For the first time in the country’s 247-year history, a former U.S. president is guilty of felony charges.
On Thursday afternoon, a Manhattan, New York jury found Former U.S. President Donald Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records. His sentencing hearing is set for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention, where Trump is expected to be his party’s presidential nominee.
Politicos in Alaska and the Lower 48 took to social media Thursday after the verdict was announced.
Despite the fact that a jury of Trump’s own peers considered there to be enough evidence to convict, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said in a statement that Trump “Should be exonerated on appeal.”
“This is a very sad day for America and the rule of law,” Sullivan said. “The conviction of a former president just months before the election sets a dangerous precedent. The 2024 presidential election should be decided at the ballot box, not by this unprecedented political persecution. I trust that the American people will see through this gross abuse of our justice system.”
In his statement, Sullivan did not explain why he considers Trump’s conviction to be unwarranted.
On X, formerly Twitter, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said his “thoughts and prayers” were with the former president.
“We need to have faith in the higher courts that they will overturn this decision — allowing the people of this great country to decide who the next president is in November and not the courts,” Dunleavy wrote.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, were not immediately available to comment on Trump becoming a felon.
President Joe Biden, in a post from his campaign’s X account, said Trump’s guilty verdict alone won’t stop him from becoming president again.
“Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president,” Biden wrote. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box.”
Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. also weighed in on Trump’s guilty verdict Tuesday. While speaking at a cryptocurrency convention in Austin, Texas, Kennedy said the case was “being used to divide us.”
“I think this is the weakest case people brought against him, my belief is that it will end up helping President Trump among a large part of the American public,” Kennedy said. “I’m not a fan of Trumps, I’m running against him. On the debt, he ran up eight trillion more than all presidents combined, he shutdown our country after promising he was going to run America like a business, he embroiled our country in foreign war, the division in our country is largely down to him and Biden and it’s not a good thing for our country.”
Contact Carter DeJong at 907-459-7545 or cdejong@newsminer.com.
