Donald Trump, fuming over his new status as a convicted felon, has been blaming Joe Biden for orchestrating his New York trial, claiming he sought to eliminate a political rival even though the charges were brought by an independently elected local prosecutor.
Political and legal analysts were quick to pile on Trump's false claim, including one of his former lawyers.
"Joe Biden or anyone from his Justice Department have absolutely zero to do with the Manhattan District Attorney," said attorney Joe Tacopina, who was due to represent Trump in his trial but quit the defense team before proceedings began. "They have no jurisdiction over him, they have no context with him, they have no control, certainly, over him, so to say Joe Biden brought this case is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard."
Tacopina, appearing on Rev. Al Sharpton's "PoliticsNation" show on MSNBC, disagreed with the host at times. Sharpton argued that Trump's conviction showed that the jury believed the case against him was sound, but Tacopina suggested that jurors were never going to give the former president "the benefit of the doubt," given how unpopular Trump is in the city. Still, he conceded, the jurors' unanimous vote to convict "validates the Manhattan District Attorney's prosecution to a degree," and negates the claim of a "political witch-hunt of Joe Biden," who "did not know who these jurors were."
Despite the flimsiness of Trump's accusation, a slew of his allies have echoed the claims, with Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.,, angrily condemning Joe Biden's alleged use of "the justice system against a political opponent." A group of Republican senators is also pledging to block any non-security-related legislative activity in the Senate in protest of the jury's verdict.
However, when Trump lawyer Will Scharf took his case to ABC's George Stephanopoulos, he was quickly shut down.
"I vehemently disagree that President Biden and his political allies aren’t up to their necks in this prosecution," Scharf maintained.
“There’s no evidence of that,” Stephanopoulos interjected. “Sir, I’m not gonna let you continue to say that. There’s just zero evidence of that.”
Trump and his allies' rhetoric has been followed by MAGA supporters making violent threats against Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the jurors and anyone they see as culpable for the Republican candidate's conviction.
"Who'll ever want to be a juror again?" Tacopina noted, warning that such threats cut to the heart of the American justice system.
