Less than 24 hours after being found guilty of 34 criminal charges, Donald Trump stood before a backdrop of American flags and was ready to get weeks of frustration off his chest.
The pugilistic former president spent 40 minutes spewing incoherent comments peppered with untruths and distortions to defend himself at a press conference on Friday at Trump Tower in Manhattan.
The event was the beginning of a new reality: Trump is now the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
“All of this is done by Biden and his people,” Trump said at the opening of the press conference, continuing without evidence to directly blame President Joe Biden for his legal problems. “This is done by Washington. Nobody has ever seen anything like this.”
After a New York jury found Trump guilty of all 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records surrounding payments he made to an adult film star during the 2016 election, Trump expressed his displeasure, using the Truth Social platform to once again call your accusation. a “witch hunt”. In another fundraising email, he referred to himself as a “political prisoner.”
But the press conference offered Trump the first opportunity for an extended airing of grievances.
He called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “failure” and once again criticized Judge Juan Merchan as “conflicted.”
Trump declined to discuss the alleged conflict, saying he couldn’t because of a gag order Merchan placed on him at the start of the trial. (In the past, Trump and his allies have gone after Merchan over a $15 donation he made to Biden in 2020, and the fact that the judge’s daughter worked with a Democratic-aligned group.)
The gag order barred Trump from publicly commenting on witnesses, jurors, court staff and other attorneys (excluding Bragg) and all of his family members, but did not include a ban on speaking about Merchan himself.
“I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said of the perceived conflict. “There has never been anyone as conflicted as this.”
Trump violated the gag order on 10 separate occasions during the trial, costing him $10,000 in fines and prompting Merchan to threaten him with prison time.
Trump also stated that he wanted to testify, something he ended up not doing for fear that he might commit perjury. On Friday, he justified the decision by saying that not even George Washington would testify on his own behalf.
“I would have testified. I wanted to testify. The theory is you never testify,” Trump said. “If it was George Washington, don’t testify. Because they will catch you for something you said a little wrong.
He also called his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was a key witness for the prosecution, a “bag of scorn” but declined to use his name directly, again citing the gag order. Cohen was Trump’s longtime lawyer but turned against his former boss and ended up serving 13 months in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress and campaign finance charges tied to work he did for Trump.
Trump also leaned on a theme he has defended throughout his campaign, portraying himself as the victim of a fraudulent system that intends to catch him – and anyone who supports him.
“This is a case where if they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone,” Trump said opening his speech. “These are bad people.”
Trump also said he could serve a prison sentence of up to 187 years, but some legal experts told NBC News there is a chance he will not be sent to prison based on his age, lack of criminal history and other factors. And while each charge carries a four-year sentence, any sentence is expected to be imposed concurrently, rather than consecutively.
Shortly after Trump’s guilty verdicts were read, the expected political battle lines were drawn.
Democrats and the vocal set of Republicans who are notably anti-Trump quickly took victory laps, proclaiming that justice had been served, while Trump’s already intense Republican base grew even more outraged at what it sees as political persecution and vowed revenge. .
Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ky., said Republican law enforcement officials should “get busy.”
“It’s time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” Collins posted in X.
After Trump’s press conference on Friday, Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler issued a statement saying, “Trump is consumed by his own thirst for revenge and retribution.”
“America has just witnessed a confused, desperate and defeated Donald Trump rambling about his own personal grievances and lying about the American justice system, leaving anyone watching with one obvious conclusion: this man cannot be president of the United States “, he said.
There were, however, concrete signs that, as Trump predicted, a guilty conviction would further energize his political base.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said the verdict led to historic levels of fundraising for the GOP operation — more than $34.8 raised in the hours between the verdict and midnight on Thursday. While these numbers cannot be independently verified due to delays in campaign finance reporting requirements, an RNC spokesperson told NBC News that the total represented what Trump’s joint fundraising committee with the RNC raised. through the online fundraising platform WinRed.
“Within minutes of the mock trial verdict being announced, our digital fundraising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online due to the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small donors,” said a senior statement. Trump campaign officials.
There are also signs that the party’s biggest rainmakers are also prepared to unite behind Trump.
After the verdict was read, Trump attended a fundraiser in Manhattan organized by Pepe Fanjul, a South Florida sugar baron and major longtime Republican donor, according to a campaign official.
Shawn McGuire, a partner at hedge fund Sequoia Capital who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, has also publicly announced that he is donating $300,000 to Trump’s campaign efforts.
“In 2016, I had drunk the media Kook-Aid and was scared to death of Trump,” he posted on X. “As such, I donated to Hillary’s campaign and voted for her.”
“Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my lifetime and I am supporting Trump,” he added.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
