NEW YORK CITY/WASHINGTON: Former president Donald Trump said the "real verdict" would be the US election in November after a New York jury convicted him on all charges in his hush money case on Thursday.
"This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people. And they know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here," Trump said as he left the court.
"I'm a very innocent man, and it's OK. I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our constitution."
Shortly after the announcement of the guilty verdict, Trump’s campaign website began redirecting visitors to a fundraising page declaring he was a “political prisoner.”
“I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG! They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME!” the message read.
The page crashed within minutes of launching, however, as a surge of Trump supporters overwhelmed WinRed, the official Republican Party donation platform.
The site was down for around an hour, reverting to a message telling visitors that “something went wrong” and that engineers had been notified.
“The American people see through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged show trial. So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump’s campaign that the WinRed pages went down,” the Trump campaign posted on X.
A New York jury convicted Trump of 34 counts of false accounting in his hush money case in a development that could have major repercussions in his bid to unseat Biden.
The verdict makes Trump the first criminally convicted former US president but does not prevent him from campaigning for another term. He will be sentenced July 11.
Biden, who has been reluctant to discuss the New York case, took advantage of Trump’s legal woes to do some fundraising of his own.
“There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” his campaign posted on X. “Donate to our campaign today.”
Trump regularly characterizes his legal woes as a battle against the evil forces of the “deep state” and Biden’s White House, casting himself as a martyr willing to sacrifice his liberty to stand up for his supporters.
In April he compared himself to South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, sparking quick and virulent criticism from Biden’s campaign team as he welcomed the prospect of going to jail for violating a gag order in the New York trial.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela — It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump posted on his social media platform.
Trump had previously compared himself to Mandela at a 2023 rally, and has also likened himself to Jesus Christ.
“Imagine being so self-centered that you compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela all within the span of little more than a week: that’s Donald Trump for you,” Team Biden said in a statement.
Prosecutor: ‘the jury has spoken’
Amid the flury of reactions, a prosecutor in the trial said “the jury has spoken” after Trump was found guilty on all charges at his hush money trial.
“Our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor,” Manhattan District Attorney Bragg told reporters.
“We did our job. (There are) many voices out there, the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a press conference in New York on May 30 after the guilty verdict in Trump's criminal trial was announced. (REUTERS)
Trump can still vote
Meanwhile, a voting rights advocate said even thought Trump was convicted of a felony and resides in Florida — a state notorious for restricting the voting rights of people with felony convictions — he can still vote as long as he stays out of prison in New York state.
That’s because Florida defers to other states’ disenfranchisement rules for residents convicted of out-of-state felonies. In Trump’s case, New York law only removes the right to vote for people convicted of felonies when they’re incarcerated. Once they’re out of prison, their rights are automatically restored, even if they’re on parole, per a 2021 law passed by the state’s Democratic legislature.
“If a Floridian’s voting rights are restored in the state of conviction, they are restored under Florida law,” Blair Bowie of the Campaign Legal Center wrote in a post explaining the state of law, noting that people without Trump’s legal resources are often confused by Florida’s complex rules.
So as long as Trump isn’t sent to prison, he can vote for himself in Florida in November’s election.
Trump was convicted Thursday of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
A lifelong New Yorker, Trump established residency in Florida in 2019, while he was in the White House.
Even if he is elected president again, Trump will not be able to pardon himself of state charges in New York. The president’s pardon power applies only to federal crimes.
