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    Trump and Allies Assail Conviction With Faulty Claims

    After former President Donald J. Trump was found guilty, he and a number of conservative figures in the news media and lawmakers on the right have spread false and misleading claims about the Manhattan case.After former President Donald J. Trump was found guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, he instantly rejected the verdict and assailed the judge and criminal justice system.His loyalists in the conservative news media and Congress quickly followed suit, echoing his baseless assertions that he had fallen victim to a politically motivated sham trial.The display of unity reflected the extent of Mr. Trump’s hold over his base.The former president and his supporters have singled out the judge who presided over the case, denigrated the judicial system and distorted the circumstances of the charges against him and his subsequent conviction.Here’s a fact check of some of their claims.What Was Said“We had a conflicted judge, highly conflicted. There’s never been a more conflicted judge.”— Mr. Trump in a news conference on Friday at Trump Tower in ManhattanThis is exaggerated. For over a year, Mr. Trump and his allies have said Justice Juan M. Merchan should not preside over the case because of his daughter’s line of work. Loren Merchan, the daughter, served as the president of a digital campaign strategy agency that has done work for many prominent Democrats, including Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign.Experts in judicial ethics have said Ms. Merchan’s work is not sufficient grounds for recusal. When Mr. Trump’s legal team sought his recusal because of his daughter, Justice Merchan sought counsel from the New York State Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, which said it did not see any conflict of interest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How Trump’s Most Loyal Supporters Are Responding to the Verdict

    Many saw in the jury’s finding a rejection of themselves, of their values and even of democracy itself. The sense of grievance erupted as powerfully as the verdict itself.From the low hills of northwest Georgia to a veterans’ retreat in Alaska to suburban New Hampshire, the corners of conservative America resounded with anger over the New York jury’s declaration that former President Donald J. Trump was guilty.But their discontent was about more than the 34 felony counts that Mr. Trump was convicted on, which his supporters quickly dismissed as politically motivated.They saw in the jury’s finding a rejection of themselves, and the values they believed their nation should uphold. Broad swaths of liberal America may have found long-awaited justice in the trial’s outcome. But for many staunch Trump loyalists — people who for years have listened to and believed Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that the system is rigged against him, and them — the verdict on Thursday threatened to shatter their faith in democracy itself.“We are at that crossroads. The democracy that we have known and cherished in this nation is now threatened,” Franklin Graham, the evangelist, said in an interview from Alaska. “I’ve got 13 grandchildren. What kind of nation are we leaving them?”Echoing him was Marie Vast, 72, of West Palm Beach, Fla., near Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. “I know a lot of people who say they still believe in our government,” she said, “but when the Democrats can manipulate things this grossly, and use the legal system as a tool to get the outcome they want, the system isn’t working.”Among more than two dozen people interviewed across 10 states on Friday, the sentiments among conservatives were so strong that they echoed the worry and fear that many progressives described feeling after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade almost two years ago.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    For Trump, a Deflating Blow, and Then a Bounce Back

    A day after Donald J. Trump left the courthouse shellshocked, he emerged on his home turf revitalized and railing against his rivals.The Donald J. Trump who emerged from a drab courtroom in Lower Manhattan yesterday afternoon did so glumly, shuffling into the hallway to speak for less than two minutes. He seemed, like much of the nation, to be still absorbing the gut punch of his conviction on 34 felony charges.That was Desultory Donald.Nineteen hours later, it was a different Donald J. Trump who held forth for 33 minutes from a lectern in the lobby of the tower that bears his name. He’d slept on it, and things turned out not to be all bad, he seemed to suggest. “Let me give you the good news,” he said, picking up a piece of paper to read out the campaign’s boffo fund-raising numbers since the verdict came down ($39 million in 10 hours, he said).“Does anybody read The Daily Mail?” he asked at one point. It had apparently published a new poll that “has Trump up six points in the last 12 hours,” he chirped. “Who thought this could happen?”Americans were still processing the jolting news of Mr. Trump’s conviction on Friday. But Mr. Trump himself, a candidate of unusual personality and sometimes impenetrable psyche, seemed to be willing himself forward, moving from downcast to defiant within a day.It helped that he was back in his marble bunker, surrounded by creature comforts. Eric and Lara Trump, his son and daughter-in-law, stood behind a red velvet rope with dozens of supporters (many of whom work in the building). Employees at the Gucci store in the building’s lobby pressed their faces against the glass pane, agog at the spectacle. Secret Service agents pushed their fingers into their earpieces. New York City police officers milled around in their caps and starched white shirts. A doorman in a three-piece suit and a bow tie watched with interest. A forest of cameras and lighting rigs pointed toward Mr. Trump.Outside, a “Trump or Death 2024” flag, roughly the size of a Honda Civic, billowed in front of the Prada store across the avenue.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Donald Trump and American Justice

