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      Trump hails Republicans for defending him and calls conviction ‘a scam’

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      Donald Trump on Sunday lauded the Republican party for rallying behind him in the wake of his conviction on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.Trump made the comments in his first sit-down press interview since the guilty verdict was returned on Friday that held he falsified business records linked to an illicit affair with adult actor Stormy Daniels. The former US president appeared on Sunday in a taped interview on Fox & Friends, a friendly forum on the rightwing channel and in which he was served up a series of softball questions by a trio of Fox hosts.Throughout the interview, Trump derided the conviction, baselessly characterizing it as political weaponization of the US justice system, while thanking the Republican party for largely supporting him.“People get it. It’s a scam,” he said, speaking of the trial. “And the Republican party … they’ve stuck together in this. They see it’s a weaponization of the justice department of the FBI and that’s all coming out of Washington.”Nearly all senior Republican leaders have vociferously defended Trump, echoing his claims the convictions were politically motivated, including the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, the House majority leader Steve Scalise, and the Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell. Since the verdict Trump campaign officials say they have also seen a funding boost of tens of millions of dollars in donations from supporters.Trump and the Fox News interviewers characterized the “weaponization” as similar to corruption in Latin American governments. He also claimed his attorney’s objections were routinely denied through the trial, while the prosecution were given preferential treatment: all familiar attack lines and conspiracy theories that Trump has peddled for months.“These people are sick, they’re sick, they’re deranged,” said Trump. “The enemy from within, they are doing damage in this country,” claiming his political opponents want to “quadruple” taxes. He dismissed New York and Washington DC as partisan areas where Republicans receive “virtually no votes”.He cited his campaign has received an influx of donations since the conviction, nearly $53m and claimed it has bumped his approval ratings in polls against Biden.A Reuters poll found one in 10 Republicans are less likely to vote for Trump following the conviction. A Morning Consult poll found 49% of independents and 15% of Republicans think Trump should end his presidential campaign as a result of the conviction.Over the course of the trial, Trump’s position in head to head surveys with Joe Biden did not shift much as he frequently maintained a narrow lead over his Democratic opponent. Trump also kept performing strongly in the key swing states needed to win the 2024 race for the White House. Strategists from both the Trump and Biden campaigns will eagerly be watching fresh polls this week to see if the verdict has had any meaningful impact on Trump’s support.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump will be sentenced later this month just before the Republican party convention that is almost certain to nominate him to be the party’s presidential candidate.Trump responded to the possibility that he could face jail time for his conviction. “I don’t know that the public would stand it, you know, I don’t. I think I think it would be tough for the public to take, you know at a certain point, there’s a breaking point,” he told FoxTrump also faces three other criminal trials: one over an attempt to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia, another about his handling of sensitive documents after leaving office and a third on his actions around the January 6 attack on the Capitol in Washington DC. However, all three have faced significant delays and are seen as unlikely to play out before November’s presidential election. More

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      Minnesota Democrat Dean Phillips calls on New York governor to pardon Trump

