Former President Donald Trump returns to the courthouse moments before hearing that the jury had a verdict in his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, 30 May, 2024, in New York. Photo: Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP
By Luc Cohen, Helen Coster and Andy Sullivan for Reuters
Donald Trump said on Friday (US time) he would appeal the guilty verdict that made him the first US president convicted of a crime, though he will have to wait until after his sentencing on 11 July before taking that step.
In rambling remarks at the Trump Tower lobby in Manhattan where he announced his first presidential run in 2015, Trump repeated his complaints that the trial was a "rigged" attempt to hobble his comeback White House bid and warned that it showed no American was safe from politically motivated prosecution.
"If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone," Trump, 77, said in an unscripted 33-minute speech. Applauded by supporters, Trump, the Republican candidate in the 2024 election took no questions from reporters.
"We're going to be appealing this scam," he said.
Trump will have 30 days from the date of his 11 July sentencing to file a notice of appeal.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who will face Trump in the 5 November election, said Trump had been given an opportunity to defend himself in the same justice system that applies to all Americans.
"It's reckless, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict," Biden, 81, said at the White House.
Thursday's guilty verdict catapults the United States into unexplored territory.
The charge Trump was convicted of, falsifying business records, carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Others convicted of that crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation.
But Trump's public criticism of jurors and witnesses during the trial, which prompted Justice Juan Merchan to impose a $10,000 fine, could push the judge to impose a tougher penalty, said Rebecca Roiphe, a former New York prosecutor.
Any sentence would likely be suspended until the appeals process plays out. A close ally, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, predicted the US Supreme Court would eventually overturn the verdict.
"I think they'll set this straight, but it's going to take a while," he said on Fox News.
Michael Cohen. Photo: AFP / Getty Images / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
Incarceration would not prevent Trump from campaigning, or taking office if he were to win.
Trump's 11 July sentencing comes just days before the Republican Party is due to formally nominate him as its presidential candidate at its convention in Milwaukee.
Trump was found guilty of 34 criminal counts of falsifying documents to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to illegally influence the 2016 election, in which he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump still faces three other criminal prosecutions - two for his efforts to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden - but the New York verdict could be the only one handed down before Americans vote, as the other cases have been tied up in legal wrangling. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all four cases, which he says are politically motivated.
A source familiar with his campaign's inner workings said the verdict was expected to prompt him to intensify deliberations on picking a woman as his vice presidential running mate.
What do voters thinking?
National opinion polls show Trump locked in a tight race with Biden, and one in four Republican respondents in an April Reuters/Ipsos poll said they would not vote for him if he were convicted of a felony by a jury.
Strategists from both parties questioned whether the verdict would have a significant impact on the race.
On pro-Trump corners of the internet, some supporters called for riots, revolution and violent retribution.
In the battleground state of Georgia, retiree Wendell Hill, 65, said the verdict would not cause him to abandon Trump.
"It is all politicised. I still don't understand what crime he's supposed to have committed," he said as he set up chairs for a concert in downtown Marietta.
Carol Cuba, 77, a longtime Republican voter, said she was disgusted with Trump.
"For the first time in my life I'm thinking about voting on the dark side," she said referring to the Democrats.
Trump's campaign said it raised US$35 million from small donors after the verdict, nearly double its previous daily record. Several major Republican donors said they would continue to donate to Trump's campaign despite the conviction.
Explicit testimony
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after a trial that featured explicit testimony from Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump approved a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels. Cohen, who handled the payment himself, testified that Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work.
Falsifying business documents is normally a misdemeanour in New York, but prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office elevated the case to a felony on grounds that Trump was concealing an illegal campaign contribution.
If elected, Trump could shut down the two federal cases that accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021. He would not have the power to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in Georgia.
- Reuters