    Readers offer a range of reactions and reflections.To the Editor:Re “Guilty: Jury Convicts Trump on All 34 Counts” (front page, May 31):I was overcome with a sense of giddiness on Thursday afternoon as I walked through Manhattan and news broke that former President Donald Trump had been convicted on 34 felony counts.I was glued to the live news updates on my phone, and soon enough messages began pouring in from like-minded friends who shared my sense of satisfaction that the justice system is alive and well, and that the verdict showed us that no one is above the law.Nonetheless, it took mere minutes before a more sober reality set in, and I contemplated how the verdict will likely play into the strategic hands of Mr. Trump’s campaign, energizing his ardent supporters, perhaps even working in his favor among some sympathetic swing voters.That so many of us find that morally offensive and reprehensible, while so many of our fellow Americans simply do not, reaffirms how deeply and dangerously divided this country truly is.Cody LyonBrooklynTo the Editor:Our system of laws has spoken. A jury of his peers found Donald Trump guilty on all counts in what was supposed to be the weakest of the criminal cases against the former president.Unfortunately, our Constitution does not prohibit a convicted felon from running for president; it even allows an elected candidate who has been criminally convicted to govern, even from prison.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    El sitio web de donantes de la campaña de Trump colapsa tras el veredicto

    Donald Trump comenzó a solicitar donaciones por su condena por delito grave casi inmediatamente después del veredicto.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]WinRed, el procesador de pagos para las donaciones de la campaña republicana, se cayó tras la condena por delito grave del expresidente Donald Trump, un problema técnico que su campaña atribuyó al número de personas que intentaban donar inmediatamente después del veredicto.“Tantos estadounidenses se animaron a donar a la campaña del presidente Trump que las páginas de WinRed se cayeron”, dijo la campaña de Trump en un comunicado en las redes sociales.El sitio web ya no muestra un mensaje de error al visitar la página de donaciones para la campaña de Trump, aunque no está claro si el sitio web funciona correctamente y procesa las donaciones. La campaña de Trump no respondió inmediatamente a una solicitud de comentarios.Trump comenzó a solicitar donaciones por su condena por delito grave, casi inmediatamente después de que se leyera el veredicto en el tribunal de Manhattan. En declaraciones en su sitio web de redes sociales, Truth Social, Trump publicó enlaces al sitio web de la campaña, que redirigía a la página WinRed, que no funcionaba correctamente.Esa página de donaciones muestra una gran imagen de la ficha policial de Trump, que fue tomada en Atlanta después de que Trump se entregara en la prisión del condado de Fulton por su caso penal de Georgia, con la leyenda “Nunca te rindas”. La página también describe a Trump como un “preso político” e hizo un llamado a “DIEZ MILLONES de patriotas pro-Trump” para que donaran antes de que acabara el día.Chris Cameron cubre política para el Times, centrándose en noticias de última hora y en la campaña de 2024. Más de Chris Cameron More

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    Could Trump Pardon Himself if Re-Elected?

    If Donald J. Trump were to be elected president in November, he would, after his inauguration, have the ability to grant pardons for federal convictions. But that power does not apply to state convictions, so Mr. Trump could not give himself clemency for the 34 felonies now on his record in New York State.Presidential pardon power is derived from Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, which says the commander in chief “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”But those convicted in cases brought by states are not considered to have committed crimes against the nation. If Mr. Trump wanted to receive a pardon on his state felony charges, he would have to pursue one like any other convicted criminal in New York State: by asking the governor.The current governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, would be unlikely to pardon Mr. Trump. After his conviction on Thursday, Ms. Hochul said: “Today’s verdict reaffirms that no one is above the law.”The 34 counts on which Mr. Trump was convicted were all Class E felonies, the least serious felony in New York State. He could be sentenced up to four years in prison, or probation. The judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, has scheduled a sentencing hearing for July 11. More