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      The outgoing Democratic US representative who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas representative, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.“Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater, and philanderer, a six-time declarer of corporate bankruptcy, an instigator of insurrection, and a convicted felon who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” wrote Phillips, who was first elected to Congress to represent a wealthier suburban area outside Minneapolis in 2019 but gave up seeking re-election to his seat in November to pursue his unsuccessful primary challenge to Biden.Hochul, Phillips added, “should pardon [Trump] for the good of the country”.In another X post on Saturday morning, Phillips doubled down on his call for leniency for the former Republican president.“You think pardoning is stupid? Making him a martyr over a payment to a porn star is stupid. (Election charges are entirely different),” he wrote. Referring to Trump’s claims that he has seen a spike in donations after his conviction, Phillips added: “It’s energizing his base, generating record sums of campaign cash, and will likely result in an electoral boost.”The chances of Hochul pardoning Trump seem slim. The Democratic governor’s statements after Trump’s conviction touted the rule of law, a principle under which “all persons, institutions and entities are accountable” to laws.“Today’s verdict reaffirms that no one is above the law,” Hochul said in a statement after a jury found Trump guilty on Thursday of 34 counts of felony falsification of business records.Hochul also said in a National Public Radio interview “Justice was served” – suggesting potential opposition to a pardon – continuing:“In the state of New York, if you commit a crime, and there’s evidence to demonstrate that you have met the standards of being arrested and brought to a trial and a jury of your peers considers all the evidence, then their verdict must hold.“And that’s exactly how the rule of law has always prevailed in our country. And this is no different. So I just want to make sure everyone knows our rule is no one is above the law.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump’s campaign claimed on Friday that he had raised $53m following the verdict – breaking GOP records, according to the New York Times. The newspaper notes that Trump’s predominant fundraising entity took in $58m over the second half of 2023, demonstrating the immensity of this windfall.Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who testified that he carried out the hush-money payment in 2016 while Trump successfully ran for the White House, expressed concern about Thursday’s conviction leading to prison time for the former president.Cohen’s remarks seemingly alluded to how Trump, in a separate criminal case pending against him, is charged with improperly retaining classified materials after his presidency and keeping them in areas that weren’t secure.“My concern is in a prison situation … He’s willing to give away the secrets, as I always say, for beggar tuna or a book of stamps, and he will do it because he doesn’t care,” Cohen said on MSNBC’s The Weekend. More

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      Trump’s verdict speech fact-checked: what he said and whether it’s true

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      Donald Trump delivered a rambling, incoherent speech laden with falsehoods and conspiracy theories from the atrium of Trump Tower, a day after the former president was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush-money criminal trial.Here is a fact check of some of the things he said on Friday – and why they weren’t true.Trump claims the Joe Biden White House was behind his prosecutionDonald Trump claimed that the judge presiding over his hush-money case, Juan Merchan, and the court was in “total conjunction with the White House and the DoJ [Department of Justice]”. There is no evidence whatsoever supporting this claim.“This is all done by Biden and his people,” the former president said during a speech on Friday at Trump Tower.The accusation that Biden was behind the prosecution does not line up with the case’s facts.The elected district attorney of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, brought the case against Trump. Bragg is a state official who does not report to the federal government.Biden does not have any authority over Bragg or his office – and there is no evidence that the Biden administration had anything to do with the case.Trump rails against ‘nasty gag order’ he claims no one else has facedTrump claimed he is under a “nasty gag order, which nobody has ever been under”. He also said he has had to pay thousands of dollars in penalties – and that he was threatened with jail.Under Judge Merchan’s order designed to protect trial participants from Trump’s abuse, the former president is barred from making – or directing others to make – public statements about witnesses concerning their roles in the investigation and at trial. It also covers prosecutors, other staffers of Bragg, and members of the court staff. However, Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants about Merchan and Bragg.Trump has been fined $10,000 for 10 violations of the gag order for posts on his Truth Social platform and campaign website. Merchan has warned Trump that he would “impose an incarceratory punishment” for “continued willful violations” of the order.Trump claims he wasn’t allowed to testifyTrump claimed that he wanted to testify “but the theory is that you don’t testify because … they’ll get you on something you said slightly wrong, and then they sue you for perjury”.Trump has previously railed about being silenced and falsely claimed he was not allowed to testify at the trial. But ultimately he made the personal choice to not take the stand in his own defense.Merchan earlier this month addressed the ex-president’s claims, saying: “I want to stress, Mr Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.” Merchan added that the gag order preventing Trump from verbally attacking witnesses did not affect his right to take the stand.Trump claims prosecutors were not allowed to look into alleged federal campaign violationsTrump claimed that prosecutors who charged him were not allowed to look into alleged federal campaign finance violations.In fact, Manhattan prosecutors did not charge him with federal violations but instead listed the allegations as one of three “unlawful acts” that jurors were asked to consider.Prosecutors said the other crime for which Trump was charged was a violation of a state election law barring conspiracies to promote or prevent an election by unlawful means.Trump claims he faces 187-year prison sentenceDonald Trump claimed the crime for which he was convicted meant that “I’m supposed to go to jail for 187 years”.The former president was found guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree in furtherance of another crime, a class E felony in New York. That is the least serious category and is punishable by up to four years in prison.But as a first-time, non-violent offender, it is unlikely that Trump will face a long sentence. Experts say he is unlikely to receive prison time at all.Trump claims polling shows him ahead after convictionTrump claimed that a Daily Mail poll taken after his guilty verdict showed that he was “up by six points”.The poll he was referring to was an online survey of 400 likely voters that measured his favorability ratings – and not voting intention.Of those who said the 34 guilty counts had changed their view of Trump, 22% said they had a more favorable rating compared with 16% who said they viewed him more negatively.In contrast, a YouGov poll showed that 27% of voters said the conviction made them less likely to vote for Trump, compared with 26% who said they were more likely to vote for him and 39% who said the verdict “makes no difference” in how they’ll vote.Trump claims defense wasn’t allowed to use its election expertTrump claimed that the judge did not allow his defense team “to use our election expert under any circumstances”.Merchan did not bar the defense’s campaign finance expert, Bradley A Smith, from testifying in the trial. Smith was permitted to testify.Instead, Trump’s lawyers decided not to call on Smith after Merchan declined to broaden the scope of questioning the defense could pursue. More

