'Trial was very unfair': Trump cries foul after conviction in hush money case, vows to appeal verdict

In his first speech after his historic conviction, former US President Donald Trump has cried foul and vowed to appeal the verdict.

Trump on Friday dubbed the trial as “very unfair” and has said that his witnesses were “crucified” during the trial.

“As far as the trial itself, it was very unfair. We weren’t allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances. You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side, they were literally crucified by this man,” said Trump in a speech at Trump Tower in New York, as per CNN.

Trump was on Thursday held guilty on all 34 counts for falsifying business records to pay $130,000 in ‘hush money’ to adult film actor Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential elections to buy her silence regarding an alleged affair between the two. As per the prosecution, Cohen made the payment to Daniels on behalf of Trump and then Trump reimbursed Cohen by falsifying business records and violating election campaign finance laws.

As he has maintained throughout, Trump said he did nothing wrong.

“Falsifying business records — that sounds so bad, to me it sounds very bad. That’s a bad thing for me, I’ve never had that before,” said Trump.

Trump faces four years for each of the counts that he has been convicted for. However, his advanced age of 77, his being a first-time offender, and the non-violent nature of his crime may mean that he could get away with a fine, as per a report.

Trump blasts key witness Michael Cohen

Trump went on to blast Michael Cohen without taking his name. Cohen was a key witness to the case and a central figure to the episode that led to the conviction.

Trump called Cohen a “sleazebag” without taking his name and went on to say that he got into trouble with his own deeds.

“This was a highly qualified lawyer. Now I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order. But you know, he’s a sleazebag. Everybody knows that. Took me a while to find out, but he was effective,” said Trump, as per CNN.

‘Devil’, ‘conflicted’: Trump continues attacks against judge

Trump went on to call the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, as “devil”. Throughout the case, Trump has attacked Merchan and his family and has accused them of being compromised as his daughter has a history of working with Democrats.

Trump called Merchan the most conflicted judge ever. He went on to say that “bad people” were responsible for his conviction.

“There’s never been a more conflicted judge. Now, I’m under a gag order, which nobody has ever been under — no presidential candidates ever been under a gag order before. I’m under a gag order, nasty gag order, where I’ve had to pay thousands of dollars in penalties and was threatened with jail,” said Trump, as per CNN.

Drawing a parallel between illegal immigration, one of the favourite topics of Trump and his far-right base, Trump said “we’re losing our country” to the immigrants and then sought to connect it with the verdict by saying: “I really think this was an event that took place yesterday with the judge.”

The New York Times noted that it was an attack on Merchan as he was born in Columbia. While he was indeed born in Columbia, he was brought up in the Queens neighbourhood of New York, the same place where Trump was raised.