Voice that matters
is the voice of the jury.
And the jury has spoken
just minutes ago.
The Manhattan D A spoke to the media for the first time since a New York jury
reached a historic verdict this afternoon in former President
Donald Trump's so called hush money criminal trial.
Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts.
He is now the first former US president to be convicted of felony crimes.
It's a decision. The former president is blasting, calling it rigged and a disgrace
here now to break down the verdict and
what comes next is legal and political analyst,
Wendy Patrick, thanks for being with us.
Thank you Patrick on such short notice.
You know, first, let's just
acknowledge that statement first. He's called it rigged in a disgrace
watching how
this legal process played out. Is that a fair description of what we saw take place?
Well, what we saw take place is the jury doing what they do.
They, this was a jury box, not filled with fans but fact finders.
So their role was very different than perhaps the role
of the American public in the voting system is they were
exposed to a closed universe of information and it was on
that basis that they went in the back and boy,
it came to a pretty swift decision by all, by all accounts.
But I think what the president
the same with the former president is saying,
he's complained about the system in general for a very long time
and he's made the same statements about all four criminal proceedings.
Now, of course, that only leaves three of them,
although he'll no doubt appeal this one.
Sure.
But the jurors apparently you did what they needed to do and we don't get to know what
they discussed in the jury deliberation room unless they
decide to come forward and share that with us,
which would seem unlikely in this particular case given our political climate,
I don't know that many of them would want to put them
out there for that. That's right.
Is there anything particular that jumped out at you about this?
Maybe the fact that the jury came back so quickly or the
fact that it was all 34 counts he was found guilty of?
Well, they either had to decide that they had the legal,
the legal wherewithal to be able to make that finding or they didn't.
So it's not surprising if it was a guilty verdict on
one count that it would be guilty on all 34 counts.
What I think was more surprising is the extent
to which everybody underestimated the strength of this case.
Right?
Remember it was so complicated sometimes I feel like we underestimate
jurors that they can't put facts and do the legal analysis.
And whether or not there were two j
two lawyers on that jury,
they apparently didn't find it as difficult as everybody thought
they would to take the facts to plug it into.
What, by all accounts was a complicated set of instructions
and they were able to do that quickly that I think is probably the biggest takeaway.
One last thing on the legal front I want to ask is Donald Trump obviously is going to
appeal, did anything jump out at you as a possible grounds for an appeal?
Does he have a good pathway anywhere?
Well, they always have to make all the grounds that they can.
Perhaps one of the very foundational pathways would
be the way the counts were structured,
but I don't know whether or not that would be the
type of thing that would be successful on appeal rather than.
Well, the judge shouldn't have let in this, that or the other types of evidence.
One thing I will say though, is that right now,
we pivot from that judge being the impartial umpire of
calling balls and strikes to the fact that he
actually gets to weigh in now at the sentencing,
that's one thing he's going to take into consideration in addition to the fact
that obviously Donald Trump has no former record is he's also not remorseful.
He says he didn't do it. And
that is the kind of thing, all those factors that he can consider in deciding.
Now, what's the sentence going to be? All right, let's you said pivot, let's pivot.
You also do political analysis for us.
You know, first and foremost, is this going to matter?
Is this going to change anything in the
November election?
If the voters own voices are any indication, the answer would be very little.
Most Republicans have said they would still vote for the president.
Remember of the four criminal cases that he's facing, this was the least serious
and it's also true that he can, obviously, we know this, he can run for president.
He can serve as president.
Whether or not somebody is convicted of a
felony isn't among the prerequisites to be president.
But
the fate of this case is going to
tied up in appeals come November.
So whether or not there are those Republicans that say, well,
if he were convicted and if it were a final judgment,
I probably wouldn't vote for him.
Even those folks won't have that final decision if you will come November.
So it probably won't have that kind of political ramifications.
But as narrow as an election as it could be, it's hard to say,
it will be really interesting to see what those results are and
what the exit polls say about why people made their choices.
Last thing only a little bit more
is a conviction actually a good thing for a Trump campaign.
I mean,
they sent out the fundraising e mails immediately after
the conviction was announced and to be fair.
The Biden campaign did as well. But is this a good thing for him?
You and I are in the same wavelength?
I was trying to work that in? Absolutely.
There are some that believe that not only was
he charged but the fact that he was convicted would
also be something to fundraise on in the same fashion
that every time those indictments came down last year,
his fundraising numbers went up
that.
So who's to say that this conviction won't also raise those numbers,
which by the way, you know, might be a good thing.
But if you're Donald Trump, you saw it on his face today.
This was not a good day for the former president as much as he can talk his talk.
This was tough for him and tough for his family. We saw that after the verdict.
Yes, people could argue. It wasn't a great day for America
and they
are
of a felony, Wendy Patrick. Thank you so much for your time.
We'll talk again at the six
hour. We look forward to that for now. I'm going to send it back over to Shannon.