Former president donald trump and his allies immediately tried to flip the script after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records on Thursday.
Most of its resistance to radio waves and social media echoed the points they were making while the trial was underway: They felt that the Judge Juan Merchan was conflicted, the jury was made up of liberals and the case amounted to election interference to boost President Joe Biden.
Like the dust of the historic criminal verdict started to resolveTrump and his supporters tried to flood the zone to insist that the system was rigged against him all along.
“We did nothing wrong,” Trump said outside the courthouse Thursday after the unanimous guilty verdict. “I’m a very innocent man.”
See how Trump and his allies went on the offensive:
Attack the judge
To one person, Trump and his many defenders targeted Merchan, the judge who presided over the case, because of a small donation he made to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. This echoed an attack they made against him throughout the trial. .
“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said after the verdict outside the Manhattan courthouse, adding that Merchan “should never have been allowed to try this case.”
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, who is running to be Trump’s running mate, said in X that the trial was “led by an openly pro-Biden judge,” while Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday that Merchan “should have worn a Biden campaign hat while sitting on the bench.” .
Merchant donated $15 to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and an additional $20 to progressive organizations, all through the ActBlue giving platform.
Trump and his supporters also said Merchan should have recused himself because of his daughter’s employment with a Democratic-aligned campaign organization, Authentic Campaigns. The State Courts Ethics Committee gave guidance to Merchan that he did not need to withdraw from the case because it did not involve his family or family business.
liberal jury
Another common refrain from Trump and his supporters was that the jury — and even the pool of potential jurors at the outset — was simply too liberal for him to get a fair trial because Manhattan overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020.
“It’s a rigged trial, a disgrace,” Trump said Thursday. “They didn’t allow us to change locations. We were at 5% or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a sham, shameful trial.”
“12 liberal jurors don’t decide who will be the next president,” said Republican Rep. Jim Banks, a Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Indiana. posted in X. “We the people do.”
“The partisan bias of this jury shows why we should litigate politics at the ballot box and not in court,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, a potential Trump running mate. said on X.
Trump’s team was directly involved in the jury selection process, and Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead lawyer, challenged only one juror. The challenge was denied by Merchan, who said Trump’s team there was not enough cause that’s why. Merchan also denied any attempt to change venue, which was considered unlikely, a week before the trial began.
Election interference
At the heart of their reaction, pro-Trump forces said the ultimate goal of the conviction was to boost Biden’s electoral chances, as well as those of other Democrats.
“We have just witnessed the most egregious example of election interference and a total mockery of the rule of law in the 246-year history of our Republic,” Kari Lake, the Trump-backed Senate candidate in Arizona, said in a statement. The entire process, even the verdict itself, was nothing more than a shameful political coup.”
In his Newsmax interview, Cruz said the purpose of the criminal case was so that Democrats could ultimately refer to Trump as a “convicted criminal.”
“You and I are going to hear these words repeated by Democrats in the corporate media about a billion times until Election Day,” he said. “That was the point of shouting ‘criminal, criminal, criminal, criminal.’ This was policy, not law.”
Biden’s involvement
Side by side with the argument that the case amounted to election interference was the charge that Biden himself was in charge.
“Joe Biden and his left-wing allies engaged in election interference to prosecute his primary political opponent on false charges,” said Bernie Moreno, the Trump-endorsed Senate candidate in Ohio. posted in X.
There is no evidence to suggest that the White House was involved in the Manhattan district attorney’s decision to bring charges, and Biden kept away from the trial. However, his campaign sometimes took advantage of developments, including holding a IIt isday andventilation outside the Manhattan courthouse this week.
In a statement after the verdict, Michael Tyler, communications director for the Biden campaign, said: “Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed that he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain.”
“But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality,” he continued. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the polls. Convicted criminal or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
Will be overturned on appeal
Trump’s allies were universally confident that the verdict would be overturned upon appeal.
“I have no doubt that this affront to justice will be successfully appealed and President Trump will be exonerated, but we cannot ignore Joe Biden and his allies’ reckless weaponization of our nation’s justice system and the long-term damage that your malice has caused.” said former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Trump-backed Senate candidate in Michigan, in a statement.
“This conviction should be immediately reversed upon appeal, and this legal tyranny will be summarily rejected by the American people on November 5th,” Lake said in his statement Thursday.
Invoking George Soros
Republicans were quick to point out that liberal mega-donor George Soros supports Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
“You have a Soros-backed prosecutor,” Trump said.
Soros donated to the Color of Change PAC, which has supported progressive prosecutors across the country, including Bragg in his 2021 campaign. CNBC reported that people familiar with the donation said it was not intended to support Brag specifically or to pressure him in any way.
In his statement after the verdict, Bragg said Trump did everything he could to break the law and “lie” to boost his 2016 campaign.
“Donald Trump is guilty of repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying business records in a scheme to hide harmful information from American voters during the 2016 presidential election,” he said. “Over the past few weeks, a jury of 12 everyday New Yorkers was presented with overwhelming evidence – including invoices, checks, bank statements, audio recordings, phone records, text messages and direct testimony from 22 witnesses – that proved , beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Trump illegally falsified 34 New York business records.
America is a ‘banana republic’
Trump’s allies made it clear that they believed the verdict represented the decline of America into something unrecognizable, labeling it a “banana republic” or a “shithole.”
“The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole,” said his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. he wrote on the social networks. “November 5th is our last chance to save him.”
“This verdict is representative of a banana republic, not a democracy,” MoReno wrnote in X.
Others targeted New York, a Democratic stronghold that is often maligned in redder jurisdictions.
“New York is a liberal shithole,” wrote Banksthe Indiana Senate candidate.
That’s good for Trump!
It doesn’t matter that some voters may be angered by the idea of voting for a candidate found guilty of criminal charges – Trump and his allies see that the trial’s political backdrop will help them energize their supporters and possibly even convert some people who are on the fence.
“The real verdict will be given by the people on November 5th, and they know what happened here, and everyone knows what happened here,” Trump said Thursday.
“May 30, 2024 may be remembered as the day Donald J. Trump won the 2024 presidential election,” Trump’s son said Eric Trump posted in X.
“Voters will condemn our two-tier justice system in November,” Banks withmechanically.
Most polls have shown a close race between Trump and Biden, but Trump has had several strong results in battleground polls and is generally doing better now in the polls than at any time during his previous runs for office. And in 2016 and 2020, he surpassed his poll numbers.
A fundraising bonanza
While it will be months before Americans know the results of the fall election, the fundraising boost provided by the conviction will come to fruition in the coming hours. And many Trump allies and officials have already boasted about the success.
“The bad news is that today Biden’s leftists in New York mocked our criminal justice system,” Rubio wrote. “The good news is that Americans have sent Trump over 50 million dollars since this hoax and his deranged enemies just elected Trump president again!”
He followed post a link for a fundraising page.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
