Convicted Felon Trump: The Historic Verdict & GOP's Authoritarian Response
Convicted Felon Trump: The Historic Verdict & GOP's Authoritarian Response
A jury of Donald Trump's peers has convicted him on 34 criminal counts, making him the first former president to become a convicted felon, and igniting a reckless Republican promise of retribution.
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Former President Donald Trump was stonefaced in anticipation of the jury deciding his fate.
The room was silent as the jury foreperson began to read the verdict. Count 1: “Guilty.” Count 2: “Guilty.” “Guilty. Guilty. Guilty….” Count after count, all 34, was read out to the court, and history was made.
Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg had a front-row seat to Trump’s facial expression. Rosenberg told The New York Times that as the verdict was read, Trump closed his eyes and shook his head ‘no.’
The city that made Trump who he is just made him the first former president in American history to be a convicted felon.
A jury of 12 of Donald Trump’s peers found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records. The jury clearly believed the prosecution’s argument that Trump’s falsification of business records was done in an effort to cover up a criminal election conspiracy. As I’ve written before, this was really an election interference case.
Trump’s political playbook of denial and attack didn’t work in criminal court. Trump’s lawyers denied Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels in their opening statement and attacked Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, throughout the trial. The defense didn’t give the jury a coherent story to counter the prosecution’s case, which relied on documentary evidence that was bolstered by witnesses like former American Media Inc. (AMI) CEO David Pecker and Michael Cohen himself.
While Trump was falsely accusing Hillary Clinton of being a criminal in 2016, he was actively engaging in a criminal conspiracy that would later lead to his legal downfall.
Donald Trump, who has spent his entire life evading accountability, has finally faced his most severe consequence yet.
Trump, the current presumptive Republican nominee for president, is now the first former president in history to be a convicted felon, the first to be twice-impeached, the first to be found civilly liable for sexual abuse, the first to have been found liable for fraud, and the first to try and overturn an election.
Trump can’t pardon himself since these are state crimes. Unless it’s overturned on appeal, Trump will have the title of “convicted felon” for the rest of his life.
This is not proof of an unjust, weaponized system, as Trump and his defenders claim. It’s actually proof that no one, not even the President of the United States, is above the law. In this case, the system worked the way it was designed.
Immediately after the verdict was issued on Thursday, Trump’s allies rushed to his defense. In a desperate display of authoritarian loyalty, Republican lawmakers and right-wing media figures wasted no time in attacking the justice system, promising retribution, defaming the jury, and discussing retaliatory measures.
First, election denialism was the Trump GOP loyalty test. Now, it’s conviction denialism.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) falsely called the conviction “a purely political exercise” and the result of a “weaponization of our justice system.”
This was not, in fact, a weaponization of our justice system. Unlike what many Republicans are claiming, President Biden had nothing to do with this. This was Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, and these were actually crimes that were committed. This verdict is the consequence of Donald Trump’s actions. He is not a victim.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tweeted, “These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.” Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) echoed this sentiment in a longer statement.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) went further, organizing a letter signed alongside 7 fellow Republican Senators, claiming they will no longer cooperate with any Democratic legislative priorities or nominations.
Vice Presidential hopefuls have also joined the performative Loyalty Olympics. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) called for an investigation into Judge Merchan’s family. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) called the conviction an “absolute injustice” in a cringey video he posted on Twitter/X. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called the proceedings a “political show trial” and sent another post declaring, “Don’t just get angry about this travesty, get even!”
Other right-wing figures have more directly called for the jailing of Trump’s political targets in retaliation to this. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) posted an upside-down flag, mimicking the flag that was flown at the January 6 insurrection and at the home of right-wing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Meanwhile, far-right extremists have called for violence in reaction to the verdict.
In an act of amoral opportunism, Republicans have assembled in a disinformation-fueled phalanx, giving fodder to Trump’s worst authoritarian impulses and fueling extremist sentiments.
This is only a preview of the kind of retribution Trump and his allies will unleash if they take the Senate and the White House in 2025.
What we’re seeing is a foundation of disinformation being laid to justify authoritarianism in a second Trump term. The GOP is falsely accusing Biden of weaponizing the justice system to justify their plans for Trump to actually weaponize the justice system if he wins re-election.
Trump ramped up the false narratives in unscripted remarks he might regret.
On Friday morning, Trump delivered remarks at Trump Tower, which were streamed live not only on Fox News but on networks like MSNBC and CNN as well. People who might usually never see Trump's rallies were being reminded of exactly how unhinged he is.
Trump, who looked disheveled and angry, used this opportunity to spew an unmitigated stream of lies.
Trump called Judge Juan Merchan, who will be deciding Trump’s sentence, a devil. Trump also called Michael Cohen a “sleazebag,” a blatant violation of his gag order. I'm sure Trump’s team is regretting removing the teleprompter ahead of his remarks.
In a nutshell, the remarks were over 30 minutes of rambling. He is clearly rattled by the conviction, despite his allies claiming this is a good thing for his re-election campaign.
Everything Trump said can be taken into consideration at sentencing. Judges typically weigh whether the defendant has shown remorse. Judge Merchan, who Trump just called "a devil," certainly isn't seeing any remorse from this defendant.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 11. It’s unclear whether or not Trump will serve jail time, but it’s clear that he’s only making his sentence worse by showing no remorse for his actions.
When it comes to how this will impact Trump politically, in spite of his best efforts to pretend this will help his political campaign, data indicates it will do the opposite.
New polling shows Trump’s support being slightly weakened by a criminal conviction. Perhaps more importantly, in primary after primary, over 30% of Republican primary voters said that Trump would be unfit to serve as President if he’s convicted.
As I wrote in my coverage of the Republican primaries, 37% of Virginia GOP primary voters, 30% of North Carolina GOP primary voters, 36% of South Carolina GOP primary voters, 42% of New Hampshire GOP primary voters, and 31% of Iowa GOP caucus voters said Trump wouldn’t be fit to be President if he’s convicted of a crime.
This clearly matters to voters at the margins. How can we in the media make this matter even more?
I don’t think we should let the abnormality of Trump’s authoritarian support from his party absolve him of the pressure a normal politician would face after becoming a convicted felon.
If a Democratic presumptive nominee became a convicted felon before the convention, they’d face near-universal calls to drop out of the race - unanimously from Republicans, even some Democrats, and constant questions from the media about whether they should drop out.
Let’s not give in to Trump’s reality distortion field. He can’t wish this away with conviction denialism. Trump should face the same pressure even if his party has devolved into authoritarian sycophancy.
I also think we in the media need to treat the Republican response as the disgraceful display that it is.
The fact that the Republican Party is assembling behind a convicted felon and spreading lies targeting the judge and the jury is a shameful scandal and should be treated as such. It shouldn’t be treated as acceptable just because their behavior is shameless.
We all have a lot of work to do ahead of November 5. But for this week, I think we can all take solace in the fact that this verdict adds to the long list of losses that increasingly make this year look like a downfall and not a comeback for the former president.
