Actor Robert De Niro has weighed in on former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in his high-profile hush-money case, saying he thinks “justice was served.” Speaking to reporters on the red carpet for his new movie, “Ezra,” in New York City, De Niro said, “This is just one part of the whole picture, so I want to be very careful.” Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree in the case of New York v. Trump, which stemmed from a yearslong investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The charges were related to alleged payments made to silence adult film actor Stormy Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Trump before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the affair. De Niro said he thinks the outcome would affect the presidential election, but did not say how. He continued, “This never should have gotten to this stage… I don’t want to be talking, but I am so upset by it. I have to say something. This is my country. This guy wants to destroy it. Period. He’s crazy.” De Niro and Trump have sparred for years, with the actor holding a chaotic press conference on Tuesday outside a Manhattan courthouse where he claimed that Trump “wants to destroy” New York City and the nation and eventually could destroy the entire world. Trump shot back on Truth Social, labeling De Niro as “pathetic” and a “wacko.” In previous years, De Niro has criticized Trump in various speeches and videos. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election, De Niro said he wanted to punch Trump in the face. On Thursday’s red carpet, De Niro was also asked if he ever fears for his safety. “You think about that. It makes me more angry, but I have to be afraid to be intimidated. And that’s why I said, you’re not going to intimidate us,” De Niro said, according to Variety. “People are fed up, they’re going to fight back. That’s not what we’re about in this country.” The payments to Daniels were first revealed in January 2018 in a Wall Street Journal report that said Cohen and Daniels’ lawyer negotiated a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from publicly discussing the supposed sexual encounter with Trump. At the time, though, Cohen, Trump and even Daniels denied the arrangement. “Ezra” is a comedy drama where De Niro plays the grandfather of a stand-up comedian who has a child with autism.
Robert De Niro Reacts to Trump’s Guilty Verdict: ‘Justice Was Served’
