Trump lawyer says legal team will appeal conviction, comply with pre-sentence investigation

Will Scharf, a member of Donald Trump's legal team, said Sunday that the former president will appeal his conviction on 34 counts in New York, but in the meantime he will comply with a pre-trial investigation. sentence.

Trump's conviction, centered on allegations that he hid a secret payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election, will be investigated by the Probation Department, which will include an interview with Trump. A report following the conclusion of the investigation will provide Judge Juan Merchan with a sentencing recommendation, experts told ABC News.

“The President will cooperate with the pre-sentence investigation. And we will promptly appeal this unjust verdict. I believe this case is rife with reversible errors. We plan to vigorously defend President Trump's rights in the appellate courts until 'all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary,' Scharf told ABC's 'This Week' anchor George Stephanopoulos.

Trump and his legal team have repeatedly called the case against him flimsy and the subsequent trial a “sham,” with particular enmity reserved for Merchan, whom Scharf, Trump and the former president's allies have called biased, citing a $15 donation he had received. made to President Joe Biden in 2020.

The barbs grew to the point that Merchan imposed a silence on Trump, barring him from commenting on the judge's family, witnesses, jurors and others involved in the trial.

In the days following his conviction, Trump intensified his attacks on Merchan, including calling him a “devil.”

“These are all things that President Trump absolutely needs to comment on. I think the fact that he worked under the radar for as long as he did was blatantly unfair. So yes, absolutely. President Trump needs to deliver his message to the American people,” Scharf said Sunday.

Scharf also pointed to Merchan in explaining why Trump did not testify himself, arguing that the judge's limits on what could have been asked of the former president on the stand were too broad.

“I think in light of Judge Merchan's ruling on the scope of allowed cross-examination, which I think was completely wrong…I think it would have been dangerous for President Trump to to speak. But I think if President Trump had spoken, stand, certainly live. [examination] he would have been a compelling witness,” he said.

In addition to being historic in itself, as it is the first time a former president has been convicted of a crime, this conviction also offers a rare chance to potentially change a race between two men with almost name recognition universal that Trump has, until now, been considered a leader.

Democrats have speculated in recent days that the news could influence undecided voters not to vote for Trump, and that even a marginal movement could change the results in key states. Republicans, meanwhile, boasted that the conviction would strengthen Trump's base — a claim that Biden surrogate and Gov. Wes Moore, Democrat of Maryland, rejected.

“The American people have just had a bird's eye view of how, over the last few months, these two individuals are handling the trials. You know, you look at President Biden and the trials that he's had to face, from things like deadly storms in the Midwest…And on the other side, you see Donald Trump, who also faced lawsuits, except those lawsuits were his,” Moore told Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

“Those trials resulted in criminal convictions. And I think you see a very clear example of what it means to have a president who is focused on our future, on our freedoms. And on the other side, you see Donald Trump , who, frankly, spends this time concentrated, focusing on his own freedoms and his own future.

Asked about an ongoing debate among Democrats about how much to focus on Trump's conviction, Moore pivoted, knocking Trump over his past assertions that black voters may identify more with him because of his legal problems .

“I hear the argument that people are saying that the fact that he's a convicted felon is actually going to help him and, in particular, that it's going to help him in communities of color, in African-American communities. American…It's a very — it's a deeply problematic and deeply offensive argument,” Moore said.

“What’s going to resonate in the African-American community, what’s going to resonate in the community as a whole, is having a person, a president like we did. [in] President Biden, who is actually focused on our future. The fact that President Trump is now a convicted felon does not make him resonate with any community, does not make us more connected to anyone else. »