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      Biden hits back at Trump’s ‘dangerous’ claim hush-money trial was rigged

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      Joe Biden warned on Friday that it was reckless and “dangerous” for anyone to claim Donald Trump’s criminal conviction was the result of a rigged trial, as the former president hit out at the verdict against him and Republicans maligned the integrity of America’s justice system.Donald Trump hit out furiously on Friday morning at the new status of “felon” conferred on him by a New York jury, whose guilty verdict made him the first former US president ever to become a convicted criminal.On Friday afternoon, Biden began a White House talk about the war in Gaza with remarks on criticism from Trump and the right wing about the historic trial that had concluded in New York the day before.The US president said: “It is reckless, it is dangerous, it is irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged, just because they don’t like the verdict. The US justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and is literally a cornerstone of America.”He added that the system and the justice it produced should be respected.“And we should never allow anyone to tear it down, simple as that, that’s America,” Biden said.The war of words came a day after Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges he had faced. On Friday morning, the ex-president painted himself as a victim of injustice in a rambling and often incoherent appearance at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, at which he labelled his opponents “fascists” and blamed his legal plight on Joe Biden.Trump was unanimously convicted by a jury of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.Speaking at Trump Tower in Manhattan to cheers from his supporters, Trump set the tone immediately by declaring himself innocent and revisiting populist election-campaign warnings.He said: “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.”The event had been billed as a press conference, but Trump took no questions.Instead, he lapsed into a 30-odd-minute monologue that hammered on familiar, inflammatory themes. He criticized the trial and peppered the speech with falsehoods and conspiracy theories that threatened bad things to come if he were not returned to the White House this November, including anti-immigrant rhetoric.Meanwhile, his legal team had already embarked on a counter-offensive to the criminal conviction, aimed at overturning Thursday’s verdict.With the 2024 presidential election campaign propelled deep into uncharted territory, Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, went on national television to make a spirited though measured defense of his client, vowing to lodge an appeal.The jury found that Trump falsified documents related to hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, shortly before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her story that she slept with him earlier in his marriage to Melania Trump.Appearing on NBC, Blanche insisted Trump’s defense had not been given “a fair shake” during the trial.“We’re going to appeal and we’re going to win on appeal,” Blanche told NBC Today’s Savannah Guthrie. “That’s the goal. The goal is … to appeal quickly and hopefully be vindicated quickly.”Trump now faces the prospect of rewriting the record books further, if he were to be sent to jail when the judge, Juan Merchan, sentences him on 11 July, four days before the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is scheduled to be officially anointed as the party’s presidential nominee for this November’s election.Some analysts predict that the prospect of a custodial sentence has risen because of Trump’s repeated breaking of gag orders during the six-week trial and his condemnation of Merchant as “corrupt and conflicted” after Thursday’s verdict.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut Blanche played down that possibility, pointing to Trump’s advanced age and his previous lack of a criminal record.The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who led the case against Trump and also was attacked by the former president, has yet to announce whether he will request a prison sentence.Trump pointedly linked his prosecution and the verdict with Biden, whom he labelled “the Manchurian candidate” and “the worst president in our history”, as well as “stupid” and “dishonest”.“They are in total conjunction with the White House, the DoJ, just so you understand, this is all done by Biden and his people,” he said, referring to the legal team that led the prosecution and presumably Merchan, whom he called – among other things – “a tyrant”.The president’s re-election campaign team had commented on Thursday. Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign communications director, said: “No one is above the law. Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain.”Trump and his campaign said that since the verdictthey have raised more than $30m.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said Trump’s false accusations that the case was orchestrated by Biden raised the spectre of further political violence at a time when supreme court rulings are awaited on the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob trying to reverse the last presidential election result.“The real concern here is not that Trump would be able to stir up his base and get loads more votes, because there aren’t loads more votes to get,” he said. “The real question is will Trump continue to feed this sense of persecution, making phony charges that Biden’s orchestrating all this.“That’s not the way our system works. But he has ruined public confidence in our election system, and he’s now ruining public confidence in our judicial system. The man is the worst thing that has happened to American democracy in my lifetime.”Trump trial coverage: read more
      Trump found guilty of hush-money plot to influence election
      Could Trump go to prison and can he still run for president?
      What is Biden’s next move?
      With conviction, good fortune runs out for ‘Teflon Don’ More

