Former President Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in New York on Thursday. The unprecedented conviction marks a dark chapter in the history of the American criminal justice system, according to legal experts. Trump is now the first former president to ever be convicted of a crime. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and could face prison time.
Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz has called the conviction an “absolute joke” and warned that it could lead to a “war of weaponization” of the criminal justice system. Trump’s critics argue that the conviction was delivered by a jury of his peers and that Trump was presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Trump and his supporters maintain that the conviction was the product of a blatantly political prosecution. They point to the fact that the case was brought by Democrat District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who campaigned on a pledge to “get Trump,” and that the judge, Juan Merchan, previously donated $35 to an anti-Trump political committee.
The Assistant Attorney General has denied any political motives and said that his office “did their job.” The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury. And the jury has spoken.
However, Staten Island criminal defense attorney Louis Gelmorino said that Bragg and other Democratic officials should have recused themselves from the case because of the campaign promises they made to prosecute Trump.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump reacts as the verdict is read in his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Manhattan state court in New York City, on May 30, 2024 in this courtroom sketch.
James had called Trump a “con man” and “carnival barker” and promised to shine a “bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings” before she was elected in 2018. She led a successful prosecution of the Trump Organization for fraud by falsely inflating the value of its assets.
Willis brought charges against Trump and 14 co-defendants in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. After winning the Democratic primary for her office in March, she said “the train is coming” for Trump and his co-defendants.
“It’s quite obvious they are using the law to prevent Trump from running for office,” said Gelormino. He criticized Bragg’s prosecutorial decisions in New York, noting the district attorney has taken a soft approach towards violent crime while ferociously pursuing Trump.
David Gelman, a New Jersey-based criminal defense attorney and a former deputy district attorney, said anyone who looks at how the Trump case was handled in New York and doesn’t think it was “weaponized” against Trump is “lying to themselves”.
“This is the first time in New York an individual has ever been tried for this type of crime. Is it a coincidence that it happened to President Trump smack-dab in the middle of a presidential campaign where he is the front-runner?” he asked. “I think not.”
