WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers reacted with immediate anger Thursday when a jury in New York convicted former President Donald Trump on 34 charges of falsifying corporate records to influence the 2016 election. it was carried out.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was a “shameful day in American history” and that the charges were “purely political.” Senator JD Vance of Ohio said the verdict was a “disgrace to the justice system.” And Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, said the decision was “a defeat for Americans who believe in the critical legal principle that justice is blind.”
Within minutes of the verdict being read, Republicans, who have historically been divided over support for their presumptive Republican presidential nominee, found common ground in their attack — with few details — on the judge, the jury and the president. Joe Biden, even though the conviction stemmed from state charges in a Manhattan court. As the nation’s top federal official, Biden has no say in what happens in the New York City courtroom.
The jury found that Trump falsified his records in a scheme to influence his presidential election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said she had sex with Trump. The Republican response echoed the language of Trump, who said after the verdict was announced — and has said repeatedly throughout the proceedings — that it was a “rigged, disgraceful trial.” It is expected that he will appeal soon.
The intensity of the outrage was remarkable, pushing aside the usual restrictions that lawmakers and political figures have observed in the past when refraining from criticizing judges and juries. A lone Republican voice, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, took that approach, saying before the verdict that the public should “respect the verdict and the legal process.”
“At this dangerously divisive moment in our history, all leaders – regardless of party – must not add fuel to the fire with more toxic partisanship,” Hogan, who is running for Senate in Maryland, said before the verdict was announced. “We must reaffirm what made this nation great: the rule of law.”
There are no indications that the process has been manipulated. But Trump’s defense has complained about a $15 donation Judge Juan Manuel Merchan made to Biden in 2020 and about his daughter’s job as a Democratic political adviser. The judge rejected Trump’s lawyers’ request for a recusal, saying he was confident in his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Still, Republicans have seized on Trump’s attacks on the judiciary and the system in the New York trial and three other cases, local and federal charges in Atlanta and Washington that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election, and a federal indictment in Florida accusing him of illegally keeping top secret data after his presidency. Many Republican lawmakers, including Johnson, have visited the courthouse to support him.
“This verdict says more about the system than the charges,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s most frequent allies.
The verdict made Trump the first former president to be convicted of a felony. And it comes as nearly all Republican lawmakers in Congress strongly backed him in this year’s elections.
“Congratulations, progressives,” said Senator Mike Lee of Utah. “You just guaranteed Trump’s election.”
Republicans shared their criticism, which came as Congress left Washington for a weeklong recess, in posts on X, formerly Twitter, in press releases and TV appearances. And the response came not just from Trump’s Republican friends, but also from some of his opponents.
Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who distanced himself from the former president after the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, said: “This verdict is a disgrace and this trial should never have happened.”
“Now more than ever, we must rally behind @realdonaldtrump, take back the White House and the Senate, and get this country back on track,” said Cornyn, who is running to replace Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell replaced when he resigns from the government. post after the November elections. “The real judgment will be Election Day.”
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate who is also a candidate for leadership and has also been critical of Trump, said the case “was politically motivated from the start, and today’s verdict does nothing to to negate the partisan nature of the case.” this persecution.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Republican who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial after the attack on the Capitol, said he disagreed with the verdict but was not surprised “given the way the defense was conducted , the process was managed.”
There was no response to the verdict from McConnell, who has long had a tense relationship with Trump but recently supported the former president’s 2024 campaign.
As expected, Democrats were happy — and tried to blunt the Republican Party’s attacks on the trial.
“Trump tomboys are going to attack the jury and the court because they have a plan to dismantle our democracy and it depends on everyone believing the justice system is rigged,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. ‘That’s not it. Donald Trump has committed a crime. He got caught. He was convicted. That is the rule of law.”
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
