a disbarred former attorney who pleaded guilty to perjury and financial crimes in connection to his work for Trump. Formerly Trump’s fixer, Cohen is now a prominent Trump opponent and routinely rails against his old boss.
“Today’s verdict shows how corrupt, rigged, and unAmerican the weaponized justice system has become under Joe Biden and Democrats. I fully support President Trump appealing this decision and look forward to a higher New York Court to deliver justice and overturn this verdict. The facts are clear: this was a zombie case illegally brought forward by a corrupt prosecutor doing Joe Biden’s political bidding in a desperate attempt to save Joe Biden’s failing campaign,” said Representative Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), chair of the House Republican conference.
“The Manhattan kangaroo court shows what happens when our justice system is weaponized by partisan prosecutors in front of a biased judge with an unfair process, designed to keep President Trump off the campaign trail and avoid bringing attention to President Biden’s failing radical policies,” said House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio.), an outspoken Trump ally.
Trump and Republicans began fundraising immediately after the verdict. WinRed, the conservative fundraising platform, appears to have shut down temporarily because of the surge in activity.
The Biden campaign made sure to remind Democrats that Trump is still the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee.
“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” the Biden campaign said in a statement.
“There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
The statement was followed up quickly by a Biden campaign fundraising appeal.
The White House took a muted approach to the Trump verdict, touting the rule of law without saying much else.
“We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement.
It remains to be seen how the verdict will influence Trump’s political prospects and Republican campaigns as a whole.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, prosecuted Trump for falsifying business records in connection to reimbursements paid to Cohen after he sent porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Presiding Judge Juan Merchan previously donated to Biden’s campaign, and his daughter is a Democratic strategist whose clients have fundraised off the criminal prosecution.
Trump’s sentencing is set to take place in July right before the Republican national convention. His defense team will almost certainly appeal the conviction.