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'His legacy is just beyond trash': New Yorkers pile on Trump after crushing conviction

New York City denizens are reveling in Donald Trump's conviction on 34 felony counts in a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, expressing sentiments from good riddance to glee at his downfall in interviews with the New York Times.

Trump, once a titan in New York City real estate circles, could be headed to prison with Judge Juan Merchan setting a sentencing date for July 11, and one New Yorker claiming he and many others "would like to push him out of the headlines.”

According to the Times report from Maggie Haberman and Jesse McKinley, "... the city that helped make him rich and famous has become his battleground. And Mr. Trump keeps losing. His conviction this week was the third and heaviest blow the former president has been dealt in his erstwhile hometown this year — a series of challenges to his ego, his bottom line, and now, perhaps, his freedom."

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Case in point, Robert Clark, 63, of Williamsburg, stated, "I woke up with a smile on my face,” the morning after the jury delivered their verdict.

Retiree Mark Samuels, 70, added, "His legacy is just beyond trash. We’re in one of the most important cities on earth and he came and he fell. It’s his rise and fall.”

The report adds, "Lennox Hannan, 63, a writer who lives in Williamsburg, said he was 'overjoyed' and compared Mr. Trump to a mafia boss, Richard Nixon and even more unsavory characters. He also said the verdict also swelled his pride as a New Yorker, saying 'the beginning of his downfall' had happened in the city."

“It’s fitting the first justice he’s faced has been in New York City,” Hannan added. “It all comes back to New York City.”

You can read more here.

'Deck stacked against' Trump as he faces years in N.Y. felony appeals process: experts

Should Donald Trump appeal his conviction on 34 felony counts in New York as expected, he shouldn't count on a quick resolution in a process that could run years — well past the November presidential election.

Add to that, the New York Times is reporting that appeals courts in the state of New York are reluctant to overturn judgments unless the circumstances are particularly egregious with few legal experts seeing evidence of that in the former president's trial.

With that in mind, the Times is reporting that Trump is bucking up against a "stacked deck" that is not in his favor.

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According to Barry Kamins, a retired judge who teaches at Brooklyn Law School, Trump's case is like no other which could slow down the process, with Kamins telling the Times, "This is all uncharted territory, as far as an appellate issue.”

Adding to Trump's woes is the fact that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has assigned a seasoned expert in the appeals process, attorney Steven Wu, "to ensure that Mr. Trump does not escape his conviction."

The slow pace of the process in New York also does not favor the former president.

With Judge Juan Merchan setting July 11 as Trump's sentencing date, the Times reports, "The sentencing will start a 30-day clock for Mr. Trump to file a notice of appeal. That notice is just a legal stake in the ground. Mr. Trump will then have to mount the actual appeal at the New York State’s Appellate Division, First Department. The panel of appellate court judges most likely would not hear arguments until next year, and might not issue a decision until early 2026."

The report goes on to note that D.A. Bragg could grind Trump's legal team down even more by asking the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, to review any rulings from the lower court.

According to Mark Zauderer, a longtime New York litigator, Trump's lower court ruling doesn't appear to be one suitable for review by the Supreme Court.

“This is a garden-variety state court conviction. I don't see a plausible path to the Supreme Court,” he explained.

You can read more here.

Lara Trump says Biden responsible for juror security issues amid reports of violent threat

The 12 jurors who sat for five weeks and reached a unanimous guilty verdict in District Attorney Alvin Bragg's 34-criminal count prosecution of Donald Trump are now being targeted, apparently by some of the ex-president's anonymous supporters, with calls to "dox" and even kill them. And they're using some of the same platforms used by January 6 organizers and insurrectionists.

"On social media and web forums, users called for jurors, judges and prosecutors to be killed after the former president was found guilty on 34 felony counts," NBC News reports, adding the guilty verdicts have also "spurred a wave of violent rhetoric aimed at the prosecutors," and the judge.

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Life behind bars would be 'humiliating' and 'degrading' for Trump: ex-white collar inmate

Former president Donald Trump's lifestyle would be turned on its head if Judge Juan Merchan handed down a sentence that includes incarceration, according to one prison expert.

