Former President Trump in a new video is asking his supporters to join him in his “fight for America” after he was found guilty in his New York hush money trial.
“This is the final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state. We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists; we will cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” Trump’s voice says over an ominous black-and-white clip of the former president walking toward the camera.
“We will rout the fake news media. And we will liberate America from these villains once and for all,” Trump’s narration continues. The audio appeared to be pulled from one of his rallies.
The 35-second video concludes with a call to “join President Trump’s fight for America.”
After a jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records, Trump quickly decried the verdict as “rigged” and pitched himself as “a very innocent man.”
He also moved quickly to raise money off the jury’s decision, writing to his base that he was the victim of an unfair trial as he runs to return to the White House in November.
Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a felony, and is set to face sentencing in July, just before the Republican National Convention. Prison time is a possibility, though experts have said that’s unlikely. He could also be barred from casting a ballot in his home state of Florida.
A felony conviction isn’t a barrier to seeking the Oval Office, but the development is nevertheless set to roil the presidential race as Trump and President Biden are set to go toe-to-toe in a November rematch.
The former president faced 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, made amid the 2016 cycle to adult film star Stormy Daniels to quiet her allegations of an affair with Trump a decade prior. Trump pleaded not guilty and denies the affair.