The Bay Area’s congressional delegation weighed in with brief statements on social media to guilty verdicts handed down Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial.
“This moment is a somber one for America,” House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Trial by a jury of peers is a fundamental principle of democracy, which must be respected.”
A Manhattan jury on Thursday afternoon found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the criminal trial against him. Sentencing is set for July 11 for the former president, who will face President Joe Biden in the November election.
U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland said Trump was now a convicted felon and commended “the brave public servants that worked to perform their civic duty under extraordinary circumstances.”
Reaction from California Republican Party leaders criticized the verdicts, and said voters would have a chance in the November to send Trump back to the White House.
“Today’s guilty verdict is a dark day for our justice system that never should have happened,” California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan said in a statement on Thursday. “From the very beginning, this was a politically-motivated case brought by a far-left district attorney.”
In a short post on X, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, said “The 2024 election now comes down to this: Do you want a convicted felon in the White House? Or do you want Scranton Joe — who fights and delivers for working families everyday?”
U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler, appointed to serve out the term of the late Dianne Feinstein, said “Today’s verdict proves that ours is a nation of laws and it remains true that no one is above it.”
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, on X said “This verdict is not a win for any single person. It’s a win for an idea. The idea that we all follow the same rules. The rule of law won today.”
On X, Congressman Mark DeSaulnier, D-Walnut Creek, said the verdict shows that “no one, not even an ex-President, is above the rule of law. I hope that justice will be served and that the punishment fits his crimes.”