Following the “Guilty” verdict against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan on Thursday, legal experts have been weighing in, with some saying that the conviction will be overturned, while others have been saying the coming election in November will be the final arbiter.
“I obviously disagree with this verdict as do many others. I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems,” said legal analyst Jonathan Turley on X.
“However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan. I am saddened by the result more for the New York legal system than the former president. I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes,” he added.
During an appearance on Fox News following the verdict, Turley also said the verdict in the case was “legally unfounded.”
“When they were reading those guilty verdicts, the one thing we didn’t know is really what he was found guilty of,” he said. “If you remember, the judge allowed the jury to find guilt on any one of three secondary crimes. We weren’t told whether the jury found any one of those crimes or whether they found all three of those crimes. I’m not too sure we will know that. That’s one of the many issues that I think presents reversible problems in this case.”
Turley said that the conviction would likely be overturned on appeal in the state or federal systems.
Former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman echoed those sentiments during an appearance on Fox Business.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz, a longtime Democrat who defended Trump during his first impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate, said that the pathway to appeal will be a long road for the former president while emphasizing that the election in November will decide the outcome before the conviction can be overturned. The sentencing in Trump’s case has been scheduled for July 11, but the former president is expected to appeal the case long before that date, which will likely delay the outcome past the November election.
As The Hill noted, the former president’s likely appeal will delay the outcome in the case past the November election.
Trump’s team has 30 days to file a notice of appeal with the court and has six months to file the full appeal. That will kick off another lengthy legal battle that would likely extend beyond the November election.
It’s possible an appeals court would also stay Trump’s sentence, leaving the matter on pause while he pursues a challenge.
Other legal experts told The Washington Times an appeal from the former president’s legal team would likely focus on Judge Merchan’s instruction to the jury that they did not need to find the defendant “unanimously guilty of committing a felony to resurrect the misdemeanor recordkeeping charges that had expired under the statute of limitations.”
“The judge instructed jurors that they would have to find only that Mr. Trump committed bookkeeping infractions to conceal a campaign finance violation, tax law infraction or falsification of business records. They didn’t have to agree on the underlying crime to find the former president guilty,” noted the Times.
John Yoo, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “The issue of the absence of a second crime is exactly the kind of legal question that would be prime for appellate review.”
Thomas Hogan, a professor at South Texas College of Law Houston, said, “The fact that the prosecution has not been forced to identify specifically the underlying crime that would make this business records case a felony — and the jurors apparently are each permitted to choose their own underlying crime, with no unanimity required — certainly would get a skeptical look from an appellate court.”
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