Donald Trump has consistently called the Manhattan criminal case against him a “rigged” politically motivated witch hunt — including from the courthouse hallway after a jury convicted him of 34 felonies Thursday.
His claims have included:
Blaming President Biden
The trial unfolded in blue-leaning Manhattan, where roughly 85% of voters picked Biden over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
But Trump has continued to label his case a “Biden trial.”
“This was done by the Biden Administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent,” he said in a statement following his conviction.
Part of Trump’s argument here appears to be that one of the prosecutors on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case is a former high-ranking Justice Department official under Biden.
That prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, also worked with Bragg, a Democrat, on Trump-related cases earlier in his career at the New York State Attorney General’s Office, and the two men knew each other before Colangelo ever worked at DOJ.
Bragg also brought the case after his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., declined to, which critics said pointed to a political — rather than legal — decision.
The Manhattan district attorney is a state official who does not answer to the president.
Saying Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is “conflicted”:
Trump and his lawyers tried to get Judge Merchan thrown off the case because of his daughter’s consulting work on behalf of prominent Democrats.
Loren Merchan is president of Authentic Campaigns, a Chicago-based political consulting firm whose top clients include Trump foes like Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who was the lead prosecutor in the Republican’s first impeachment trial.
There’s evidence that she has progressive leanings.
But neither that — nor the fact that Merchan donated $35 to Democratic causes in 2020 — meets the high legal standard to remove a judge from a case, according to the state’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics.
“We see nothing in the inquiry to suggest that the outcome of the case could have any effect on the judge’s relative, the relative’s business or any of their interests,” the committee wrote.
What happens next after Trump is found guilty in hush money case
- Donald Trump, who was found guilty on all counts, will remain free until his scheduled sentencing on the morning of July 11.
- The former president also does not face any travel restrictions until the sentencing.
- Trump’s attorneys said they plan to appeal the verdict “as soon as we can.”
- If Trump loses an appeal with the mid-level appeals court, he’ll likely seek to have the state’s highest court hear his case, which could take another additional year.
Here you can read more about what happens next following the historic guilty verdict and what Trump potentially faces.
Saying he was completely “gagged” from talking about the case:
Trump faced a limited gag order barring him from ripping jurors, witnesses, and the family of the judge and Bragg.
He breached the terms of the order several times, and was ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines.
Trump exaggerated and claimed during the trial that he could not talk about the case at all.
“It’s totally unconstitutional,” he told reporters on April 23.
“I’m not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me.”
Claiming there is “no crime” or that no one understands the “crime” he was convicted of:
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the felony charges he was convicted of — falsifying business records — is “not a crime” and that he does not understand what he was charged with.
Elements of the Manhattan case were legally dense.
Lying on New York state business records is a crime, though usually charged as a misdemeanor.
Also, the statute of limitations had also expired on those charges.
But Bragg made those charges a felony, and got around the statute of limitations, by saying they were conducted with the “intent” to commit another crime, in this case, a conspiracy to help get election in 2016.
Claiming Bragg is connected to liberal billionaire George Soros
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Bragg is “backed” by Soros, who has drawn the ire of conservatives and right-leaning politicians.
Soros’s political action committee, Color of Change PAC, spent more than $500,000 toward Bragg’s campaign before his election in 2021.
Soros’s group spent far more than that on the campaigns of other district attorneys across the country, and there’s no evidence that Soros had anything to do with the Trump prosecution.
