- Author, Bernd Debusmann Jr.
- Role, BBC News, Washington
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Donald Trump said his historic trial and criminal conviction were “very hard” on his wife, former first lady Melania Trump.
Jurors last week found Mr. Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal secret payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
With this verdict, he became the first American president to be convicted of a crime. He has repeatedly called the trial rigged and politically motivated.
In an interview with Fox News this weekend, Mr Trump vowed that success in the upcoming US election in November would be his “revenge”.
He is scheduled to be sentenced July 11 and plans to appeal the conviction.
Speaking to Fox on Sunday, Mr Trump said his legal battle in New York had been particularly difficult for his wife.
The trial included lurid details of the alleged meeting between Mr. Trump and Ms. Daniels.
Details included Mr Trump greeting her in silk pajamas in her hotel suite and Ms Daniels’ claims that he was not wearing protection when they allegedly had sex.
In her testimony, Ms. Daniels also claimed that Mr. Trump and his wife slept in different beds.
“She’s doing well, but I think it’s very hard on her,” Mr. Trump said of his wife, adding that “in many ways it’s harder on them.” [his family] “that it’s me.”
Under New York law, each of the 34 counts on which Mr Trump was convicted could result in up to four years in prison – although this is not considered a likely outcome.
In his Fox interview, Mr. Trump acknowledged the possibility of being imprisoned, saying he was “okay with it” but was “not sure the public would accept it.”
“I think it would be difficult for the public to accept,” he said. “You know, at some point there’s a breaking point.”
In another interview published over the weekend, the woman at the heart of the New York case – former adult film actress Stormy Daniels – said she was “shocked” by how quickly the jury reached a verdict.
In her first public remarks since the convictions, Ms. Daniels told British newspaper The Mirror that she believed Mr. Trump “should be sentenced to prison and community service for the less fortunate.”
“Or be the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter,” she added.
Even after the sentencing, Ms Daniels said the case was “not over” for her.
“For me, this will never be over,” she said. “Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with this legacy.”
Mr. Trump still faces dozens of other charges in three other criminal cases, including a case in Georgia in which he is accused of conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat to President Joe Biden in that state in the election. 2020. This case is currently blocked on appeal.
In Florida – where he faces a federal case for his alleged mishandling of classified documents – a judge postponed the trial indefinitely, saying that setting a date before resolving questions about the evidence would be “unwise.”