politics nation. tonight's lead, guilty on all counts. it has been exactly 48 hours since donald trump became the first former president convicted of a felony in our nations history. the judgment rendered by a jury of his peers in the very same manhattan court complex where the exonerated convicted nearly 35 years ago as he called for the death penalty for them. trump is calling himself a political prisoner. even as he remains free to travel and campaign while he awaits sentencing in july. his republican allies are echoing his claim of a political witchhunt, attacking the judge and the jury and even as they posture as the party of law and order. meantime some chum supporters are taking things further. they place the participants in the preceding in very real danger. it was as a trial that pushed the limits of democracy. now the verdict has placed us even further into uncharted territory . joining me now is joe, a former attorney for donald trump. thanks for being with us tonight, historic week to say the least. donald trump has filed to appeal his 34 count guilty verdict, which we will get into shortly, but at his rambling come a 40 minute press conference yesterday, he blamed president biden and his people, and he called them along with new york judge, judge merchan , alvin bragg, and his former lawyer michael cohen who he would not name under the gag order against him, he is claiming that the trial was rigged, calling himself a political prisoner, having represented jump, tell us what is going through his mind right now as you got to know him. what is he thinking? >> i was going to use this as a campaign booth, that's only thing he is thinking. he's clearly trying to use this as some sort of martyr, to try to position himself as a martyr and use this as someone who has been politically attacked by his components -- opponents and that the justice system has been politicized. that's what he's going to do. this is a bomb on the political landscape, make no mistake about it. i also think there is a sliver of americans who are undecided. i think the people who are supporters of donald trump, whether convicted on all four indictments, and let that swivel around your brain when you say it -- residential candidate who has 34 indictments, one conviction, or the people who are against him certainly this is not doing anything to change that. so, i just don't know at the end of the day what affect this is going to really have on the election. there's a sliver of undecided americans who may say, i can't have a convicted felon as our president. >> joe, we are talking about 34 felonies he was found guilty of , they may go through and he has the right to go through an appeals process, but tonight he has been found guilty of 34 felonies and as you know, i have worked most of my life in civil rights, a lot of it in criminal justice cases, and i don't know anybody in the neighborhood i grew up with that walks around with 34 felony convictions. that is a lot. so, aside from the election, what it does to the country and what it does to the perception of young people that run off the retail to do the right thing. let me go into this, in the last weeks of the trial, we watched several republican lawmakers, lawmakers, including the house speaker mike johnson, circle the wagons around trump, visiting the courthouse to show loyalty to their nominee, since the verdict came down, many of those same lawmakers have doubled down on the support, calling for the supreme court to step in. take a listen to what johnson, congressman byron donalds and senator tim scott have said since the conviction thursday. >> they might have it today but they are not going to last long. what happened in new york is a travesty of justice, and everybody knows it. >> i can't believe the hoax, the sham, this absolute injustice, justice system, --. against a political opponent, un-american. joe biden, you are fired. >> i do believe the supreme court should step income obviously, this is totally unprecedented. and it is dangerous to our system. this will be overturned. it's going to take sometime. >> what are your thoughts on what you just heard? as i mentioned, they are just a few of the many of the republicans. >> what i hear, like tim scott is someone who i used to respect, but i lost a lot of respect from what i just heard because he sounded so uneducated, unintelligent, and made no sense at all. to say that, look, i understand there is a political motivation to a lot of what is going on in our country today, and everyone wants to paint with a broad brush and say this is a political vendetta and weaponization of the justice system. this is a state case. this is different than that jack smith cases. this is not a federal prosecution. joe biden or anyone from his justice department have absolutely zero to do with manhattan district attorney's office. they have no jurisdiction over him. have no context or control over him. to say that joe biden brought this case is one of the most ridiculous things i've heard. we know that's not the case, and even trumps lawyers know that is not the case. >> wait right there because as you say, even trumps lawyers know that's the case. you are an attorney with trump. you were on his case early and got off the case, so you are speaking as one that knew, as you signed into work for trump, what you explained on this show why you got out. this had nothing to do with joe biden or any other federal government trying to lean in on donald trump. >> the federal government has no input on the manhattan district state prosecution. the federal government and joe biden cannot direct command, request a state prosecutor to bring charges. they have no jurisdiction. the same way the president would not be able to pardon anyone who is convicted of a state crime. it is only left to the governor of that state. people who say that make it scary that they really don't know the law or what they are talking about. to suggest that joe biden would be behind a manhattan prosecution is silly. that's not the issue. the issue is, is this the case that would have been brought against anyone else other than donald trump? i still say the answer is probably no. because, it's a case that really put together a lot of different theories, a misdemeanor, business records crime, coupled with an undescribed felony crime and that's the part where there is some powder in that gun where you could argue that, hey, this was done because it was him. but joe biden had nothing to do with this and this is nothing about a political opponent being persecuted by the justice system. in this case. >> but even if you think as you stated, and i don't agree, that may be it would have been brought against anyone else, you have to admit that donald trump's lawyers, his defense lawyers laid there in front of the jury, they heard it, they even had the law read back at a jury of his peers, not only said yes it was a crime by voting guilty, they went with the decision and a charge of the judge that it