Less than 24 hours after being He was found guilty of 34 serious crimesDonald Trump stood against a backdrop of American flags, ready to get weeks of frustration off his chest.
In his defense at a press conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Friday, the pugilistic former president unloaded 40 minutes of comments riddled with errors and distortions.
The incident was the beginning of a new reality: Trump is now the first former president to be tried for a crime.
“It’s all done by Biden and his people,” Trump said, opening the news conference, without evidence to directly blame President Joe Biden for his legal problems. “Washington is doing it. No one has seen anything like this.”
After the New York jury found Trump He is found guilty of all 34 crimes Trump used the Truth Social platform to express his displeasure over her alleged falsification of business records surrounding payments to an adult film star during the 2016 election, once again calling her prosecution a “witch hunt.” In another fundraising email, he referred to himself as a “political prisoner.”
But the press conference offered Trump his first opportunity to air the grievances widely.
He called Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg a “failure” and once again called Judge Juan Merchan “conflicted.”
Trump would not discuss the perceived conflict, saying he could not do so because of the gag order Merchan had previously given him in court. (Trump and his allies have gone after Mercha in the past $15 donation He gave it to Biden in 2020, and the judge’s daughter’s work with the Democratic group.)
The gag order prevented Trump from speaking publicly about witnesses, jurors, court staff and other attorneys (except Bragg) and all their family members, but it did not prevent Merca from talking about himself.
“I’m not allowed to talk about it,” Trump said of the perceived conflict. “No one has ever been so contradictory.”
Trump He violated traffic rules 10 times during the trial, he was fined $10,000 and Merchan threatened him with jail time.
Trump also claimed he wanted to testify, but ultimately did not over concerns that he would be perjuring himself. On Friday, he justified the decision by saying that even George Washington would never testify on his own behalf.
“I would testify. I wanted to testify. The theory is that you never testify,” Trump said. “If it was George Washington, don’t testify. Because they will understand something you said a little wrong.
He also called his former attorney, Michael Cohen, a key witness for the prosecution, a “bump bag,” but again did not use his name directly, citing the gag order. Cohen was Trump’s longtime attorney, but he turned to his former boss and ended up He is serving 13 months in prison After pleading guilty in 2018 to lying to Congress and campaign finance charges related to his work for Trump.
Trump also veered into a theme he had been promoting throughout the campaign, portraying himself as a victim of a rigged system out to get him and anyone who supports him.
“This is a situation where if they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody,” Trump said, opening his speech. “These are bad people.”
Trump also said he could serve up to 187 years in prison, but Some legal experts told NBC News because of his age, lack of criminal record, and other factors, he has a good chance of not being arrested at all. Although each count carries a four-year term, any sentences are expected to be served concurrently rather than consecutively.
Shortly after Trump’s guilty verdicts were read, the expected political battle lines were drawn.
A vocal group of Democrats and Republicans quickly turned against Trump took victory lapswhile declaring that justice had been served, Trump’s already dense Republican base he became even more angry what they saw as political persecution and promised to take revenge.
Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., said Republican law enforcement officials “must be busy.”
“It’s time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” Collins placed On X.
After Trump’s press conference on Friday, Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement that “Trump is consumed by his own thirst for vengeance and revenge.”
“America has just witnessed a confused, desperate and defeated Donald Trump, with his personal grievances and lies about the American justice system, followed by one clear conclusion: This man cannot be president of the United States,” he said.
However, there were concrete signs that a guilty conviction would further strengthen his political base, as Trump had predicted.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee said the ruling led to a historic level of fundraising for the GOP operation — more than $34.8 million. It was lifted in the hours between the verdict and midnight on Thursday. While the numbers could not be independently verified due to delays in campaign finance reporting requirements, an RNC spokeswoman told NBC News that the total represented what Trump’s joint fundraising committee with the RNC raised through WinRed, an online fundraising platform.
“Minutes after the false conviction was announced, our digital fundraising system was flooded with support, and despite temporary delays online due to traffic volume, President Trump raised $34.8 million from small dollar donors,” the statement said. Trump campaign officials.
There are also signs that the party’s biggest rainmakers are ready to rally around Trump.
After the sentencing, Trump attended a Manhattan fundraiser organized by Pepe Fanjul, a South Florida sugar baron and longtime major Republican donor, according to a campaign official.
Sequoia Capital hedge fund partner Shawn McGuire, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, also announced that he donated $300,000 to Trump’s election campaign.
“Back in 2016, I was drinking media Kook-Aid and lost my mind about Trump,” he wrote on X.
“Now, in 2024, I believe this is one of the most important elections of my life and I support Trump,” he said.