Biden Campaign Celebrates Trump’s Guilty Verdict

The Biden-Harris campaign released a statement on Thursday celebrating the Manhattan jury’s guilty verdict in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.

The jury, which began deliberations on Wednesday after closing arguments, convicted Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments received by porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election. The charges were brought by Manhattan Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and the trial was overseen by Judge Juan Merchan, who donated to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” the statement from Biden Campaign Communications Director Michael Tyler began. “Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.”

The Biden-Harris campaign then claimed that Trump was running on a platform of seeking revenge against his political opponents and “pledging to be a dictator.

“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater,” the statement added. “He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedom and fomenting political violence — and the American people will reject it this November.

Judge Merchan scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11, meaning the final decision from Merchan in the hush-money case that has kept Trump off the campaign trail for much of the past month will come just four days before the Republican National Convention, where Trump is set to be nominated.