Trump says he will appeal 'scam' conviction
ITV News Correspondents Robert Moore and Emma Murphy unpack reaction to the former Trump's guilty verdict.
Donald Trump has said he will appeal the "scam" conviction that found him guilty in his landmark hush money criminal trial, calling the verdict "very unfair".
He was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business accounts in New York on Thursday, becoming the first ex-American president in history to become a convicted criminal.
Responding to the verdict from Trump Tower on Friday, he said: "If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone. These are bad people, they are potentially sick people."
He criticised Judge Juan Merchan, claiming he was "conflicted", and went on to call the trial 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."
Referring to the charges of which he was found guilty - falsifying business records - he said what he did was "totally legal".
He said: "Falsifying business records - that sounds so bad, to me it sounds very bad. I've never had that before.
"It means I paid a lawyer a legal expense. And a bookkeeper correctly marked it down in the books as a legal expense."
ITV News' Cari Davies explains what Trump could be sentenced to - and whether he might end up behind bars.
Trump has repeatedly denied trying to illegally influence the 2016 election, through payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex.
Responding to the phrase 'hush money' - used by many to describe the agreement made between his former lawyer Michael Cohen and Ms Daniels - Trump said: "Every company has non-disclosure agreements.
"What happened is he signed an NDA, and there was nothing wrong with signing it. This should have been a non-case."
Cohen testified against Trump during the trial, saying his former boss directed him to handle the hush money payments and was aware of all that he was doing.
He repeated accusations that the trial was politically motivated, calling the witnesses who testified against him "salacious".
“It had nothing to do with a case, but it had to do with politics,” he said.
Trump continued: "I'm honoured to be involved in it. Somebody has to do it, and I might as well keep going and be the one, because we're fighting for our country and fighting for our constitution."
As he left court on Thursday night, the former president told reporters the trial was "rigged" and a "disgrace".
"The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people. And they know what happened here. And everybody knows what happened here," he added.
US President Joe Biden said in a press conference on Friday that the verdict has shown no American is above the law.
He said: "It is reckless, it is dangerous, it is irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict.
"The justice system should be respected and we should never allow anyone to tear it down."
Trump's trial is not 'my focus', Rishi Sunak said, when asked if he would work with the convicted former US president were he to return to power
Nigel Farage, honorary president of Reform UK said he will continue to back Trump despite the conviction.
He told Sky News: "The judge was utterly political. When you politicise judges, it feels like the juries are politicised.
"I think it guarantees him victory," he added, referring to the upcoming general election in the US.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak refused to comment on Trump's guilty verdict in a press briefing on Friday morning.
Asked whether he was willing to work with a convicted felon in the White House if he wins July's election, Mr Sunak said: "You wouldn't expect me to comment on another country's domestic politics or judicial processes."
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that if his party wins the upcoming General Election that it "will work with whoever is elected president".
He told broadcasters: "We have a special relationship with the US that transcends whoever the president is, but it is an unprecedented situation, there is no doubt about that.
"And there's a long way yet to go I think in relation to what happens next."
'We will work with whoever is elected president,' Sir Keir Starmer said
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is the first-ever prosecutor to convict a former US president, said in a press conference after: "While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors.
"By following the facts and the law, and doing so without fear or favour."
Mr Bragg also said the jurors are the "cornerstone of our judicial system".
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who was one of the key prosecution witnesses, said he was "relieved" by the verdict.
"Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law. While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters," he told reporters.
Daniels, who also took the stand, is still processing the news of the former president's conviction, according to her husband Barrett Blade.
"It's a big weight off her shoulders at this point," Mr Blade told CNN.
On the stand, Daniels described how she and Trump met at a celebrity golf tournament and what she says happened when she went to Trump's Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006.
She also told the jury about a $130,000 (£102,000) hush money payment she received from Mr Cohen before the 2016 election.
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"She was brought into this. This wasn't her seeking justice for herself. She was standing up for herself early on and saying what was right, but this whole hush money trial is really nothing… it's not her story," Mr Blade said.
Still, Mr Blade said Daniels "feels a little vindicated that, you know, she was telling the truth" after the jury heard her testimony.
He added they would have supported the jury's decision either way.
"Hopefully people will finally start seeing the truth and if they do, they do, if they don't, they don't. I don't know that that ever changes," he said.
Thursday's decision followed over 11 hours deliberations from 18 jurors in a case which first began midway through April.
A sentencing hearing - which could see the former US president sent to prison for up to four years - has been set for July 11 2024.
The sentencing will be just days before the Republican National Convention where it is expected Trump will officially become the party's nominee for president.
Richard Ben-Veniste, a prosecutor during the infamous Watergate Scandal, told ITV News he believes Trump poses a greater danger to the United States than Richard Nixon - whose presidential reign was marked by the aforementioned scandal.
"Richard Nixon for all his faults, and there were many and violations of the law, was a person who did not, in my view, pose an existential threat to our democracy," Mr Ben-Veniste said.
"Donald Trump, on the other hand, does."
Richard Ben-Veniste told ITV News US Correspondent Dan Rivers Donald Trump poses an 'existential' threat to America's democracy
Hillary Clinton, who contested the 2016 presidential election against Trump, reacted to the verdict during a speech she gave at the Vital Voices Festival, in Washington DC, on Sunday.
She joked: "Thank you. Thank you so much. Anything going on today?"
Trump supporter and former vice-president nominee Sarah Palin, meanwhile, told Good Morning Britain that the verdict had "fired" her up and that she wanted to "fight for what is right and restore dignity to our judiciary".
Despite Trump's conviction, Ms Palin said that what has happened to the former president is "atrocious" and that "no-one can pinpoint a crime that he has committed".
Speaking to GB News, honorary Reform UK president Nigel Farage said: "Of course I'm going to stand up and defend Donald Trump. The world will be a much safer place in the White House."
Donald Trump Jr, the eldest of Trump's five children, wrote on X shortly after the verdict that the "Democrats have succeeded in their years long attempt to turn America into a third-world s******".
He added: "November 5 is our last chance to save it."
Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, broke her silence on Friday morning, sharing a picture of herself as a young girl sat on her smiling father's lap on Instagram with the caption: "I love you dad" alongside a heart emoji.
Speaking to ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore, one of those hoping for the guilty verdict said they did not think Trump was finished politically, but hoped it was "the beginning of the end".
A man who had turned up to support the former president claimed Trump was "an innocent man" who had been "railroaded in a judicial lynching".
Speaking to Page Six, actor Robert De Niro, who had previously been spotted clashing with Trump supporters outside the New York courtroom, said: "Justice has been served."
Previously this week, before the guilty verdict was passed down, De Niro said: "If Trump returns to the White House, you can kiss these freedoms goodbye that we all take for granted.
"I love this city. I don't want to destroy it. Donald Trump wants to destroy not only the city but the country, and, eventually, he could destroy the world."
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