President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign says the unanimous guilty verdicts Thursday in former President Trump’s criminal trial show that “no one is above the law.”
Trump was found guilty by a jury in New York City on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in his history-making case in which a former or current president for the first time was tried in court.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed 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 verdict was read in court.
But Tyler emphasized that “today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
TRUMP FOUND GUILTY OF ALL 34 COUNTS IN HIS CRIMINAL CASE
Former President Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024, in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
Tyler charged that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power.”
And he argued that “a second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TRUMP CRIMINAL TRAIL
The Biden campaign was also quick to fundraiser off the verdict.
“Despite a jury finding Donald Trump guilty today, there is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” the Biden campaign wrote in a fundraising text to supporters. “If you have been waiting for the perfect time to make your first donation to Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, we’re here to tell you today is the day.”
Trump, speaking to cameras following the verdict, called it “disgraceful,” charged that the trial was “rigged,” and said the “real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” as he pointed to his presidential election rematch with Biden.
“The whole thing 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 news conference at 11am ET on Friday.
WHAT TRUMP TOLD FOX NEWS DIGITAL FOLLOWING THE VERDICT
Trump was charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments during the 2016 election that he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress. Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 in return for her silence about allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006. Prosecutors argued that this amounted to illegally seeking to influence the 2016 election.
Former President Trump speaks to the media on May 13, 2024, during a break in his criminal trial in New York City. (Seth Wenig/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Both Cohen and Daniels testified for the prosecution and were grilled by Trump’s attorneys during cross-examination in a case that has grabbed tons of attention on the cable news networks, online and on social media.
The former president repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels, and he has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that the case was “prosecuted directly from the inner halls of the White House and DOJ.”
Trump was also fined a couple of times and threatened with jail by the judge in the case for violating a gag order aimed at protecting witnesses and jurors from the former president’s verbal attacks.
During the course of the month and a half trial, the president stayed mostly silent regarding the case to avoid any perceptions of interference. It appeared to be an effort to combat Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated allegations that it was a “SHAM TRIAL instigated and prosecuted directly from the inner halls of the White House and DOJ [Department of Justice].”
But the Biden campaign on Tuesday held a news conference outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, which appeared to be a major break with their strategy over the past six weeks of steering clear of the case.
Similar to what the Trump campaign had been doing for the duration of the trial, the Biden team came equipped with high-profile surrogates. They were actor and Biden supporter Robert De Niro – who last week voiced a campaign ad for the president – and former police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who fought back against pro-Trump rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The move by the campaign came as Biden currently trails Trump both in national polling and in public opinion surveys in most of the crucial battleground states that will likely decide their election rematch.
The Biden campaign says the surprise news conference may be a taste of things to come. Officials confirmed to Fox News they will continue “to look for opportunities to drive our message.”
Two questions have yet to be answered: how aggressively will the Biden campaign label 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.
