‘If they can do this to me, they can do it to anyone,’ Trump says | Donald Trump facing justice

The day after a historic verdict, former President Donald Trump posed on Friday as a victim of political persecution, exposing a long list of grievances in a misleading and often disjointed manner. His successor, Joe Biden, for his part called for respect for the justice system.

Ridiculous, faked, very unfair : in front of large American flags, the very first former American president convicted of criminal charges brought down the trial brought against him in the State of New York in flames, during a speech with bellicose rhetoric.

If they can do this to me, they can do it to anyonehe said, repeating that he would appeal the verdict.

The candidate for the Republican nomination did not hesitate to falsely declare that the United States had slipped towards an authoritarian regime and said he was fighting to uphold the Constitution.

We live in a fascist state.

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Illegal immigration, cars, his two impeachment trials, the state of democracy, the polls, the trial: his subjects of recrimination have flown in several directions.

The Republican politician attacked the judge who presided over his trial. He looks like an angel, but he’s really the devilhe said, comparing Juan Merchan to a tyrant wading into conflicts of interest.

The prosecutors were portrayed as bad peopleof the sick people.

years”,”text”:”I’m supposed to go to prison for 187 years”}}”>I’m supposed to go to prison for 187 yearshe also lied.

Donald Trump faces a maximum prison sentence of four years per count up to 20 years; However, the sentences for this type of crime are most often concurrent, and he therefore faces a total of four years.

However, people with no criminal history typically receive shorter sentences, fines, or even supervised release.

Experts consider the scenario of imprisonment very unlikely.

Furthermore, Mr. Trump potentially contravened the order preventing him from speaking about witnesses, still in force, by attacking his former lawyer Michael Cohen, star witness for prosecutors.

Arguing that this restriction of speech prevented him from naming his former confidant, Donald Trump spoke of him as a former effective lawyer And highly competent which had revealed itself to be junk. The reference to the witness was clear, however, and the order goes further than prohibiting him from naming the witnesses.

During the trial, the judge found him in contempt of court for violating the order on ten occasions.

On Thursday, the Manhattan jury found the 77-year-old politician guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying documents to conceal a criminal conspiracy to win the election by illegal means.

After addressing the media daily from the court where he was on trial, the former president spoke in the atrium of Trump Tower, the iconic building where he announced his candidacy for his first presidential campaign, in 2015.

The event was billed as a press conference, but Donald Trump did not answer questions.

According to New York Times, television networks CNN, MSNBC and NBC, which presented the speech live, stopped broadcasting after approximately 20 minutes. The Fox News channel, favorable to the former president, broadcast it in full.

Biden calls for respect for the integrity of judicial institutions

At the start of a speech on the situation in Gaza and Israel given at the White House, President Joe Biden briefly addressed the issue of the verdict handed down the day before against his predecessor.

Avoiding commenting on the guilt of his opponent or on the accusations, he maintained that the verdict had reaffirmed the American principle that no one is above the lawa message hammered home by elected Democrats.

Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump and his allies for questioning the integrity of judicial institutions.

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It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this trial was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.

On his personal account of the social network X, he went further, claiming that Donald Trump threatens democracy. He started by questioning our electoral system. Then he called into question our judicial systemhe wrote.

In a statement, his campaign portrayed Donald Trump as a man confused, desperate and defeated.

: this man cannot be president of the United States. Unleashed since his electoral defeat2020, going into a tailspin because of his indictments, Trump is consumed by his thirst for revenge and punishment”,”text”:”Anyone who watched [le discours à la télévision] draws an obvious conclusion: this man cannot be president of the United States. Unleashed since his 2020 electoral defeat, going into a tailspin because of his indictments, Trump is consumed by his thirst for revenge and punishment”}}”>Anyone who watched [le discours à la télévision] draws an obvious conclusion: this man cannot be president of the United States. Unleashed since his 2020 electoral defeat, going into a tailspin because of his indictments, Trump is consumed by his thirst for revenge and punishmentsaid a spokesperson for the Democratic president’s campaign.

“The Supreme Court should get involved,” proclaims a Republican leader

Far from distancing themselves after the verdict, the Republicans closed ranks behind the Republican leader.

Like Donald Trump, the Republican camp has insisted in every forum that the New York trial as well as the three other criminal proceedings against the former president are motivated by political considerations and aim to block his return to the White House.

I think the Supreme Court should get involvedlaunched the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, in an interview with Fox News, regarding the guilty verdict.

Saying he personally knows some of the judges on the nation’s highest court, he said some of them also see Donald Trump as a victim of political persecution.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, a loyal ally of Mr. Trump, has for his part subpoenaed, on June 13, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who indicted the former president .

The hearing will serve to examine the actions of prosecutors in pursuing politically motivated prosecutions of federal agents, particularly the recent prosecution of President Donald Trumphe wrote to the principal concerned in a letter sent on social networks.

An unprecedented situation

Five months before the presidential election, the historic verdict, which emerges as a crucial electoral point, takes the United States into uncharted territory.

The Constitution does not prohibit a person convicted of a crime from running for president, but this is the first time a major party presidential candidate has found himself in this situation.

Opinion polls conducted before the trial indicated that a guilty verdict risked costing Donald Trump some support among independent and even Republican voters.

It will nevertheless be necessary to see what effect the verdict will actually have on voters, now that this question is no longer just hypothetical.

For the moment, Joe Biden, very unpopular, and his opponent are engaged in a close fight, despite, in particular, the legal setbacks of the former president who, against all odds, has retained for years the loyalty of a significant party of the American electorate.

More importantly, Donald Trump is outpacing the one he wants to replace in some of the key states that will determine the outcome of the election.

In the immediate future, Thursday’s developments serve as fuel for the Republican candidate to fuel his fundraising campaign.

On Friday morning, his campaign team said it had raised US$34.8 million in the wake of the verdict.

Sentence in July

On Thursday, Judge Merchan indicated that he would pass sentence on July 11. This important milestone will be reached four days before the start of the Republican convention, during which the Republicans will officially make Donald Trump their party’s presidential candidate.

The defense cannot launch appeal procedures before the sentence is pronounced.

In the three other criminal cases filed against him, Donald Trump is accused of trying to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election and of endangering national security by keeping confidential documents at his residence in Mar-a -The girlfriend.

In the opinion of experts, it is highly unlikely that these trials, slowed by a series of requests from the defense, will end in a verdict before the November election.

With information from New York Times, CNN, Reuters and Agence France-Presse