Exclusive: Former President Trump told Fox News Digital that his conviction was a “scar” on New York’s justice system, but vowed to “keep fighting” and insisted Election Day would be “the most important day in the history of our country.”
The former president and presumed Republican presidential candidate was found guilty Thursday of all 34 first-degree charges of falsifying business records after a jury deliberated for two days.
Trump found guilty on all charges in New York criminal trial
The charges stem from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which was taken over by Assistant District Attorney Alvin Bragg in 2022.
Former President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York, Thursday, May 30, 2024. The jury verdict in Trump’s hush-money criminal trial is entering its second day, with jurors grappling with the crucial task of assessing the former president’s guilt or innocence along with the facts of the case. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Poole)
“It’s a sad day for New York, it’s a sad day for the country,” President Trump said in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital shortly after the verdict.
“From day one, everything was rigged, from the venue to the judges,” he told Fox News Digital. “But I’ve never had assistance like this before.”
Trump said he was greeted by thousands of “enthusiastic” supporters when he returned to Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan on Thursday evening.
Pointing to Judge Juan Marchan, Trump said he was “confident” and that the trial was being held in Lower Manhattan was “the worst possible place.”
“He didn’t get a fair trial,” Trump told Fox News Digital. “It’s a sad day for New York, it’s a sad day for the country.”
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Wildwood Beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, May 11, 2024. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“We have to think about why this happened to our country,” the former president said.
“We have a corrupt, Soros-backed district attorney in our country. Look at what’s happened to our country,” he said. “It’s unbelievable.”
He added: “This is a disgrace to the city, state and country.”
Former US President Donald Trump attended the nearly six-week trial. (Charlie Triborough-Pool/Getty Images)
But the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee stressed to Fox News Digital that “the support has never been like this before.”
Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the GOP’s 2024 presidential candidate.
“We’d go back and ask another day, and he’d say no,” Trump said of Marchand. “He just says no to everything. This guy has never said yes to anything.”
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Meanwhile, Trump said he would “keep fighting.”
“Absolutely,” Trump said. “November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country.”
“We’re going to fight hard,” Trump said, adding that he was excited to be back on the campaign trail.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Wildwood Beach in Wildwood, New Jersey, USA, Saturday, May 11, 2024. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“This is the first time I’ve been out of court in six weeks,” he told Fox News Digital.
“This is a huge stain on New York’s judiciary,” he said.
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“Villain Joe Biden and the Democrats have locked President Trump in the courts for more than eight hours a day for over six weeks, and yet President Trump keeps winning,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt told Fox News Digital.
“Now that Biden is fully back on the campaign trail, he and the Democratic Party had better pull themselves together,” she said.
Leavitt told Fox News Digital that Trump “earned billions of dollars in media coverage throughout the trial, held massive rallies and impromptu campaign rallies in and around New York, widened his lead over a fraudulent Joe Biden in the polls, and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in April. Even the witch-hunt trial has done nothing to weaken Trump, it has only strengthened him.”
