Utah’s most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump reacted swiftly to Thursday’s verdict in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, mostly blaming the former president’s historic conviction on 34 felony counts in New York on political machinations.
A New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying records to keep his sexual relationship with an adult film actress from becoming public because he feared the revelation would jeopardize his 2016 presidential campaign.
It took fewer than 10 minutes after the verdict for Sen. Mike Lee to start posting about Trump’s conviction on social media.
On his official U.S. Senate account, Lee said the case was “marred by unclear charges” and was a “political prosecution to help Joe Biden.”
On his personal BasedMikeLee account, the Utah senator’s reaction was much less measured as he posted on social media a dozen times in the first hour following the verdict. By comparison, Trump only posted on his Truth Social account eight times during the same timeframe.
Lee, a former assistant U.S. attorney, careened erratically between predicting the conviction would guarantee Trump an election victory in November to claiming Trump’s prosecution was a campaign contribution to Democrat Joe Biden while also comparing the trial to the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. He also shared a fundraising link for Trump’s presidential campaign.
“Congratulations, progressives,” Lee posted. “You’ve just guaranteed Trump’s election.
In response to a post from Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan urging Americans to respect the verdict and legal process, Lee responded, “I don’t respect this verdict. Nor should anyone.”
Rep. Burgess Owens also jumped on the bandwagon claiming Thursday’s verdict was politically motivated, complaining that the justice system had “descended into a two-tiered sham.”
“The American people know this crooked case was never about the rule of law, but a political witch hunt perpetrated against the Democrat’s political opponent, President Trump,” Owens posted.
The reaction from Owens’ official social media account said Democrats “trampled the rule of law” to convict Trump.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Trent Staggs, who scored a surprise endorsement from Trump the morning of the Utah Republican’s nominating convention last month, said Trump’s conviction for election interference was the real act of election fraud.
Staggs also shared Trump’s fundraising link in a post claiming the guilty verdict was politically motivated.
“This manufactured conviction isn’t because he’s guilty it’s because they can’t beat him in the ballot box,” Staggs posted.
Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
Former House Speaker Brad Wilson, who is also running for U.S. Senate, also fell in line behind the narrative that the conviction was political.
“The verdict today makes a mockery of our criminal justice system. This trial has been a sham orchestrated for one reason: Democrats know that Joe Biden is losing,” Wilson wrote. “This is nothing more than an attempt to interfere with the American people’s right to decide for themselves who our next President should be.”
Gov. Spencer Cox, a longtime critic of Trump, said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune that the verdict could erode faith in the legal system.
“I have consistently expressed grave concerns about these charges since the Manhattan [district attorney] filed them in March 2023. Several other prosecutors looked at the allegations and declined to prosecute because the circumstances and witnesses were deeply problematic,” Cox said. “The DA further used a novel legal theory to turn misdemeanors into felonies. No one is above the law, but in this case, I believe the indictment was a mistake and should have never been brought forward. This outcome is a dark day for our country.”
Rep. Phil Lyman’s campaign social media echoed the defense of Trump that the charges were politically motivated, adding that the “average American” could see through the “weaponization” of government agencies. Lyman, Cox’s Republican opponent in the June primary election, s he was not in control of those campaign social media accounts when he came under fire for blaming the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on diversity and inclusion programs.
Rep. Brian King, the Democratic nominee for governor, argued that Thursday’s verdict showed that nobody is above the law.
“I have dedicated my entire career as an attorney to advocating for the rule of law. Today’s conviction by a New York jury reaffirms the importance of our judicial system. Beyond the verdict itself, the process demonstrates the validity of our system of justice,” King said in a statement.
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson did not comment on the verdict Thursday afternoon but said she was “praying for the safety of those jurors and their families.”
