LAST UPDATE | 31 May

LESS THAN A day after being found guilty of 34 charges in his hush money trial, Donald Trump has railed against his criminal conviction in a rambling speech at Trump Tower. 

Speaking at a press conference, Trump claimed his New York trial was “very unfair” and attack the process as politicised.

“It was very unfair… You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side – they were literally crucified,” Trump said, as he called his adversaries “sick” and “fascists.”

Trump, aged 77, also referenced his age and said: “I’d like them to say, ‘gee, we have to have a little sorrow for this man’, because they just don’t say that about me.”

He also claimed that “if they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone” and that such criminal cases “should never be allowed to happen in the future”.

“I’m doing something for our Constitution,” said Trump.

“It’s very important far beyond me, and this can’t be allowed to happen to other presidents.”

After a speech lasting over half an hour, which was interwoven with much anti-immigrant rhetoric, Trump left without taking any questions.

Trump told the media this afternoon that he would “fight” the verdict and earlier today, his lawyer Todd Blanche said the former president would appeal his guilty verdict after becoming the first former US president ever convicted of a crime in his hush money trial.

The historic trial culminated yesterday in with the 77-year-old Trump being found guilty on each of the 34 charges of falsifying business records to hide a payment meant to silence porn star Stormy Daniels.

Outside court, Trump told waiting media he was a “very innocent man” and labelled the verdict a “disgrace”.

Blanche indicated on CNN that Trump would push forward with post-trial motions and “if that is not successful, then as soon as we can appeal we will. And the process in New York is there’s a sentencing, and then we appeal from there”.

Torn apart and rewired by Trump’s historic criminal conviction, the 2024 presidential campaign moves into uncharted territory with all eyes on how the two main protagonists navigate the dangers.

Trump wasted no time in shifting from courtroom to campaign mode.

“I am a political prisoner!” he announced immediately after the guilty verdicts landed.

The challenge now will be for Biden to extract political gain from this, but in such a way that he avoids fueling Trump supporters’ belief that the prosecution itself was political.

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said yesterday.

“But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box.”

The jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to hide a payment meant to silence porn star Stormy Daniels and prevent her from publicizing an alleged sexual encounter that could have been fatal to his 2016 presidential campaign.

Prosecutors successfully laid out a case alleging the hush money and the illegal covering up of the payment was part of a broader crime to prevent voters from knowing about Trump’s behavior just as he was about to face Hillary Clinton.

Legal analysts who have been giving their opinions across US networks in recent weeks have noted that while Trump could theoretically be given a lengthy sentence, he could end up facing a far lighter penalty. 

Judge Juan Merchan set sentencing for 11 July – four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is due to receive the party’s formal nomination.

- © AFP 2024 and with additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper