Lawyer tells BBC nothing will change Trump’s fight in White House

A lawyer for Donald Trump has told the BBC that “nothing will change” his fight for the White House – despite being convicted after a historic trial in New York.

Jurors on Thursday found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted, but he said the trial was rigged and the prosecution politically orchestrated.

Alina Haba told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that the former president was “a victim of politically selective prosecution.”

After a seven-week trial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Trump found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Mr. Trump will be sentenced on July 11. However, he confirmed that he would appeal against his criminal conviction.

Ms Haba, 40, who sat next to Trump during the trial, said he would still run for the US presidency in November even if imprisoned.

“We’ve seen some corruption in this country that, frankly, we’ve never seen before in our justice system,” Ms Haba told Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.

“This is very real, this is no posturing, this is 100 percent an issue that this country must deal with and resolve in November.

“He’s running for president and nothing is going to change there.

“This country needs its people… more than anyone thinks.

“Our people are speaking out, donating money, they’re small-dollar donors, they’re standing up because they’re scared and because we can’t let this happen to us.”

On Friday, Trump spoke at Trump Tower in New York for more than 30 minutes, angrily attacking his political opponents, juries and judges.

He called Judge Juan Merchant, who presided over the trial, a “tyrant” and claimed he had “literally crucified” the witnesses.

In response, President Joe Biden’s campaign called Trump unhinged and hungry for revenge.

“This is how the American justice system works,” Biden said, adding that anyone doing so would be “reckless” and “irresponsible.” Implying the trial was rigged.

In the run-up to the November vote, Trump’s unprecedented steadfastness has deepened bitter divisions in the United States.

Prosecutors successfully built their case that Trump feared Ms. Daniels would fatally damage his 2016 presidential campaign by going public about the alleged sexual encounter, prompting him to pay her and then illegally concealing the transaction.

Trump has denied the accusations.

Ms Daniels herself gave evidence. In another development since the conviction, Ms. Daniels wore a bulletproof vest when she went to the New York court, her lawyer told ABC News.

Clark Brewster said of the atmosphere around Ms. Daniels: “It was so vicious, so threatening, so I think it was just fear of what someone might do.”

“It’s really fear.”

Earlier, Ms Daniels’ husband, Barrett Blade, told CNN she felt “a little bit vindicated”.

Mr Blade added that while the end of the trial had brought some relief, the stress was far from over.

“What happened next put another burden on her,” Mr. Blade said.

“We take it day by day.”

Also on Saturday, the Trump campaign sent a text message to supporters — one of more than a dozen sent since the sentencing — that read in part: “They want me to go to jail. They want me to go to jail. I die.

Some of his most ardent supporters, such as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have claimed without evidence that there was a secret plot to assassinate Trump.

Others have advanced a less conspiratorial argument – pointing out that the maximum penalty Trump faces is 34 felonies, four years each, which effectively means he will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Trump alluded to this in a recent fundraising message, saying his enemies were “trying to jail me for life as an innocent man.”

However, legal experts agree that Trump’s sentence will not be close to the maximum and that if he is sentenced to prison, his sentence will be much shorter.

Additional reporting by Mike Wendling.

The full interview with Alina Habba will be broadcast on Sunday by Laura Kuenssberg BBC One and BBC iPlayer Sunday 2 June 09:00 BST.