Trump trial: Guilty on all charges. What Florida officials said about shocking outcome
Reaction to the conviction of former President Trump on felony criminal charges on Thursday was swift — and partisan — across his home state of Florida.
The GOP White House candidate was defiantly lauded by his supporters while his detractors hailed the conviction.
The Republican Party of Florida issued a statement saying: "From a corrupt DA to a rigged judge, President Trump's guilty verdict comes as no surprise. Trump Derangement Syndrome was alive and well in that New York courtroom, but here in the real world, Donald Trump's support only grows stronger!"
The anti-Trump Lincoln Project, led in part by Tallahassee strategist Rick Wilson, said: "Donald Trump has been found guilty. With today’s ruling, Trump is a convicted criminal who’s running for President to roll back individual rights and wreck our democracy."
Congressman Darren Soto, an Orlando Democrat, reminded the public that Trump “had his day in court and finally faced justice” in the ruling.
“This case proves once again that no one is above the law in our country,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We must respect the jury’s decision and let the appeals process play out.”
But Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Trump ally-turned-rival-turned-ally again, said the charges were simply a “get” Trump campaign.
"Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America —all in an effort to 'get' Donald Trump,” the governor said in a statement.
Stunning verdict marks a first — a conviction against a former U.S. president
Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of business fraud charges related to an alleged "hush money" payment to an adult film actress in the weeks before the 2016 presidential election in an effort to influence the election's outcome.
The guilty verdict ended a nearly seven-week trial that marked the first time a former president of the United States was accused and convicted of a crime. The closest the country had come to such a dubious and disgraceful distinction was 50 years ago when former President Richard Nixon faced the possibility of indictment in the Watergate scandal, but was spared by a presidential pardon issued by his successor, Gerald Ford.
More: UNF poll says Trump could lose 9% of his voters if he is convicted on criminal charges
U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican said: "Once this case started, it was clear to any impartial observer that justice in this case was not blind; the judge’s political bias … has clouded his judgment in favor of the political prosecution. This is no way to run a trial of a former President, Presidential candidate, or any American; political bias has no place in our court system."
But Diaz-Balart's crosstown colleague, Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, cheered the conviction of "the four-time indicted, twice impeached, insurrection inciter" and said the decision was fair.
"There was no witch hunt, no foul play — just the impartial application of justice that treats everyone equally, regardless of who they are," she wrote in a statement. "No convicted felon should come within a mile of the White House, and Republicans must seriously reconsider the disgraceful figure they are pushing to lead our nation.”
Democrat Lois Frankel, who represents a Palm Beach County district that includes Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, spoke somberly of the moment.
“Putting politics aside, this is a somber verdict that speaks to the fact that for our democracy to work, no person should be above the law,” she wrote.
One South Florida prosecutor said the verdict was reasonable and pointed to what was a "strong case" against Palm Beach County's best-known resident.
“The prosecution put on a strong case, and the jury followed the evidence and the law,” said Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg. “Michael Cohen was a key witness for the State, and despite his flaws, there was ample corroboration for his testimony.”
The commentary turned to debate on social media.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis tweeted that, “Trump should be granted clemency immediately. This is outrageous.”
That led Jimmy Midyette, the City of Jacksonville’s diversity manager and occasional local candidate, to respond: “By who? The (Democratic) governor of New York? She has no good reason to grant clemency before the felon has even been sentenced. Or appeals exhausted.”
State Sen. Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, posted on X that he was “beyond angry that our system of justice has been perverted, abused, and weaponized to attack a political opponent,” adding that he would support a special legislative session to “hold the state of New York accountable for their attempts to eliminate the vote of millions of Floridians for the Presidential candidate of their choice.”
Will verdict impact 2024 presidential election?
Hours before the jury came to its decision, Trump's daughter-in-law, Republican National Committee Vice Chair Lara Trump, insisted in a defiant social media post that "no matter what witch hunts and lawfare the Left throws against President Trump, he will never stop fighting for the American people!"
Insisting he is "a very innocent man," Trump said he will be absolved in this year's election.
"This is a rigged, disgraceful trial and the real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people," Trump said after the guilty verdict was read.
He had earlier announced he would be in Palm Beach County to celebrate his 78th birthday on June 14 with a speech during an event hosted by Club 47, a Trump fan club, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
What impact the decision by the jury of seven men and five women will have on the 2024 campaign is not immediately clear.
A number of Democratic politicians in the Sunshine State and beyond argued that Trump, as a convicted felon, now cannot cast a vote vote in his own state. Florida law disenfranchises convicted felons, among other civil rights.
State Sen. Lori Berman, a Palm Beach County Democrat, called attention to Amendment 4 passed in 2018 that aimed to restore voting rights to the state’s convicted felons. It “represented one of the biggest voting rights victories in recent history. Then, Florida Republicans gutted it. Now, Trump can’t vote in his own home state. Call it poetic justice,” she wrote.
But in Florida, where Trump is registered to vote, felons have the right to vote if the state where they were convicted, in this case New York, allows it. New York only removes a felon’s right to vote while they are imprisoned, and as Trump may not receive jail time at all, let alone before the election, he likely will remain eligible.
Also, a Florida Attorney General’s advisory opinion from 1977 suggests Trump can vote, at least until he runs out all his appeals. As of Thursday night, Trump's legal team has not said whether they will appeal the verdict.
“A felon … is not ‘convicted’ within the meaning of the constitutional disqualification from voting while an appeal from such conviction is pending or while the time for an appeal from the judgment or sentence has not yet expired,” stated the opinion, written by Pat Gleason, now the office’s special counsel for open government.
Pollsters and political analysts have speculated the case in New York, as well as three others filed in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Miami, have helped the former president fundraise and bolstered his standing in the polls, especially among Republican Party primary voters who this year picked Trump as their presidential nominee.
Randy Ross, who first worked to elect Trump president in 2016, said the verdict was "like the weight of an elephant on my chest" but nonetheless will be used by him and others as a motivation.
"This injustice will be the catalyst and energy for how we rally and lift President Trump from 45th to the 47th President of the United States of America, on November 5th," wrote Ross, who is part of the Trump 47 fundraising team and also chaired his Orange County campaign eight years ago. "So maybe a thank you to our corrupt justice process as you’ve opened America’s eyes."
A nationwide survey in April by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that most respondents said they would not be swayed by the outcome of any of the four felony cases — including the New York trial — but that Trump risked losing nearly 10% of his supporters if he were convicted.
"A sizable majority said a criminal conviction for Trump wouldn’t affect their vote, which makes sense for folks who have their minds made up,” said Michael Binder, the director of UNF's Public Opinion Research Lab. “What could dramatically impact the election is the 9% of Trump voters who said they’d be less likely to vote for him if he’s convicted.”
A poll released Thursday by Emerson College of New York state voters, however, pointed to a sharp partisan divide on the charges that echoed what national surveys of attitudes about the case found in the past year.
“71% of Democrats would find Trump guilty of all charges, while 71% of Republicans would find him not guilty. Independents are split: 37% say he's not guilty, 35% say he's guilty of all counts, and 29% think he's guilty of some but not all counts,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, in a statement. “Overall, 84% of Democrats, 69% of independents, and 46% of Republicans expect the jury to find him guilty of some or all charges."
Palm Beach Post reporter Hannah Phillips and Jim Rosica of the USA Today Florida Network contributed to this story.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump trial: Guilty on all charges. How Florida officials reacted