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      Will Trump, a convicted felon, be able to vote for himself in November?

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      Despite his 34 felony convictions, Donald Trump will likely still be able to cast a vote for himself in November because of Florida and New York’s voting rights restoration laws.Florida, where Trump has his primary residence, allows people convicted of felonies to vote depending on the law in the state where they are convicted.New York is one of 23 states where people convicted of a felony can vote, even if they are on parole or probation, as long as they are not incarcerated.“A felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted,” Florida’s department of state website reads.But Florida’s law is confusing, especially after state voters passed amendment 4 in 2018, which restored the right to vote to most people with felony convictions who have completed all terms of their sentence. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, which led the campaign for amendment 4, has sued over the process, but dropped a lawsuit against the state earlier this month after the department of state said it would hold a workshop to update the process for people with felony convictions to learn about their voting eligibility.Trump could lose his right to vote if he were incarcerated on 5 November, but legal experts say it is unlikely he will be sentenced to jail time. There will also likely be a lengthy appeal which could extend past election day.“We have to wait to see what happens with Trump’s sentencing and possible appeal in New York to see what happens with [his] voter eligibility,” said Neil Volz, deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. “That said, we are in uncharted territory when it comes to people with convictions being able to vote.”“After New York goes through their process, whether President Trump can vote with a felony conviction will depend on what the state of Florida does,” he added. “Our belief is that no one should be above the law or below the law when it comes to voter eligibility for people with convictions, and that everyone should operate under the same set of standards.”If Trump did lose his right to vote, he could always apply for rights restoration with Florida’s clemency board, which is made up of Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and his cabinet. The board is scheduled to meet three more times in 2024. DeSantis endorsed Trump when he dropped out of the presidential race in January. More

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      ‘Karma always get you’: New Yorkers react to verdict in Trump criminal trial

