Top congressional Republican allies of former President Donald Trump decried a Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict against him Thursday, saying the trial was a partisan effort to derail the campaign of the presumptive GOP nominee.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, called the verdict “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,” Mr. Johnson said. “This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik said the jury’s decision “shows how corrupt, rigged and unAmerican the weaponized justice system has become under Joe Biden and the Democrats.”
The New York Republican said she “fully” supports Mr. Trump’s decision to appeal the verdict.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, called the verdict “a travesty of justice,” and said the trial was a kangaroo court.
Mr. Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his criminal hush money case, in a jury decision that shook the country.
The presumptive Republican nominee has become the first former American president to be found guilty of felony crimes.
Some Democrats celebrated a win for the rule of law, saying it showed that not even a former president is above the law.
“No matter what happens in November, he cannot ‘undo’ this verdict,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Missouri Democrat, wrote on X. “I know many are celebrating & I get it, but my heart f— breaks for our country! How did we get here?! When did we stop requiring some darned decency of the most powerful person on Earth?!”
“FYI, today was a win for the rule of law!” she said.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz said the ruling is not something to celebrate.
“A former president being convicted is nothing to be celebrated, but it is an affirmation that nobody is above the law,” said Mr. Moskowitz, Florida Democrat. “This verdict was reached by a jury of Trump’s peers, by citizens of the American justice system, not by a judge or by a political opponent.”
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut said this conviction of Mr. Trump “won’t be his last.”
“He’s committed multiple crimes and he’s going to be convicted multiple times,” he said. “He can never be president again.”
Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, said she foresaw the verdict.
“Hallelujah!!! My predictions came true!” she wrote on X. “I predicted three years ago at a speech with the Human Rights Campaign that Stormy Daniels would be the one to get Trump, my faith in the criminal justice system has been strengthened!”
Democratic Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett says Mr. Trump is pretending “to be the victim in order to inspire more wrongdoing, and the GOP concocts excuses for their felon king.”
Some Trump allies took it a step beyond the verdict.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, posted on her X account an upside down American flag, which has often been associated with the Jan. 6, 2021 movement among Trump supporters to try and stop President Biden’s victory in 2020.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested that an assassination attempt might be in store for the former president, and that Trump supporters are in “danger.”
“Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw,” Mr. Carlson wrote on X. “This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.