NEW YORK, May 31 (Bernama-dpa) — Donald Trump’s lawyer has said the former US president intends to appeal Thursday’s guilty verdict in his hush money trial.
Trump’s team will argue, among other things, that the jurors were biased and that the timing of the trial was “unfair”, German news agency (dpa) quoted Todd Blanche telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in an interview following the verdict.
A jury in New York on Thursday found Trump guilty of falsifying business records as part of a scheme involving his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to conceal a US$130,000 pay-off made to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He is now the first former US president convicted of a criminal offence.
Blanche said that the team would initially be filing motions to “vigorously fight” against the verdict in the coming weeks.
“If that is not successful, then, as soon as we can appeal we will,” Blanche said, clarifying that in New York that means waiting until the sentencing, due to be handed down by Judge Juan Merchan on July 11.
Trump, 77, and US President Joe Biden are all but guaranteed to face off in the presidential election on Nov 5 in a rematch of the 2020 vote, after both achieved the required number of delegates to be nominated as candidates of the Republican and Democratic parties respectively.
— BERNAMA-dpa