Former President Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche doubled down on the belief his client is not guilty in his hush money case, arguing following the verdict that it was difficult for his team to receive a fair trial.
“I very much believe that the jury should have found President Trump not guilty. I mean…in my soul I believe that,” Blanche said in a Thursday interview on CNN with Kaitlan Collins. “[…]I left my job to do what I did the past weeks and my conviction around what happened today and what I believe, the facts show and it remains the same.”
Trump on Thursday was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, making him the first-ever former U.S. president to become a convicted felon. The charges stemmed from reimbursements made to Michael Cohen, Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney, for a hush money payment made to adult porn actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged affair with the former president.
Blanche, in a separate interview on FOX News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” said he did not think Trump received a fair trial.
“I mean, we have been saying for over a year that we couldn’t get a fair trial in Manhattan, we couldn’t get a fair trial with the judge. And it played out in lots of ways exactly as we expected,” he said, adding, “And what happens in a trial is, is, you show up for trial and all those decisions that have been made in the weeks and months leading up to trial, they matter, the evidence that can come in, the evidence that cannot come in.
“And when we showed up at trial, that’s where we really felt that we weren’t getting a fair shake,” he added.
Blanche pointed to the jury panel and how there was a “bias” that the defense “could not get past.”
“Every single person on that jury knew Donald Trump either as president, as candidate, from “The Apprentice,” and so I don’t accept that this was a fair place to try,” he said on CNN, taking issue with the trial’s location in New York City.
Following the verdict, Trump maintained he is a “very innocent man.”
“This was a rigged decision right from day one with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never,” Trump said. “And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over. Thank you very much.”
The judge has set a sentencing date of July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in which Trump is expected to be officially named the 2024 GOP nominee for president.