Donald Trump has said his historic trial and criminal conviction have been “very hard” for his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump. Last week, jurors found Mr Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
With the verdict, he became the first US president to be convicted of a crime. He has repeatedly called the trial rigged and politically motivated.
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Mr Trump vowed that success at the upcoming November US election would be his “revenge”. He is slated to be sentenced on 11 July, and plans to appeal the convictions.
Speaking to Fox on Sunday, Mr Trump said his New York legal battle has been particularly difficult on his wife. The trial included lurid details of the alleged meeting between Mr Trump and Ms Daniels.
The details included Mr Trump greeting her in silk pyjamas at his hotel suite, and Ms Daniels' claims that he did not wear protection when they allegedly had sex. In her testimony, Ms Daniels also claimed that Mr Trump and his wife sleep in different beds.
“She's fine, but I think it's very hard for her,” Mr Trump said of his wife, adding that “in many ways, it's tougher on them [his family] than it is me”. Under New York law, each of the 34 felony counts Mr Trump was convicted of could result in up to four years in prison – though this is not considered a likely outcome.
In his interview on Fox, Mr Trump acknowledged the possibility of being imprisoned, saying that he is “okay with it” but that he is “not sure the public would stand for it”.
“I think it would be tough for the public to take,” he said. “You know, at a certain point there's a breaking point.” In another interview published over the weekend, the woman at the heart of the New York case – former adult film actress Stormy Daniels – said she was “shocked” at how quickly the jury reached a verdict.
In her first public remarks since the convictions, Ms Daniels told UK newspaper The Mirror that she believes Mr Trump “should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate”.
“Or being the volunteer punching bag at a woman's shelter,” she added.
Even after the conviction, Ms Daniels said that the case is “not over” for her.
“It's never going to be over for me,” she said. “Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy.”
Mr Trump is still facing dozens of other charges in three other criminal cases, including a Georgia case in which he is accused of conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat by President Joe Biden in the state during the 2020 election. That case is currently tied up in appeals.
In Florida – where he faces a federal case over his alleged mishandling of classified documents – a judge has indefinitely postponed the trial, saying setting a date before resolving questions about evidence would be “imprudent”.
— CutC by bbc.com
