NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- A day after a New York jury delivered a historic verdict—guilty on all 34 felony counts—in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee will likely look to cast the conviction and his campaign in a new light. The former president held a news conference at Trump Tower on Friday, a day after calling his conviction "rigged" and declaring himself a "very innocent man."
HERE'S THE LATEST:
3 P.M. - Biden speaks about Trump's guilty verdict at the White House
President Joe Biden said Friday that Donald Trump being found guilty in his New York hush money case reaffirms “the American principle that no one is above the law,” and he said “it’s reckless” and “dangerous” for his predecessor to suggest the legal system was rigged against him.
“Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a state case, not a federal case and it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens, 12 Americans, 12 people like you,” Biden told reporters at the White House, a day after a jury in New York found Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts in a case stemming from the 2016 election.
He added that Trump’s “jury’s chosen the same way every jury in America’s chosen,” noted that jurors heard five weeks of evidence and reached “a unanimous verdict: They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts.”
The president said Trump could appeal the case “just like everyone else has that opportunity” then pointedly said, “It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, It’s irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict.”
“Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years, and it literally is the cornerstone of America,” Biden said. “The justice system should be respected. And we should never let never allow anyone to tear it down.”
11 A.M. -- Trump holds news conference at Trump Tower
Trump started off the conference by saying, "If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone."
Trump called the trial "unfair" and said the fight isn't over. "We're going to be appealing this scam on many different things," he said, calling Judge Juan Merchan "a tyrant."
"They were literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel but he is really a devil. He looks so nice and soft. People say he seems like such a nice man. No, unless you saw him in action."
Expressing frustration with the judicial process, Trump said, "We wanted a venue change. Where we could have a fair trial. We didn't get it. We wanted a judge change. We wanted a judge that wasn't conflicted. And obviously he didn't do that. Nobody has ever seen anything like it."
He also criticized the District Attorney Alvin Bragg, noting, "We had a DA who was a failed DA. Crime is rampant in New York. Violent crime. That's what he's really supposed to be looking at."
Trump did not shy away from addressing the charges directly. He described the nature of the alleged crime, saying, "They're falsifying business records. That sounds so bad. To me it sounds very bad. It's only a misdemeanor, but to me it sounds so bad. When they say falsifying business, that's a bad thing for me. I've never had that before." He explained the context of the transactions, "It means that legal expense, I paid a lawyer, totally legal. I paid a lawyer a legal expense. And a bookkeeper without any knowledge from me correctly marked it down in the books as a legal expense."
Upcoming election
Discussing the impact on his presidential campaign, Trump said, "I am a leading candidate. I am leading Biden by a lot and I am leading the Republicans to the point where that is over. I am the leading person for President and I am under a gag order by a man that can't put two sentences together given by a court."
He implied political motives behind the prosecution, stating, "They are in total conjunction with the White House and the DOJ. Maybe as 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 is nevertheless the President so we have to use his name. And this is done by Washington and nobody has ever seen anything like it."
Trump also repeated claims that President Joe Biden and the Justice Department influenced his New York prosecution.
Bragg is a state-level prosecutor. His office, which prosecuted the hush money case, operates independently and is not under the direction of Biden or the federal government.
He also called President Joe Biden “the worst president in the history of our country.”
He called him the “most incompetent” and “most dishonest.”
“You take a look at the way he treats China, Russia, so many others,” he said. “He’s a very big danger to our country.”
Trump says he wanted to testify
Trump insisted that he wanted to testify — and he could have, had he chosen to do so. All criminal defendants have a constitutional right to testify on their own behalf. By opting not to testify, Trump waived that right.
"Now, I would have testified. I wanted to testify. The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify, anybody, if it were George Washington, don't testify because they'll get you on something that you said slightly wrong and then they sue you for perjury. But I didn't care about that. I wanted to." However, he noted the extensive scope allowed by the judge, "The judge allowed them to go into everything that I was ever involved in, not this case. Everything that I was ever involved in, which is a first."
Trump emphasized the broader implications of his case, declaring, "This can't be allowed to happen to other presidents. It should never be allowed to happen in the future. But this is far beyond me. This is bigger than Trump."
10 A.M. -- Trump fans turn out in Manhattan to show support
Trump supporters were spotted around Trump Tower on Friday morning ahead of the former president's news conference. One supporter from Brooklyn said Trump should "hang in there." He said he's "not concerned" and believes "without a doubt" Trump will be voted back into the White House in the fall.
Fans of the likely GOP presidential nominee have been protesting outside of Manhattan Criminal Court all week, even getting in a dustup with Robert De Niro, who is a fierce Trump critic and showed up outside the trial to rip Trump.
9:30 A.M. -- Media packs Trump Tower for news conference
Members of the media started lining up outside Trump Tower hours before Donald Trump was set to hold an 11 a.m. news conference reacting to his conviction in his Manhattan hush money trial. Reporters and other journalists packed both sides of Fifth Avenue as they waited to get into Trump's eponymous high-rise in Midtown. Inside, a podium was set up.
Following his conviction on Thursday, Trump angrily denounced the trial as a “disgrace,” telling reporters he was an “innocent man.”
He's expected to take on a similar tone during the news conference, which will be held at the same building where he launched his first campaign for president nearly nine years ago on June 16, 2015.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.