Trump’s trial was a SHAM says ex-staffer as he vows to struggle verdict

Donald Trump’s trial was a ‘sham’ and he will fight the guilty verdict, his supporters and advisors have said, after the ex-president became the first in US history to be convicted of a felony.

The Manhattan jury found the former President guilty of all 34 charges he was facing of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to former porn star, Stormy Daniels.

The felonies could land Trump in jail for a maximum of four years when he is sentenced by Judge Juan Merchan on July 11, though legal experts anticipate that he is more likely to get a hefty fine.

The Republican presidential candidate has slammed the trial as a ‘disgrace’ and ‘rigged by a conflicted judge’, claims he has not provided evidence to support, and has vowed to fight the conviction.

Now, a chorus of Trump’s supporters have backed his claims – labelling the trial a political witch hunt and ‘show trial’ staged by the Biden camp ahead of November’s US election.

Brian Lanza, Trump’s former communications director, said he was ‘not surprised at the verdict’ due to Manhattan being a predominantly blue county.

‘It’s Manhattan, it’s New York, this is a place that’s sort of stretched the law to try to go after Trump,’ he told the BBC’s Today Programme.

‘They picked a jury that was… you know you call it a representation of your peers but any place that is 92 per cent democrat is truly not a representation of Donald Trump‘s peers.’

Despite his former boss’s conviction, Lanza, who remains a Trump supporter, said he remained a strong contender in the presidential race and argued he may even have been strengthened further in the eyes of voters.

‘Do people see this trial and walk away with a negative impression of how it’s been operated, I think you have to say yes,’ he told the BBC, arguing that the former president’s popularity had increased since the trial began.

Trump’s legal team has indicated that he will appeal, having argued that it was impossible to compile an unbiased jury in a city that voted overwhelmingly against him in 2020.

‘They wouldn’t give us a venue change,’ Trump said in a furious speech outside the courthouse following the verdict. ‘This was done by the Biden administration in order to remove and to hurt opponents.’

Last week, a panel of New York State appellate judges denied Trump’s appeal to the trial, which had already been underway for six weeks, out of Manhattan to another New York county.

While Trump complained about not being allowed to move venue, commentators pointed out that the venue was set in Manhattan as the charges fell within its jurisdiction.

Trials can, on occasion, be changed to another county or district. One reason this could be for, according to the American Bar Association, is if a case has received widespread pre-trial publicity and one of the parties makes a request for change to secure jurors who haven t already formed an opinion about the case.

Trump and his campaign had been preparing for a guilty verdict for days, even as they held out hope for a hung jury. On Tuesday, Trump railed that not even Mother Teresa, the nun and saint, could beat the charges, which he repeatedly labeled as ‘rigged.’ 

‘There is nobody who is more defiant,’ said Trump spokesman Jason Miller on Fox News hours after the verdict was read. ‘He’s ready to get out there and start fighting again.’ 

Trump’s daughter Ivanka made a show of support last night as she posted a throwback picture of her as a baby sitting with her father with the caption ‘I love you dad’.

Texas governor Greg Abbott hit out at it a ‘Kangaroo Court’ with a verdict that he said ‘will never stand on appeal’.

‘Americans deserve better than a sitting US President weaponizing our justice system against a political opponent— all to win an election,’ he said in a tirade on social media, adding ‘we must FIRE Joe Biden in November.’

Responding to last night’s news, Biden wrote on social media: “There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box.’

Meanwhile Trump’s former political opponent Hilary Clinton appeared to react to the news as she spoke at an event in Washington DC yesterday, joking ‘anything going on today?’ as she took to the stage.

It comes after talk show host Megyn Kelly predicted ‘tit-for-tat’ indictments of anyone from President Joe Biden and his wife Jill to former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

‘This is ridiculous. What a sad day. The country’s been disgraced. That’s what’s happened,’ she began.

‘We made it almost 250 years without doing this. And now, because of falsified business records, we’ve convicted as a felon a former president of the US.’

As the verdict was read yesterday, GOP allies rallied to Trump’s side. One text message called him a ‘political prisoner,’ even though he hasn’t yet found out if he will be sentenced to prison. 

The campaign also began selling black ‘Make America Great Again’ caps to reflect a ‘dark day in history.’

Aides reported an immediate rush of contributions so intense that WinRed, the platform the campaign uses for fundraising, crashed.

Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes cited the outpouring as a sign ‘that Americans have seen this sham trial as the political election interference that Biden and Democrats have always intended.’