Speaker Johnson Mike Johnson slams ‘absurd’ verdict in Trump hush money trial

May 30, 2024
1 min read
Speaker Johnson Mike Johnson slams ‘absurd’ verdict in Trump hush money trial


House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks as former President Trump listens during a press conference on April 12, 2024, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Thursday criticized former President Trump conviction in his New York silence casepredicting that Trump will successfully appeal the “absurd” verdict.

“Today is a shameful day in American history,” Johnson said in a statement released minutes after Trump’s guilty verdict was read in court.

“The American people rightly see that this is a legal war and they know it is – and dangerous,” he added. “President Trump will rightly appeal this absurd verdict – and he WILL WIN.”

A 12-person jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records on Thursday afternoon, after about 11 hours of deliberations that followed weeks of testimony. The judge set a sentencing date for July 11days before Trump formally became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention.

Johnson, a close Trump ally, traveled to New York earlier this month to be with the former president in court, becoming the highest-ranking lawmaker to appear alongside Trump in Manhattan in the midst of his court proceedings in course.

The House speaker has consistently criticized the secret trial, denouncing it as a sham trial aimed at politically damaging the former president as he seeks another term in the White House, a sentiment he reiterated in the wake of Trump’s guilty verdict.

“Weaponizing our judicial system has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, and today’s decision is further proof that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents,” he said .

Johnson specifically took aim at the reaction from Democrats, many of whom applauded the guilty verdict shortly after it was read in court. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), for example, wrote “YES!” on social platformwith a scales of justice and American flag emoji, and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) posted a GIF of Seth Myers saying “guilty as hell.”

“Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges based on the testimony of a convicted felon expelled from prison,” Johnson wrote. “This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”

Other prominent Republican lawmakers quickly came forward with their own criticisms of the guilty verdict, criticizing the case and denouncing the “weaponized” judicial system.

“Today’s verdict shows how corrupt, rigged and un-American the gun-toting justice system has become under Joe Biden and the Democrats,” Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY), chair of the House GOP conference, said in a statement.

“We must work 24 hours a day to ensure that President Trump is victorious in November to save America from Biden’s failed far-left Democratic agenda and the justice system’s illegal weaponization of the justice system against the American people,” she added.



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