Former President Donald Trump said his campaign had raised at least $39 million in the wake of a guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts in his high-profile hush money case.
The former president shared the news when he addressed the public a day after his verdict, speaking live at a news conference from Trump Tower in Manhattan Friday morning.
“Let me give you the good news,” Trump said after calling his trial “very unfair” and a “scam.”
“The good news is last night — we just got a report this morning — in the history of politics, maybe I’m wrong,” Trump said, “but I don’t think so. They raised with small money donors – meaning like $21, $42, $53, $38 — a record $39 million in about a 10-hour period.”
“So far, I guess it’s backfired,” Trump said, referring to his case — which he claims only happened now to derail his election plans.
Later in the day on Friday the former president's campaign sent out an email telling supporters that in the 24 hours after the verdict was released his campaign had raised "almost $53 million" online.
For the month of April, Trump and the GOP raised $76 million, according to The Associated Press. President Joe Biden and the Democrats raised $51 million that month.
Trump said the trial, which found him guilty of falsifying business records ahead of the 2016 presidential election, should never have been brought against him.
"The money that was paid, was paid legally,” he said.
“This was standard stuff. Everything involved was standard. There was no crime here," Trump insisted.
Calling the trial “rigged,” the former president spoke on being denied his request for a venue change, judge change and working with what he called a “failed” district attorney with crime being “rampant in New York.”
The former president also said he could not speak out fully, pointing to his gag order.
While Trump did not testify in his case, he said he would have liked to.
“I would have loved to have testified — to this day I would have liked to have testified, but you would have said something out of whack like, 'it was a beautiful, sunny day,' and it was actually raining out.”
“As soon as you testify, anybody — if it were George Washington — don’t testify, because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong and then they sue you for perjury,” Trump said.
Trump's case marks the first time a U.S. president has been found guilty of a crime.
Trump on Trial
Former President Donald Trump guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial
Minutes after the guilty verdict came down, President Biden’s reelection campaign stressed that “no one is above the law,” while continuing to assert the importance of beating Trump not just in the court of law but in the court of public opinion as well.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden-Harris 2024 communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “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.”
Trump's sentencing in the case is set for July 11, and he could face a wide range of punishments from probation to up to four years in prison. The case could lead to years of appeals, possibly ending up before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The former president has survived two impeachments, has been found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, and also received a civil judgment, a massive penalty levied against the Trump Organization. Now his survival skills will be tested once again after his huge defeat in court.
The former president sat stone-faced in a New York City courtroom as the verdict was delivered shortly after 5 p.m. local time Thursday.
The jury, made up of 12 New Yorkers in heavily liberal Manhattan, reached a verdict on day two of deliberations, which took a little more than nine hours.
During that time, the jury asked the judge to reread instructions and asked to rehear testimony of two key witnesses, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump's former "fixer," Michael Cohen. This came after weeks of, at times, dramatic testimony, with prosecutors leaning on 20 witnesses to build a case that Trump falsified the records to conceal damaging stories, including an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Political ramifications are still unfolding, but the case will have a dramatic impact on the presidential campaign and on the future of the country. The upcoming presidential election in November is still expected to be a tight race.
Trump on Trial
