A New York jury finds former President Trump guilty on 34 felony counts. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November fifth by the people. I'm Daily Wire Editor and Chief John Bickley. It's Friday, May 31st, and this is Morning Wire. What's next for the former President, and could he serve jail time? A top legal analyst breaks down the historic and controversial verdict.

I expect that the American people rally around President Trump because they see that he is now the underdog, that this is a miscarriage of justice, that if it could happen to President Trump, it What would it happen to you if it could happen to me.

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The verdict is in, and Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts brought against him in his New York City hush money trial. In a dramatic moment, the jury had been set to leave for the day, late Thursday, when suddenly the announcement came that a verdict had been reached. Here to discuss the first time a former president has ever been found guilty of a crime is Daily Wire contributor David Marcus. Hey, Dave. So first, can you walk us through those last hectic moments yesterday in court?

Morning, John. It was truly stunning. Judge Juan Marshan had announced that court was going to be done for the day, but jurors wanted a little extra time. Honestly, within about 15 minutes, they announced that they had reached their decision. Hardly had the whiplash been felt before word came that one after another, the jury had found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts, which potentially could lead to years in prison.

So once the verdict was in, what did Mershon do in terms of Trump's status between now and sentencing, and when could that sentencing happen?

Trump was able to leave the courthouse as usual and under the same conditions, basically, that he had during the trial. He offered a short, somber statement.

We didn't do a thing wrong.

I'm a very innocent man, and it's okay.

I'm fighting for our country.

I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now.

As your second question, sentencing is set for July 11th, which just happens to be four days before the Republican National Convention is set to commence. Of course, John, Trump's legal team has promised to appeal the decision.

Right. Now, meanwhile, the Trump campaign is out with a new ad about the trial and its allegations of welfare against the former President, taking specific aim at Alvin Bragg. Is this how we can expect the campaign to use this conviction going forward?

Yes. Expect the Trump camp to continue banging this argument that the trial was politically motivated. Here's a taste of that new ad, and it's not subtle.

This is the Democrats' entire strategy to confide President Trump to a dirty criminal courtroom and keep him off the campaign trail where he can bring his winning message to voters across this country.

New York has become a legal banana Republic. They are so determined to get Donald Trump.

Look, convicting Donald Trump, that's all they have.

I think they have no cards. And they're depending upon Trump getting convicted. That Trump train doesn't show any signs of slowing down.

The only verdict that matters is the verdict at the ballot box.

The ad does two important things for the Trump campaign. First, it argues strongly that the whole trial was a biased mess and voters should ignore the finding of guilt. But also this undermines or at least competes with the Biden campaign's number one issue, which is that Trump is supposedly a threat to democracy. Democracy. Before these questionable criminal cases, Biden had that argument all to himself, and polling showed that Americans did view Trump as the greater threat to democracy. That has been changing and the gap has narrowed. So the one issue, other than maybe abortion, where Biden had a big edge, that could be neutralized.

So where does that leave Biden's messaging on the trial?

Well, President Biden had planned a White House speech to respond when the verdict dropped, but after the Shambolic Robert De Niro press conference, which had many observers saying it was politicizing the trial, the exact argument Trump is making in the ad we just talked about, they 86ed the live speech in favor of a rather anodyne statement which read, In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law, and accusing Trump of supposedly believing that he could break the law with impunity. The statement went on to stress that despite the conviction, Trump will be the Republican candidate and rang the saving democracy bell again. According to recent reporting in The Hill, there is debate in Biden world over how hard to hit the Trump is a felon line. We'll know sooner rather than later where they land on that.

Meanwhile, we've just witnessed history, and I think a lot of people are just processing the momentous nature of this decision. Dave, thanks for reporting.

Thanks for having me.

Up next, a legal expert breaks down the unprecedented verdict.

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The political and legal implications of the Trump verdict are far-reaching. Joining now to unpack some of that for us is Roger Severino, former DOJ, Civil Rights Attorney and Vice President of Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Roger, thank you for joining us. A very controversial verdict here. You've made clear that you find this case extremely problematic, and your view is held by many legal experts and many American voters, so we wanted to give some time here to lay out your legal perspective. First, what How did you make of the 34 guilty verdicts?

It was expected because the deck was stacked against President Trump from the beginning. You had a politicized prosecutor bringing a politicized case before a politicized judge and a politicized jury in New York. This was from the beginning meant to be a Sham trial, so we shouldn't be surprised in the least by the railroaded verdict. We should mourn for our country because we have crossed a line. We now have to fight for our Constitution because we've now wandered into Banana Republic territory, where we have our political differences being settled in a jury box instead of a ballot box. This is a scary moment for our country because we are better than this. But this is what election interference actually looks like, an attempt to take away the voice of the people by trying to jail political opponents.

