Former President Donald Trump is now officially a convicted felon after a 12-person Manhattan jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on all 34 counts in the indictment. He will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 AM.
Various journalists, activists and legal experts on social media viewed the verdict as both an important moment for both the United States' legal system and for democracy as a whole. In a post to X (formerly Twitter), the New Republic's Greg Sargent opined that Thursday marked a particularly significant day for American institutions.
"This time the pressure brought to bear was extreme: An entire political party cast the proceedings as illegitimate," Sargent tweeted, with an added reference to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts). "Nevertheless, they persisted."
READ MORE: Donald Trump guilty on all counts in New York criminal trial
Author and political consultant Stuart Stevens also weighed in on the verdict, tweeting that Trump is merely the latest member of his inner circle to be convicted of felony crimes. As Axios reported earlier this year, several high-level Trump associates like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn and others have also not only been found guilty in their own criminal proceedings, but have also been sentenced.
"Donald Trump is a felon," Stevens wrote. "He joins his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, national security advisor, foreign policy advisor, political consultant, and personal lawyer as felons."
Bloomberg Opinion editor Tim O'Brien noted the significance of the verdict, writing that the 77-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee "has spent decades circumventing and flouting the law."
"He spent his presidency and the years since undermining the rule of law," O'Brien tweeted. "And the law finally caught up to him."
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Trump and his supporters likewise bemoaned the verdict. The ex-president called the process "A RIGGED TRIAL BY A CONFLICTED JUDGE WHO IS CORRUPT" in a Truth Social post. Far-right pundit Tucker Carlson slammed the verdict while also simultaneously referring to the United States as a "third world" country, and appeared to associate Trump's guilty verdict with immigration.
"Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw," Carlson tweeted. "This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family."
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who defended Trump outside of the courthouse alongside a hodgepodge of other Republican leaders, said the verdict was a "shameful day in American history." He added that a jury funding the former president guilty was "further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents."
President Joe Biden didn't mention the verdict itself, but posted a tweet with a link to donate to his campaign that simply read, "There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box."
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