The Daily Beast recently interviewed Sam Mangel, who was sentenced to 60 months behind bars for financial crimes in 2020 and now works as a prison consultant. He told the outlet that even if Trump were to get special considerations in prison as a senior citizen and a former president, daily life behind bars would still be extremely unpleasant for him.

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Mass shooting survivor reaches cash settlement with former government employer

CHICAGO — The Park District of Highland Park reached a $80,000 settlement with a former employee who says he experienced post-traumatic stress disorder following a mass shooting he witnessed on the job, according to documents Raw Story exclusively received.

Chris Maliszewski, a former recreation director for the Park District, was terminated from his job in December when he says he was unable to return to work after experiencing a panic attack on the job following an active shooter incident, news Raw Story broke earlier this year.

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Trump allies were glad he didn't take questions at post-verdict event: reporter

It was billed as a press conference but became a mini-MAGA rally.

So says Maggie Haberman of the New York Times on Donald Trump's morning speech, which was delivered in the gilded lobby of Fifth Avenue's Trump Tower on Friday morning without the 45th president fielding any questions.

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Defendants in Merchan's courtroom say toughness of sentences depends on level of 'respect'

According to past defendants who have had their criminal trials overseen by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, a guilty defendant's sentence depends entirely on their level of respect for the courtroom and how remorseful they are after the verdict is announced.

The Daily Beast recently interviewed several past defendants who Merchan sentenced in previous trials, and virtually all of them agreed that the judge who presided over Trump's first criminal trial was tough, but fair and even-keeled. One defendant was Andrew Rossig, who was sentenced over a BASE jumping incident in which he parachuted from the top of the One World Trade Center building in lower Manhattan (built over the original site of the Twin Towers) in 2013.

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Internet hammers right-wing group for 'absolutely unamerican' display after Trump verdict

A conservative think tank with a controversial plan for if Donald Trump wins the presidential election was under fire on Friday after flying their headquarters' flag upside down and then advertising it.

Heritage Foundation, known in part for its "Project 2025" plan to remake the government in MAGA's image, posted a photo of its upside-down flag on social media after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in a hush money cover-up case in New York. The stunt is likely a reference to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, whose wife reportedly flew an upside-down American flag in response to a neighbor's anti-Trump signs and a follow-up fight.

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'I've got tears in my eyes': Judge blows up claim that Trump can't get jail time

A fracas over whether or not Donald Trump will be punished with prison or spared got heated between a retired New York judge and a white shoe defense attorney.

Retired Queens County Supreme Court Judge George Grasso debated with attorney Arthur Aidala, who represents such clients as convicted Hollywood studio head Harvey Weinstein, over the appropriate punishment that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should seek and ultimately New York Judge Juan Merchan impose on 77-year-old convicted Trump.

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'I'm gonna get blacklisted': Apprentice insider confirms tape of Trump using n-word exists

One of the four producers behind the 2004 TV smash hit "The Apprentice" that rocketed Donald Trump into global stardom opened up about the former president's purportedly controversial remarks on the show.

Bill Pruitt, appearing on CNN's "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins a day after his Slate exposé "The Donald Trump I Saw on The Apprentice" was published, recounted a particular incident that he believes was captured on tape.

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'That's not true': CNN host catches Trump ally Kristi Noem in lie about N.Y. trial

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and CNN's Erin Burnett locked horns over the contention that President Biden's Justice Department was pulling the legal strings in Donald Trump's New York State criminal conviction.

"Look at what happened this week, what President Biden and his team have been able to do: to distract America with this trial and we're not talking about the open Border," she told the host. "The fact that President Biden is violating federal law by allowing this [sic] —."

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'I'm kind of speechless': Swing state voter who was 'rooting for' Trump shocked by verdict

Following former President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records in New York, voters have had a wide variety of reactions, ranging from jubilation to fury and even threats against the people involved in the case.

But in swing states, noted USA Today, some voters are still just trying to process it all — and one profiled in Wisconsin is just confused by the whole thing.

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'Take care of Merchan': Trump supporters thirst for violence after New York conviction

Immediately following former President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction in New York, there was a push in pro-Trump online spaces to expose the identities of the jurors who convicted him.

But that's just the beginning, reported Reuters: the conviction has triggered a rising chorus of threats and calls for violence among Trump supporters, including against presiding Judge Juan Merchan.

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