President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign says unanimous guilty verdicts Thursday in former President Trump’s criminal trial show “no one is above the law.”
Trump was found guilty by a New York jury of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his landmark case in which a former or current president was tried in court for the first time.
“Donald Trump always wrongly believed that he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement minutes after the reading of the verdict in court.
But Tyler stressed that “today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people are facing a simple reality.” There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: through the ballot box. the Republican candidate for president.
Trump found guilty on all 34 counts in his criminal case
Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Tyler asserted that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is waging an increasingly disjointed campaign of vengeance and retaliation, pledging to be a dictator “from day one” and calling for “ending” our Constitution so that he can regain and retain power. »
And he argued that “a second Trump term would mean chaos, strip Americans of their freedoms and foment political violence – and the American people will reject him this November.”
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The Biden campaign was quick to raise funds following the verdict.
“Even if a jury found Donald Trump guilty today, there is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: through the ballot box,” the Biden campaign wrote in a text fundraising campaign addressed to his supporters. “If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to make your first donation to Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, we’re here to tell you that today is the big day.”
Trump, speaking to cameras after the verdict, called it “shameful,” accused the trial of being “rigged” and said “the real verdict will be delivered on November 5th by the people,” while emphasizing his revenge in the presidential election. with Biden.
“Everything was rigged from day one, from the venue to the judge,” Trump added in an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Brooke Singman.
The former president plans to hold a press conference Friday at 11 a.m. ET.
WHAT TRUMP SAID TO FOX NEWS DIGITAL AFTER THE VERDICT
Trump was accused of falsifying business records regarding payments made during the 2016 election to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 in exchange for her silence about allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006. Prosecutors argued that amounted to to illegally seek to influence the 2016 elections.
![Trump speaks to the media](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/05/1200/675/Trump-Speech-Photo-2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Former President Trump speaks to the media on May 13, 2024, during a recess in his criminal trial in New York. (Seth Wenig/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Cohen and Daniels both testified for the prosecution and were questioned by Trump’s lawyers during cross-examination in a case that has drawn widespread attention on cable news networks, online and on social networks.
The former president has repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual relationship with Daniels, and he has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that the matter was “pursued directly from the inner corridors of the White House and the Department of Justice.
Trump was also fined several times and threatened with jail time by the judge in the case for violating a silence order intended to protect witnesses and jurors from the former president’s verbal attacks.
During the month-and-a-half-long trial, the president remained virtually silent on the matter to avoid any perception of interference. This appears to be an effort to combat Trump’s repeated and unsubstantiated claims that this is a “mock TRIAL initiated and pursued directly from the inner halls of the White House and Department of Justice.” Justice “. [Department of Justice]”
But the Biden campaign held a news conference Tuesday outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse, in what appeared to be a major departure from their strategy over the past six weeks of avoiding the case.
Similar to what the Trump campaign did throughout the trial, the Biden team brought in high-profile surrogates. They included actor and Biden supporter Robert De Niro – who voted last week in a campaign ad for the president – as well as former police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who fought back against pro-Trump rioters during the January events. September 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
The campaign’s move comes as Biden currently trails Trump, both in national polls and in public opinion surveys in most of the crucial battleground states that will likely decide their electoral revenge.
The Biden campaign says the surprise press conference could be a taste of things to come. Officials confirmed to Fox News that they would continue to “look for opportunities to get our message out.”
Two questions still remain unanswered: How aggressively will the Biden campaign call Trump a “convicted felon” and how and where will the president address the outcome of the trial? No formal remarks from Biden have been announced.