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Trump Faces Three More Felony Charges
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump spoke to reporters Friday morning, a day after laying out the 34 charges in his secret trial, in which he said his legal team would appeal the conviction and reiterated his claims that the trial was “rigged. “”
“The other people in our country know it’s a hoax, they know it’s a hoax, they get it,” Trump said. “You know, they’re smart. And that’s something, so we’re going to appeal this scam. “
In a rambling speech, Trump spoke from the atrium of Trump Tower, steps from the golden escalator he walked in 2015 when he ran for president.
Now, nearly nine years later, Trump has responded more to his conviction and the legal battles he faces, which were in the midst of his third presidential campaign. He surrounded campaign officials and some supporters.
“If you can do this to me, you can do this to anybody,” Trump said at the start of his speech. “They’re bad people. I think in many cases they are people in poor health. “
Trump then delved into some of his iconic crusading rhetoric, lashing out at immigrants coming to the U. S. and the economic festival with China.
But his attention soon turned to the New York criminal trial. He went on to claim, without evidence, that the trial had been “rigged” by biased judgment on prosecutors.
“No one had ever noticed anything like this,” he said.
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Trump then voiced a litany of grievances against the central figures in the case, adding Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and his former lawyer Michael Cohen, and portrayed himself as a political martyr, a central issue for his 2024 campaign.
“In a way, they revere me,” he said. Not that it’s pretty. It’s very bad for family, it’s very bad for friends and businesses, but they revere me for worrying about this because you have to do it, and I could go ahead and be that too. “
Trump responded to any questions from the media after his remarks.
In the wake of his guilty verdict, Trump and his crusade have sought to reorient their election campaign, arguing that “the genuine verdict” will come on Election Day and urging his supporters to donate to Trump’s crusade.
SEE ALSO: Michael Cohen says Trump’s guilty verdict has ‘been a while’
Trump tried to turn the verdict into his merit by aggressively fundraising, sending fundraising emails to smaller donors, calling himself a “political prisoner” and also at a fundraiser with Republican primary donors in Manhattan on Thursday night, a few hours after the verdict.
Trump currently has no public campaign events scheduled for next week, he is expected to hold a fundraiser on the West Coast.
The presumptive Republican nominee faces more criminal charges with two instances in federal court and one in state court. Trump is expected to be sentenced on July 11, three days before the Republican National Convention, where he will be the Republican presidential nominee.
Trump convicted on 34 counts in connection with a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by secretly paying cash to a porn actor who claimed the two had sex. The secret trial and upcoming conviction mark the first time a former U. S. president has been tried or convicted. in a criminal case.
Here’s the one:
The conviction of Donald Trump in his secret trial in New York is a stunning development in an already unorthodox presidential election, with profound implications for the judicial formula and for American democracy itself.
But in a deeply divided United States, it’s unclear whether Trump’s standing as a convicted felony user will have any effect on the 2024 election.
RELATED: What the Biden Campaign Thinks About Trump’s Verdict: ‘It’s Important’
Trump remains in a competitive position against President Joe Biden this fall, even though the former Republican president now faces criminal sentencing in the run-up to the November election.
At least in the short term, there were immediate signs that the unanimous guilty verdict was helping to unify the GOP’s disparate factions, as GOP officials in Congress and in state capitals across the country mobilized their presumptive presidential nominee as their crusade hoped to benefit from a flood of new fundraising dollars.
Several Republican lawmakers reacted furiously Thursday to Trump’s conviction and rushed to his defense, questioning the legitimacy of the trial and the way it was conducted.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was a “shameful day in American history” and called the allegations “purely political. “
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been one of Trump’s most common allies, said, “This verdict says more about the formula than the allegations. “
And while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell refrained from attacking the jury’s ruling, he said the fees “should never have been filed in the first place. “
Many Republican lawmakers, Johnson added, have gone to court in New York to denounce Trump in his trial as a criminal.
Donald Trump would have possibly been convicted of a felony and lives in Florida, a state known for restricting the right to vote for felons, but he can still vote while he remains out of prison in New York state.
This is because Florida is subject to other states’ disenfranchisement regulations for citizens convicted of crimes committed out of state. In Trump’s case, New York law only takes away their right to vote when they are incarcerated. Once released from prison, their rights are restored. Even if they’re on probation, under a 2021 law passed by the state’s Democratic legislature.
“If a Floridian’s voting rights are restored to the state of conviction, they are restored under Florida law,” Blair Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center wrote in an article explaining the rule of law, noting that others without Trump’s legal recourse are baffled by Florida’s complex rules.
Donald Trump’s conviction Thursday on 34 counts marked the end of the former president’s historic silent trial.
Now comes sentencing and the prospect of a criminal sentence. A lengthy appeals procedure may follow, especially since Trump’s legal team has already set the bar for an appeal.
And in the meantime, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee still faces three more criminal cases and a crusade that may lead to his return to the White House.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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