The New York trial in which presidential candidate Donald Trump was convicted was a sham perpetrated by the incumbent US president, Joe Biden, to strike out against a political opponent, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said.
On Thursday, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making Trump the first former president in US history to be convicted of a felony.
Prosecutors alleged that the former president illegally covered up a hush money payment that his former attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election to ensure her silence about an alleged affair from a decade prior.
Trump has denied that he had an affair with Daniels, and his legal team has said they will appeal the verdict.
The Republican presidential nominee’s fellow party members took to social media to slam the verdict.
“This was a sham show trial. The Kangaroo Court will never stand on appeal,” Greg Abbott wrote on X (formerly Twitter) early Friday. “Americans deserve better than a sitting U.S. President weaponizing our justice system against a political opponent – all to win an election,” he said, calling on voters to “fire” Joe Biden in November.
GOP member and House Speaker Mike Johnson also slammed the trial, calling it “lawfare.”
“Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon,” he said, referring to Cohen’s part in the trial. The “weaponization” of the US justice system is “a hallmark of the Biden Administration,” and “further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents,” Johnson wrote on X.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said his support for Donald Trump is “stronger than ever” following the “sham trial.”
“As Attorney General of Texas, I will unleash every tool at my disposal to fight this blatant corruption and political persecution spewing from New York and the Biden administration,” he said on X.
Even some Republicans who had previously expressed doubt about Trump’s 2024 presidential run were united in their assessment of the verdict. Senator John Cornyn endorsed Trump late last year, despite earlier suggesting that the former president will not be able to win. The “verdict is a disgrace,” he wrote on X, adding: “we need to rally around” Donald Trump, “take back the White House and Senate, and get this country back on track. The real verdict will be Election Day.”
“Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president,” President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris’ reelection campaign said in a statement following the trial. “The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater,” they wrote on X, calling for people to reject him in November.