Donald Trump has begged the Supreme Court to intervene after he was convicted on 34 counts in his hush money trial.
Trump became the first former president in US history to be criminally convicted on Thursday after he was found guilty of falsifying business records in order to conceal hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, in exchange for her silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter, in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
The payment was part of an election conspiracy to kill negative stories about Trump’s alleged affairs that threatened to derail his 2016 presidential campaign.
The former president denied the affair and all the charges against him, telling reporters outside the courtroom that he was a “very innocent man”.
Since then, he has continued to criticize the trial, arguing that the Supreme Court should intervene.
He wrote on his Truth Social platform: “The “Sentencing” for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention. A Radical Left Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of “I will get Trump,” reporting to an “Acting” Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation? The United States Supreme Court MUST DECIDE!”
Republican speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson made similar comments on Fox News’ Fox & Friends breakfast show last week, calling the trial “unprecedented” and “dangerous to our system”.
“I do believe the Supreme Court should step in. Obviously this is totally unprecedented, and it’s dangerous to our system,” Johnson said.
“This is diminishing the American people’s faith in our system of justice itself and, to maintain a republic, you have to have that, people have to believe that justice is fair, that there’s equal justice under law,” he added.
“They don’t see that right now and I think that the justices on the court – I know many of them personally – I think they’re deeply concerned about that, as we are.
“So I think they’ll set this straight, but it’s going to take a while.”
Trump has said he plans to appeal last week’s verdict, which could, in theory, see the case end up in the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.
However, it is unclear if this will happen. Trump’s defense attorney, Todd Blanche, told CBS that he thinks an appeal would have “a lot of merit”.
“We think we’re going to win on appeal,” he added. Meanwhile, he told CNN on Thursday that Trump had not received a fair hearing, arguing that it was not possible to assemble an impartial jury in Manhattan and that it had not been “normal” to bring a case concerning events that occurred eight years ago.
He also suggested that Trump’s appeal of the conviction might center on those accusations of bias, the location of the trial, its timing during a US election year and the salacious testimony of Ms Daniels.
Trump is set to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, at which he will, presumably, be invited to formally accept the party’s nomination.
The US Constitution does not prohibit convicted felons from being president, meaning he could, in theory, serve his next term of office from prison.
Trump could face up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of the 34 counts. However, it is unlikely his sentence will include jail time, according to legal experts.