Trump says he will appeal guilty verdict in hush money case

Donald Trump, who on Thursday became the first former president of the United States pleaded guilty on a charge of falsifying business records, said Friday that he will appeal the verdict.

“We’re going to appeal this scam,” Trump told a crowd of reporters and supporters at Trump Tower in New York, a day after the historic verdict on criminal charges.

In remarks in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, where he announced his first presidential bid in 2015, Trump repeated his complaints without providing evidence that the trial was an attempt to hinder his return to the White House and warned that it showed that no American was safe from politically motivated prosecution.

“If they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone,” Trump said in a 33-minute impromptu speech. Applauded by his supporters, Trump, the leading Republican candidate for the 2024 elections, did not respond to journalists’ questions.

Shortly after Trump’s intervention, President Joe Biden said that this verdict “reaffirmed the American principle that no one is above the law,” while insisting on the reliability of a judicial system that will allow Trump to appeal the decision, “just like everyone else has that opportunity” in the US.

“This is how the American justice system works. And it is reckless, dangerous, it is irresponsible for anyone to say that this was rigged, just because you don’t like the verdict,” Biden reacted from the White House in an intervention before journalists, where he also defended the jury “made up of ordinary citizens” and remarked that “Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself.”

Thursday’s guilty verdict catapults the United States into uncharted territory ahead of the Nov. 5 vote, when Trump, 77, will try to take back the White House from the leadership of Democrat Joe Biden, 81.

The charge on which Trump was convicted: falsification of business records, carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Others convicted of that crime typically receive shorter sentences, fines or probation, but the judge in the case said during jury selection that Trump faces possible prison time.

Imprisonment would not prevent Trump from campaigning or taking office if he won.

Trump will not be jailed before his sentencing, which comes just days before the Republican Party formally nominates him as its presidential candidate at its convention in Milwaukee.

[Con información de Reuters]

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