Trump becomes first US ex-President to be convicted of felony, sentencing 4 days before his nomination for re-election
Donald Trump on Thursday (May 30, 2024) became the first former US president to be convicted of a felony, as a New York grand jury found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The Biden-Harris campaign emphasised that the verdict demonstrates that no one is above the law. In contrast, Trump claimed the conviction resulted from a rigged political system.
Trump’s sentencing is set for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate to run against incumbent Joe Biden in the November elections.
“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt. It’s a rigged trial, a disgrace. They wouldn’t give us a venue change. We were at 5 percent or 6 percent in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump said shortly after the verdict was announced.
As the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump remained defiant. “The real verdict is going to be on November 5th by the people. They know what happened here. Everyone knows what happened here. You have a Soros-backed DA, and we didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man, and it’s okay, I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now,” Trump asserted.
He alleged that the Biden administration orchestrated this to harm a political opponent. “It’s a disgrace, and we’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight until the end, and we’ll win because our country has gone to hell,” he added. The Biden-Harris campaign welcomed the jury’s decision. “In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” Michael Tyler, Communications Director for Biden-Harris 2024, told the media.
