Trump attacks 'fascist state' after being convicted of 34 crimes

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Ex-US President Donald Trump tore into what he called a "fascist" judicial system Friday, just hours after he was found guilty by a New York jury of 34 state crimes.

Trump, now a convicted felon, went on a meandering and at times contradictory 42-minute diatribe in which he maintained that the "rigged" case was politically motivated by his successor, President Joe Biden, telling his supporters, "If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone."

"I'm the leading person for president and I'm under a gag order, by a man that can't put two sentences together, given by a court and they are in total conjunction with the White House and the DOJ just so you understand," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and the first former president in history to convicted of felony charges, said at his eponymous New York tower.

He was referring to the Justice Department, which he said is part of "a fascist state."

"This is all done by Biden and his people, and maybe his people, more importantly, I don't know if Biden knows too much about it. Because I don't know if he knows about anything. But he's nevertheless the president. So we have to use his name," he added.

But Trump also maintained the prosecutors with the Justice Department's Southern District of New York decided not to pursue the case against him.

"Southern District didn't want to bring the case. Nobody wanted to bring the case," he said.

All 34 counts on which Trump was convicted related to an scheme to pay off adult film star Stormy Daniels, who alleged an affair with the former president, in an illegal effort to influence the 2016 presidential election via falsified business records.

Trump maintained that he would appeal "this scam," even as he is scheduled to be sentenced by acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the case, July 11. Each count of which Trump was convicted carries up to a four-year state prison term, with a a maximum term of 20 years.

It remains unclear if Merchan will consider prison time for Trump rather than a fine or probation. Prosecutors have not yet formally sought a penalty of imprisonment.

The former president did not specify on which grounds he would be appealing, but said his attorneys would object "on many different things."

"He wouldn't allow us to have witnesses. He wouldn't allow us to talk. He wouldn't allow us to do anything. The judge was a tyrant," Trump said in reference to Merchan.

Trump said his campaign raked in $39 million during a 10-hour span after he was convicted.