“Everything comes from the White House”

Using the same argument that he has been repeating for months, dogged by various court cases, Donald Trump has turned Trump Tower into a stage outside the Manhattan court from which he has defended his innocence. This is the explanation the magnate has given that he refused to give before the New York jury that this Thursday found him guilty in a criminal trial, in his case on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records related to payments to the porn actress Stormy Daniels to save his presidential race in 2016.

“We live in a fascist state,” said Trump, who has no hesitation in pointing to the current president: “This is organized by Biden and his people.” Once again, Trump has presented himself as a political “martyr” who is being persecuted by “the powers that be in Washington.” “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anybody,” the Republican candidate said in a lengthy speech.

The former president has said that his legal team is going to appeal the verdict, which he has described as a “scandal”. Among his reasons for doing so, he cited: “They did not allow us to bring witnesses, they did not allow us to speak, they did not allow us to do anything. The judge was a tyrant,” he concluded, pointing to Judge Juan Merchan, who has presided over the court and against whom he has attacked on several occasions in reference to sanctions (gag order) which he imposed on him so that he would not attack witnesses in the case.

The amount of fine Trump will have to pay for his crimes will not be known until July 11. Although the maximum sentence he could be sentenced to is four years in prison, it is unlikely that the judge will impose it and the tycoon will end up behind bars, as he has no criminal record.

As his defense did during closing arguments, Trump has reiterated that there was no manipulation of the Trump Organization’s records when he recorded the payment under the concept of “legal expense.” “I made a legal payment to an attorney and kept it by correctly marking it on the books as a ‘legal expense.’ Paying an attorney is a ‘legal expense’ on the books, nothing more. That’s what they call documentary falsification. A legal expense that was recorded as a legal expense. “That’s why they want to send me to jail.”

Once again, the now convicted former president has claimed that his trial was “rigged”. “It was a rigged trial. We wanted a change in the venue, where we could have a fair trial. We did not understand that. We wanted a change in the judge, we wanted a judge who had no controversies, and apparently he did not do that (…) Nobody has ever seen anything like this,” the former US president said. At the door of the courtroom, as he heard the judge’s ruling, he said that the trial was “rigged and a great shame.” “The real verdict (in the presidential election) will be given by the people of the United States on November 5,” he added.

This great man has repeatedly argued that this lawsuit is a conspiracy by the Democrats to interfere with his presidential candidacy, despite the fact that there is no evidence of this. This Friday he reiterated it again: “So that you can understand, this is all done by Biden and his people, probably by his people, more importantly, I don’t know if Biden knows much about it, because I don’t know if he knows anything, but without saying “But he is the president, so we have to use his name, and it’s done by Washington, and nobody has ever seen anything like it.”

Trump has also said that the judge and court in the case are “in perfect harmony with the White House and the DOJ (Department of Justice).” However, the case was brought by Manhattan’s elected district attorney, who is not accountable to the federal government. “Everything comes from the White House. Corrupt Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country. He’s the worst president in the history of our country, the most incompetent, he’s the stupidest president we’ve ever had. He’s the stupidest president, the most incompetent, and he’s the most dishonest president we’ve ever had,” he reiterated.

Donations to his campaign continue to rise

Soon after the guilty verdict was announced, donations to Trump’s political campaign for the presidential election totaled $34.8 million in just a few hours, breaking all records, a statement from the organization’s campaign team said this morning. These donations were actually almost double the largest donation ever recorded on the WinRed platform, and came primarily from what they call micro-donations, or contributions of a few dollars.

When Trump was charged with four criminal counts, including the New York case for which he has now been found guilty, it had no effect on the election polls. The former president has continued to lead popularity polls ahead of the November 5 elections, even in states that will be crucial in determining who will be the new White House occupant. Trump has long been able to avoid scandals that would have sunk any other politician, but now it is not an indictment, but a guilty verdict. With Trump convicted, the election campaign has moved (even further) into hitherto uncharted territory.

Even before the conviction was known, several surveys had been published about what voters would do if Trump were convicted. For example, an NPR/PBS poll showed that two out of three Americans (67%) said the Republican’s conviction would not affect their voting intentions. Now, it’s one thing to make a statement about events that have occurred and quite another to confirm that you want a man who has been convicted of a criminal offense to be president.

As he has done other times, Trump will once again try to use his crime as a weapon to consolidate the support of his followers. Most likely, the bulk of the MAGA ranks will not be affected by this decision, but they will not be the voters who will make the difference in November. One of the groups that holds the key is independent voters, whose support Republicans are trying to gain.