Within moments of the historical verdict finding former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, Virginia lawmakers turned to social media to either vent their frustration with the outcome of the so-called hush-money trial or hail the verdicts of the New York City jury as just findings.
“The American people see this for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution orchestrated by those who want to ‘get’ President Trump,” Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement. “On Nov. 5th, Americans will render their verdict on Joe Biden’s failed leadership based on the issues that affect them every day.”
But Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that the Trump verdict is proof that no one is above the law in this country.
“It’s also tragic in this way — Americans put the reins of leadership in the hands of a person whose character is so far beneath the office that no rational adult would ever encourage young people to emulate his behavior,” said Kaine, who was Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016 and is currently seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate.
“Trump’s lack of character has caught up to him. And Americans — once again — have received a clear warning about a person who wants to seize leadership once again. I pray that we heed the warning,” Kaine said.
Rep. Bob Good, R-Campbell County, in a statement said that Thursday’s “egregious verdict represents the most prominent miscarriage of ‘justice’” in modern American history.
“This corrupt sham of a NYC judicial system demonstrates the extreme danger of placing individuals in power who will abuse that power to accomplish a political objective. This is election interference at the highest level, and points directly to unlawful and unconstitutional collusion by Joe Biden and Merrick Garland. This obscene verdict will certainly be overturned on appeal, and that must happen expeditiously,” Good said.
State Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County and Good’s primary challenger in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, chimed in just minutes later, calling the legal proceedings against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee a “kangaroo court” that “looks like something out of the Third World.”
McGuire, who has made his challenge against Good a referendum on which candidate is the more loyal supporter of the former president, added that the case against Trump was “election interference of the highest order.”
“Joe Biden and the Democrats have weaponized our justice system to rig the election for Joe Biden before a single vote has been cast,” McGuire said in an emailed statement. “Donald Trump has been under attack by the left since he came down the escalator and we must rally around him right now. The Democrats should be ashamed at the morally compromised tactics they’re using to try to win an election. We the People need to show up to vote in droves. Vote Trump 2024!”
The 12 New York jurors said Thursday that they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the 2016 election.
But Chris LaCivita, a former Virginia GOP operative and now the senior adviser and co-manager of Trump’s campaign, said on X that “the fix was always in.”
Trump himself addressed reporters outside the courtroom, calling the legal proceedings against him a “rigged, disgraceful trial,” and said the “real verdict” will come on Election Day.
Trump is the first former or sitting U.S. president convicted of criminal charges. He is due to be sentenced on July 11 — just three days before the start of the GOP National Convention in Milwaukee, where he hopes to be formally nominated.
The U.S. Constitution contains no prohibition on a convicted felon running for president. Virginia law bars convicted felons in the state from voting, but the state constitution does not bar convicted felons from appearing on the ballot. Technically, in a presidential election, people aren’t voting for the candidate, they’re voting for a slate of electors pledged to that candidate.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, is another prominent Virginia Republican who called the verdict reached in New York on Thursday “a bad decision” that in large measure was due to trial errors by the judge. “Based on what was presented, I do not see evidence of a crime taking place. Like in the case of former Governor Bob McDonnell, I fully expect the case to be overturned on appeal,” Griffith said.
He referred to a unanimous Supreme Court ruling from 2016 that overturned the corruption conviction of the former Virginia governor, arguing that federal prosecutors had relied on a “boundless” definition of the kinds of acts that could lead politicians to face criminal charges.
Del. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County and the House minority leader, said on X that as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney for the past 27 years, he has never been so struck by this level of fundamental unfairness in a criminal proceeding. “This was a rigged show trial, replete with legal errors, obvious biases and political agendas,” Gilbert wrote.
Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax County, shared Gilbert’s post, adding his own comment: “More MAGA talking points regurgitated. They’ll all be reading from the same script.”
Del. Dan Helmer, Simon’s Democratic colleague from Fairfax County, said he’d noted as early as in 2018 that no one, not even the president, should be above the law.
“We now have a GOP nominee for President convicted for defrauding the American people. We need fighters in Washington who are going to stand up to Donald Trump & MAGA to protect our democracy,” Helmer said.
And Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democrat who was the first woman to serve as the speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, said that Trump’s guilty verdict is “a poignant reminder that no one is above the law, and justice must be served.”
Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth and the Senate president pro tempore, said that she was “hopeful that the newly convicted thug will still be legally allowed to waste his time campaigning in Virginia so he can continue costing Republicans multiple elections for running on his platform.”
Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, also turned to X: “Nobody, not even Donald Trump, is above the law. The jury got it right today.”
