In a post-trial press conference on Friday, Trump vowed to appeal what he called a "hoax" and "scam" verdict on falsifying business records related to a payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Trump asserted that he was forced to endure an "unfair" trial in which Judge Juan Merchan refused to allow an election law expert to testify on Trump's behalf. The former president complained about Merchan's allowing "salacious" testimony involving his contact with Daniels that "has nothing to do with this case." Among a litany of other criticisms of the case, Trump said that a payment for a routine "non disclosure agreement" with Daniels has been wrongly characterized as "hush money." He also repeatedly asserted that federal prosecutors had declined to file a case against him related to the Daniels episode and the business records.
An attorney for Trump, Will Scharf, told CNN that the trial was "replete with reversible errors." Trump is due to be sentenced July 11 on his conviction of 34 felony counts, a few days before the Republican national convention, but he is expected to be free during a lengthy appeals process that is likely to extend beyond the Nov. 5 election. In a column asserting that Trump "bungled the trial," former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori wrote for Politico that the grounds for appeal have "almost nothing to do with the salacious and supposedly extraneous details offered by Daniels about her sexual encounter with Trump — after all, Trump and his legal team foolishly invited that testimony themselves by denying its existence — but with the underlying legal architecture of the case, which imported complex principles of federal election law into a state law case about false business records."