MSNBC Breaks Down Trump’s Response After Historic Guilty Verdict: ‘His Own Worst Enemy’

The network’s panel weighs in on how the former president’s remarks about witnesses violated his gag order

MSNBC brought on defense attorney Misty Marris and New York City Judge George Grasso to help the news panel break down Donald Trump’s post-conviction remarks following his hush money trial.

The pair of legal experts mentioned that the former president’s “combative” comments could greatly impact how he’s sentenced come July 11.

“I just want to say, the whole nonsecular issue of Trump saying that migrants are crossing the border with barbecue grills to be part of an army,” host Jose Diaz-Balart began of Trump’s comments about migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. “I mean, just this whole weirdness … unless they’re coming in to be an army of grill masters or something. These issues matter, and how you talk about people and how you talk about a humanitarian crisis. But anyway, I’m still processing that.”

The discussion came after Trump denounced his guilty verdict after he was convicted on all 34 charges in his Manhattan fraud trial in which he was accused of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. On Thursday, Trump called the trial “rigged” and vowed to fight and appeal the felony conviction.

In doing do, defense attorney Marris noted the former president may have broken some of the guidelines in his gag order, particularly when he claimed the witnesses in the case were “literally crucified.”

“Well, first of all, the gag order says you can’t talk about witnesses in the case, so there were certainly potential violations to the extent, he was talking about witnesses who testified,” Marris said. “Something I thought was really, really interesting is that he talked about his lawyers and not being happy with them, and it’s something we’ve spoken about throughout the whole trial, that actually it seemed like some of the arguments that were raised by his defense were likely, at his behest, that he wanted to say, ‘I never had this affair with Stormy Daniels,’ which was really not relevant to the legal aspects of the case.”

She continued, “Even having Robert Costello testify, which ended up being a bit disastrous for the defense. Those all seem that they were maybe driven by the client, so I found it interesting that he said, ‘I don’t like the way my lawyers were talking about this.’”

New York City Judge Grasso then chimed in on how Trump’s press conference had “combative” remarks that could impact how he’ll be sentenced.

“That’s a big deal. Trump was really his own worst enemy as far as that one. Right now, a part of the probation is working on a pre-sentencing report the judge must consider in terms of whether he’s going to decide to impose jail,” Grasso said. “He could impose jail. It’s up to one of three or four years, or no jail, probation or some combination thereof. So one of the main things a judge looks for, is you want to see if there’s some remorse, some contrition, some repentance. We saw the exact opposite. So I think Trump did tremendous, tremendous harm to himself there.”

Trump’s conviction marks the first time in history that a former president has been found guilty in court for a crime. His sentencing is set for July 11, just days before Republicans are expected to select him as their 2024 nominee.

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