i m paul gigot. a manhattan jury found donald trump guilty this week on all 34 counts of false iffying business records, the first time in history that a former u.s. president has been convicted of a felony. thursday afternoon s verdict marked a dramatic end to the almost 6-week trial, but trump vowed that the legal fight is not over. this was a rigged decision right from day one. with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case, never. and we will fight for our constitution. this is far from over. paul: let s bring in jim trusty, a former federal prosecutor and former donald trump attorney. welcome, jim. good to see you again. so what do you make of this verdict? well, it s not a shock, unfortunately. i mean, this is the lawfare. it s really at a its worst with. you had a politicized prosecutor who had a picked through the trash of a case that the southern district of new york specifically rejected doing that his predecessor rejected doing, but
magnitude. that s strike one. strike two was hat whole trial proceeded, paul, without anyone really knowing what the theory of felonization was until instructions. that s an absurd or procedural error, and i kuwait process with fairness i equate process with fairness that infected this case from the beginning. so when the the judge finally gave the instructions on what made these misdemeanor bookkeeping entries felonies, it was kind of a menu, a buffet menu of you don t really have to decide whether there was a federal i m sorry, a felony violation or what the exact basis is, just decide there s something illegal. it gives them three options which were vague and in some cases federal, which makes no sense in state court. is so i think that s the error probably the sexiest area for appeal is that coupled with the denial of the fec chair s testimony because that a just inflames the problem of mystery instructions that include federal ones getting