What comes next? Could Trump actually serve jail time?

It's possible. It's within the judge's discretion to send him to jail now. But he didn't let him go to release a statement. But these were 34 felony counts, which never would have been brought if the defendant's name were not Donald J. Trump. This is a miscarriage of justice. Now, President Trump has defied gravity on the Sham impeachment charges, and now these Sham trials. It may end up actually boosting its popularity, but it's very difficult to run a campaign if he's actually put in jail. So the real question is, is this biased judge going to take that next step? And deal with the ramifications that come with that? Again, this is a scary moment for our Republic. This never should have happened. You're going to see the American public, I believe, react very negatively to this gross abuse of process.

How many years does Trump potentially face, and how many do you actually think would be handed down if Mershon goes that route?

It could be for years. Each felony count is minimum one year, and there were 34 of them. They have this damaklis hanging over his head, and it's designed to try to break the man. The $450 million civil judgment when there were no victims for alleged bank fraud, when banks were never harmed, was meant to break the man. To have him sit in a trial for weeks was meant to take him off of the campaign trail. If he were not running for President, none of this would have happened. And the left is so deathly afraid that the American public will reject the Biden agenda, which is unpopular, and bring this man back to office. Part of his promise is to restore the justice system because it has been weaponized. He said that this is a fight for our Constitution and that the real verdict is November fifth, and I think he is absolutely right.

Do you believe this case will be ripe for an appeal?

Oh, absolutely. Judge Mershaw made so many legal errors. He threw the Constitution out the window and said that the jury could find Donald Trump guilty without settling on the underlying crime. There could be three different crimes he's guilty of, and none of them had to be held unanimously by this jury. We have constitutional protections, meaning every count has to be ruled on unanimously by a jury, and we have this benefit of the doubt for defendants. That's what makes our system great. We give the benefit of the doubt. And yet this was all throughout the window. The judge was quite biased from the beginning. He always ruled in favor of the prosecution, excluded witnesses that could have walked through and show how election law was not implicated, and then those jury instructions. Oh, my. You have so many legal errors that Trump has such a strong case that will be appealed quickly. And then ultimately, if needed, the Supreme Court weighs in and puts an end to this nonsense.

About that, what would the appeals process look like and can the Supreme Court intervene?

Ultimately, yes. There are constitutional arguments that his right to a fair trial was violated. The Constitution means something. It means, if anything, you cannot jail political opponents Because you don't like what the American people are going to vote for. And ultimately, I think the Supreme Court, if he doesn't want an appeal, will take this up in reverse. This is a political prosecution. We are better than this as a country, and this cannot stand. There are steps in between. We'll see if there'll be expedited so we can exhaust the initial appeal. But because of the urgency of the matter, we have November fifth as an election, there's a prospect that he could go to jail in the middle of the campaign season. This is unprecedented. All of this is uncharded territory.

How do you believe this will ultimately affect Trump in the polls and his messaging on the campaign trail?

I think the American people can smell fishy business. They know that this judge was biased. They know that the trial was biased. They know the prosecution was a scam. And 34 counts of felonies for what? Who are the victims here? There was no victim that was ever put on the stand. Michael Cohen, the star witness, convicted felon. He was the one who brought it home for the prosecution. But But they couldn't point to any victim. The American people are going to see right through this. I think, if anything, President Trump's popularity should increase because the American people have had enough with the weaponization of the justice system. If it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us.

What about how this impacts Trump's actual ability to campaign? What do we see in the coming weeks in terms of this case?

Well, the judge didn't immediately put him into jail, which at least showed a little bit of respect. But that's up in the air. We We don't know what's going to happen with sentencing, and jail could be in the offing. He could win from jail. That's a possibility. It would be shameful if this judge were to order this man to go to jail when they weren't able to point to any victims. This is so shocking and unprecedented that we're even discussing the possibility of pulling political opponents in jail in the middle of an election. I don't know what's going to happen, but whatever one thinks about President Trump, politically, I think the American people will realize that this is not plain fair.

Well, Roger, we've crossed the Rubicon here, the first ever criminal verdict against a former president. Thank you so much for coming on.

You're welcome. Thank you very much.

That was Roger Severino, former DOJ Civil Rights Attorney and Vice President of Domestic Policy at the Heritage Foundation. Thank you for listening this morning. We created this show to bring more balance to the national conversation. If you love our show and stand with that mission, consider subscribing, giving us a five-star rating, and most importantly, sharing our podcast with a friend. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more news you need to know.

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