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      The aftermath of the conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts played out amid scenes of stress, jubilation and shock in Manhattan – the slice of New York that first made the former US president into a global celebrity and has now declared one of its most famous sons a guilty criminal.Police cruisers tore downtown after jurors announced they’d reached a verdict in Trump’s hush-money trial, and many New Yorkers had been glued to their phones waiting for the decision to be relayed. Mayor Eric Adams tried to reassure citizens that authorities were prepared for unrest.“I guess we all get what we deserve and this man is just a low-life,” said Joseph McGee, 62, who was standing on the corner of 6th Avenue and 8th Street. “Karma always get you. If it wasn’t for this, it’s for everything else he’s done. It’s a real good thing.”Others were less sure. “This is going to hand him the election, no question,” said Ashish Bajha from Michigan.View image in fullscreen“I work in Dayton, Ohio, and you should hear what they say out there – they think it’s a political-bias case. It’s polarizing to an already polarized base and the unfortunate part is Biden’s support is already quite low. They’re not getting Biden’s base out with this, they’re getting Trump’s,” Bajha added.Trump was not without support. In the melting pot of New York City, though overwhelmingly Democratic, there are people of all political stripes – both visitors and residents. And all opinions could be found.In bustling and touristy Times Square, Jai Shannon, 33, said there was the belief in her community in Florida that Trump was set up by the system. “He’s being cheated,” she said. “He’s being made an example of.”Jerry Sharkey III, from Harlem, who had been at a probation hearing in the same criminal courthouse where Trump’s trial was winding up, was a firm fan of the real estate mogul turned reality TV star turned US president.View image in fullscreenView image in fullscreen“I see this as a political trial, but they can spin it a lot of different ways. I’m a Trump supporter no matter what, and being in the Manhattan courthouse has nothing to do with being the president,” Sharkey said.Many others offered a more typical New York Democrat response.“I was cheering. I was thrilled by the verdict,” said Lisa Taylor, 49. “I just wish it would keep him from being re-elected. Surely, the Republicans are scrambling now to be, like, what do we do? But given their history I’m not optimistic they’ll do anything.”Opposite the Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan, where supporters and opponents alike had gathered, both cheers and boos were thrown up when a newly guilty Trump arrived back from the courthouse and pumped his fist in the air.A man who gave his name as Sherwin said the case was about the facts and facts were what Trump had been convicted on. But he acknowledged that it was unlikely to be interpreted through anything other than a political lens.View image in fullscreen“America is flooded with division and we can’t seem to be united on anything, and this kind of makes it more obvious. People who hate Trump are really happy, and people who love Trump are really angry,” he said.A pair of Belgian tourists said it was the same situation in their country, with a potentially divisive election being held next month. One said: “The question we ask is, what, can’t they find anyone better? You’ve got two 80-year-olds running for office.”Another visitor, from the Netherlands, said she considered Trump “the most improper man ever”.View image in fullscreen“How he thinks about women, he thinks he can do anything, lie about everything and it doesn’t matter,” she said. A trio of students stopped by to offer comment. “He embezzled, he bribed, he’s mega-racist,” said Dee. “On top of that he’s just fucking weird.”New Yorker Kimia Faribozz, 26, said she doubted Trump’s conviction would make much difference. “After the impeachments, he just kind of did his thing, so I don’t know if this is going to affect him. I feel like people older than me are more neo-liberal and think this is a huge movement that he now can’t vote in Florida but can still run, but people closer to my age are a little more pessimistic.”View image in fullscreenOn the corner of 51st and Broadway, Times Square entertainer Timothy Drayton said it would never happen that authorities would let a former president serve a jail sentence.“They will not let that happen for the generations that came before or after them. America doesn’t want that. He said: ‘Make America great again’ – not the political parties. They’re not looking at the people, and the people aren’t going to go for that because it will destroy America’s whole outlook on the presidency,” Drayton said. More

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      Trump guilty on all counts – so what happens next? – podcast

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      Donald Trump has made history again, becoming the first US president, sitting or former, to be a convicted criminal. Late on Thursday a New York jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. Within minutes of leaving the courtroom, Trump said he would appeal.
      On an historic night for US politics, Politics Weekly America host Jonathan Freedland speaks to Guardian US reporter Sam Levine about what the hush-money trial verdict will mean – both for Trump and for the election in November

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More