Donald Trump has consistently claimed the Manhattan criminal case against him is a politically motivated and “rigged” witch hunt, and he continued to make similar statements in a courthouse hallway after a jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts on Thursday.
His arguments include:
Blaming President Biden
The trial took place in heavily Democratic Manhattan, where roughly 85% of voters chose Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
But Trump continues to refer to his case as the “Biden trial.”
“This was something the Biden Administration did to hurt and undermine its opponents,” he said in a statement after the conviction.
Part of Trump’s argument here appears to be that one of the prosecutors handling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case was a senior Justice Department official under the Biden administration.
The prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, also worked with Bragg, a Democrat, on Trump-related cases earlier in his career in the New York attorney general’s office, and the two knew each other before Colangelo joined the Justice Department.
Bragg continued to pursue the lawsuit after his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., dismissed it, a move critics said was a political, not legal, decision.
The Manhattan district attorney is a state official not accountable to the president.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchan said he was “conflicted.”
Trump and his lawyers sought to remove Judge Marchan from the case because his daughter did consulting work for prominent Democrats.
Lauren Marchand is president of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based political consulting firm whose key clients include Trump’s opponents, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead prosecutor in the Republican first impeachment trial.
There is evidence that she has progressive tendencies.
But the state’s Judicial Ethics Advisory Commission said neither that nor the fact that Marchan donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020 meet the high legal standard for removing a judge from a case.
“The investigation has found nothing to suggest that the outcome of this case may have any impact on the judge’s relatives, their businesses, or their interests,” the committee wrote.
What happens after Trump is convicted in hush money case
- Having been found guilty on all charges, Donald Trump will remain free until his sentencing, scheduled for the morning of July 11th.
- The former president will not be subject to travel restrictions until the verdict is reached.
- Trump’s lawyers said they plan to appeal the ruling “as soon as possible.”
- If Trump loses his appeal at the intermediate appeals court, he will likely ask the state Supreme Court to review the case, which could take another year.
Here you can read more about what will happen after the historic conviction and what Trump may face going forward.
He says he was completely “forbidden” from talking about the incident.
Trump faced a limited gag order barring him from criticizing jurors, witnesses, the judge and Bragg’s family.
He breached the terms of the order multiple times and was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines.
During the trial, Trump made a bold claim that he couldn’t talk about the incident at all.
“This is completely unconstitutional,” he told reporters on April 23.
“I’m not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me.”
He claims there is “no crime” or that no one understands the “crime” he was convicted of.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that the felony charge for which he was convicted – falsifying business records – is “not a crime” and that he does not understand what he has been charged with.
The elements of the Manhattan case were legally complex.
Making a false statement on a business record in New York state is a crime, but it is usually prosecuted as a misdemeanor.
The statute of limitations on those charges had also expired.
But Judge Bragg made those charges felonies and sidestepped the statute of limitations by arguing that they were committed with the “intent” to commit another crime, in this case a conspiracy to aid in the 2016 election.
Bragg claims ties to liberal billionaire George Soros
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Bragg is “backed” by Soros, angering conservatives and right-wing politicians.
Soros’ political action committee, Color of Change PAC, spent more than $500,000 on Bragg’s campaign ahead of the 2021 election.
Soros’s group has spent far more money on the campaigns of other district attorneys across the country, and there is no evidence that Soros had anything to do with the prosecution of Trump.