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    Trump Announces $34.8 Million Fund-Raising Haul After Guilty Verdict

    Former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign announced that he had raised $34.8 million in the wake of his felony conviction, shattering online records for Republicans and an early sign of the extent to which the base was rallying behind him.The campaign said in a statement that nearly 30 percent of the donors who gave online were new to the party’s online donating platform, WinRed, giving the former president an invaluable infusion of new contributions to tap in the coming months. The Trump campaign said the haul was double its previous best day ever on WinRed. And the one-day haul was nearly 10 times the $4 million Mr. Trump raised when his mug shot was released in 2023, after his booking in Atlanta for his indictment there.The figures will not be verifiable until the campaign committees and WinRed make their filings with the Federal Election Commission in the following months.Cash has been one of President Biden’s advantages so far in the race. His campaign has been advertising in key battleground states since Mr. Trump emerged as the Republican nominee while Mr. Trump has been absent from the airwaves. The post-conviction money will help Mr. Trump close the gap with the Democratic incumbent.The one-day haul was even greater than the $26 million that the Biden campaign had announced four years ago in the 24 hours after he had named Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential pick.“From just minutes after the sham trial verdict was announced, our digital fund-raising system was overwhelmed with support, and despite temporary delays online because of the amount of traffic, President Trump raised $34.8 million dollars from small-dollar donors,” said Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, two of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, in a joint statement. “President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country.” In April, Mr. Trump’s operation, working in concert with the Republican National Committee, announced that it had raised $76.2 million, beating for the first time what Mr. Biden’s shared operations with the Democratic National Committee, brought in — $51 million.The conviction appeared to be driving Democratic donations, as well, though to a much lesser extent.ActBlue, which processes online contributions for Democrats, registered three of its four biggest hours of donations in all of 2024 on Thursday evening in the wake of the conviction, topping out near $1.3 million in a single hour, according to its online ticker. More

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    Trump se convierte en el primer expresidente condenado de EE. UU.

    Un jurado de Manhattan determinó que el expresidente falsificó registros comerciales para ocultar un escándalo sexual que podría haber descarrilado su campaña presidencial de 2016.Donald Trump fue declarado culpable el jueves de falsificar registros comerciales para encubrir un escándalo sexual que amenazó con afectar su campaña presidencial de 2016, culminando un juicio excepcional que puso a prueba la resistencia del sistema judicial estadounidense y transformó al expresidente en un delincuente.El veredicto de culpabilidad en Manhattan —en todos los 34 cargos— resonará en toda la nación y el mundo porque marca el comienzo de una nueva era de la política presidencial. Trump llevará la mancha del veredicto durante su tercera contienda a la Casa Blanca, ya que los votantes ahora deberán elegir entre un presidente en funciones impopular y un delincuente convicto.Aunque antes era impensable que los estadounidenses eligieran a un delincuente como su líder, el comportamiento insurrecto de Trump deleita a sus simpatizantes mientras arrasa con las normas del país. Ahora, el hombre que se negó a aceptar su derrota electoral en 2020 ya está tratando de deslegitimar su condena, intentando afirmar la primacía de su poder político bruto sobre el Estado de derecho de la nación.Trump mostró poca emoción dentro del juzgado al conocer su destino, cerró los ojos y movió lentamente la cabeza mientras un silencio descendía sobre la sala del tribunal. Pero cuando salió, tenía la mandíbula tensa y se dirigió a las cámaras de televisión congregadas. Declaró que el veredicto era “una desgracia” y, con expresión sombría, proclamó: “El verdadero veredicto se dará el 5 de noviembre, por el pueblo”, refiriéndose al día de las elecciones.El juez que lideró el caso, Juan Merchan, dictará sentencia contra Trump el 11 de julio, pocos días antes de que se celebre la Convención Nacional Republicana que lo convertirá en el candidato presidencial del partido.Alvin Bragg, el fiscal que trabajó en el caso, declinó revelar el jueves si pediría una pena de prisión. El juez podría condenar a Trump a un máximo de cuatro años de cárcel, pero el expresidente podría ser condenado a libertad condicional, y es posible que nunca vea el interior de una celda. Su apelación podría prolongarse durante meses, o incluso más tiempo, y estará en libertad haciendo campaña por la presidencia mientras espera su castigo.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More