TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (NSF) – Florida Republican lawmakers on Thursday slammed former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, while Democrats said the verdict shows that no one is above the law.
The 12-person jury delivered the verdict after just one day of deliberation, more than a month after the start of the New York hush-money criminal trial, making Trump the first former president to be convicted of a crime after leaving office.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called the verdict a “political witch hunt,” while Florida Republican Party Chairman Evan Power accused the district attorney and judge of “making a mockery of our justice system,” claimed Democrats had “meddled an election” and said that “in the real world,” Trump is “only getting stronger.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been fundraising for Trump’s campaign since failing to win the Republican nomination, released a statement calling the charges against Trump “an alleged misdemeanor business records violation from nearly a decade ago.”
DeSantis said the lawsuit would not have moved forward if Trump had not been a defendant.
“In America, the rule of law should be applied calmly and fairly, not subject to the political agenda of duck courts,” DeSantis said in a statement posted to social media.
However, the Florida Democratic Party quickly issued a fundraising request titled “34-0.”
Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., said the verdict “shows that our justice system works.”
“No one is above the law, including former President Donald Trump, who has been indicted four times, impeached twice, incited an insurrection and now faces a felony conviction,” Wilson said in a statement.
“There was no witch hunt, there was no wrongdoing, just the application of fair justice that treated everyone equally,” Wilson added.
The ruling ended a trial in which prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office alleged that the former president conspired with associates to pay hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was a star witness in the trial. Trump was indicted last year on 34 counts of first-degree falsifying business records, a misdemeanor, making him the first sitting or former president to be criminally charged.
Adding further attention to the incident is that it occurred as Trump is campaigning to defeat President Joe Biden in November and return to the White House.
Trump’s sentence is scheduled to be handed down on July 11th.
There has been much speculation about how Trump’s conviction would affect his reelection, but recent polls suggest that for roughly two-thirds of voters, a conviction would not affect their choice in November.
At a press conference after the verdict, Trump promised to appeal and gave an impromptu speech.
“Our country is in decline. Serious decline,” he said. “We have millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and psychiatric hospitals. Terrorists are trying to take over our country. Our country has big problems. But this was a rigged decision from the start. We have a conflicted judge who should never have been allowed to try this case. We will fight for the Constitution. This is far from over.”
The Trump campaign also attempted to use the ruling to raise funds, sending emails to supporters saying, “I was just convicted in a rigged political witch hunt trial. I did nothing wrong! … But with your help at this moment in history, we can take back the White House and make America great again.”
In a statement, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler echoed a reaction widely shared by Democrats in the wake of the ruling, including New York Attorney General Letitia James: “No one is above the law.”
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed that he could break the law for his own personal gain and not face punishment,” Tyler said. “But today’s verdict does not change the simple reality facing the American people: the only way to keep Donald Trump from the Oval Office remains the ballot box. With or without a conviction, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”
The verdict marked a victory for Bragg, who responded simply with a short tweet saying, “Today a jury found Donald J. Trump guilty of all 34 felony counts.”
—Annie McDonough, Peter Stern and Rebecca C. Lewis are reporters for City & State New York, a sister publication of The News Service of Florida.
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