was in the rights of this court to find donald trump guilty as a felon in these particular indictments. so, i think if people could argue what they didn't understand, the defense laid all that out, the judge charged it and they reread it to the verdict. and the jury still voted and disagreed with your assessment. >> i didn't say they were wrong or whatever, all i said was i don't think this case would have been brought against someone else if they were named -- not named donald trump. the justice department, previous d.a. -- i'm just saying this case, reverend. but the jury's verdict is different. that also validates the men hadn't district to a degree. it certainly removes it from the political witchhunt of joe biden. joe biden didn't know who the jurors were. no one knew who they were. so, 12 independent new yorkers game together and pronounced guilty. that's where you have to stop with, it's a political witchhunt. you have a jury who has spoken, peers of the community, of donald trump. here's the reality, and you and i both know this. we are lifelong new yorkers and we love our city, but we also know that donald trump is one of the most unpopular people in new york city. what i think part of this is, it's a little bit of a lifetime achievement award. the new yorkers really were not going to give him the benefit of any doubt and that is part of this. i really do. >> let me then go here. as soon as the verdict was handed down, there was a surge in social media post calling for or threatening violence against alvin bragg, judge merchan and the jurors who unanimously agreed on his guilt. this includes attempts to identify and publish their home address or dachshund. but that is the only recent example of trump supporters, acting on threats against those involved. often with trump's own tacit encouragement. how worried should we be about this? >> worried. i'm worried. it's shocking and mind-boggling. there should be an immediate denouncement from the trump campaign to those statements. those cuts to the core of our democracy. when you are threatening jurors, people who were ripped out of their lives, gave eight weeks of their life away from their families and jobs to serve their community, to do something that really is as important as anything other than military service, when you do that, you really -- who is going to want to be a juror again? it is the most -- i read that and i got chills. i understand the ramifications. i think you knew some of these people are just not mentally positioned and ill enough to not enact on these things. they will read that and think that's what that's supposed to mean. these are the same people who thought it was a good idea to storm the capital on january 6th. said on nancy pelosi's disc and try to kill mike pence, if they could find him. >> finally, joe, let me ask you this. you briefly worked on this case and you knew a bit of that mind- set. you left the case and went back working on various diverse this civil rights places. he has talked a big game about how the trial was rigged and real judgment day would be on november 5th. how angry do you think he is that he has been convicted of 34 felonies? he can appeal. is going to have to go through the process, department one, court of appeals statewide on and on, but right now, before the selection and i don't see how he overturns anything if ever -- he is guilty of 34 felonies. how do you think it will affect him as he runs for president with this looming over his head? >> in our days in the past, if a congressman a low-level politician had as much as i'd drunken-driving case against him, that was it. they had to disappear from the political landscape. it's shocking to think that someone with 34 felony convictions could run for president and win. i think that's a real chance, but i know how he is right now and he is unhappy. whatever words he uses, i know he is furious. this is just one of four indictments and this was the one that everybody thought was the weakest. and people in his camp were telling him that the hung jury is very likely. all you need is one. but then you get into text graffiti. that is a fortune- telling method of trying to interpret tvs. when people are sang, -- i left. i engage in that if you will, it is an infliction that even the most experienced will try to determine what jurors are with you or against you. they thought a hung jury was in the making. and obviously, 11 hours of deliberation they came back pretty quickly, all 12 with a guilty verdict. >> unanimous. well, thank you for being with us and i will see you soon because i have a couple more civil rights cases where you attorney joe tacopina, thank you for joining us. joining me now onset is nbc legal analyst, catherine, a former assistant d.a. in the men hadn't district attorneys office. let's start with the sentences. scheduled for july 11th, four days before the republican convention, what are the possible penalties and what are the likely penalties in your opinion. >> no time. that judge will say time termed -- served. he will have to pay a fine and committee service. i don't see that, having the former president cleaning parks, which years ago people might remember naomi campbell was sentenced to that. or it could be jail, and jail means a year or less. rikers island, 30 days or it could be the maximum is up to four years, which means state prison, attica, sing sing, or it could be probation, where he would have to pro -- report to probation. >> is it possible to get home confinement? >> that's not really a sentence that is given in new york, but a judge has discretion to do that, as sort of a part of your conditional discharge would be that, meaning you can only go -- he won't be locked in trump tower but he would be limited and i can see the judge not doing that because he is, assuming he's not sentencing the person running for office, but it's going to be hard because there are mitigating circumstances. i can only two. one, he's 78 years old and the other is he has no prior criminal convictions. >> so his lawyers could argue, he's 77, 78, but i thought he was a youngster. i thought they were arguing that biden was old now they will have to argue he is old? >> he won't let them do that. if i were representing him, which i wouldn't be, but you would say, your honor, my client is 78. the aggravating circumstances is he has three open indictments in three different jurisdictions. he has civil liability he was found liable for abuse, defamation, fraud, involving the trump university, involving the trump organization, so and he has also violated this own judges gag order multiple times. he violated it in civil trial. there is a lot of aggravating circumstances that might lead to , okay, you are someone who should get some type of incarceration. >> now, when he left the courthouse the other day, is he on parole? >> there was no bail set, so he is just free because on a felony in new york, you cannot set rails. he has been returning to court anyway. >> trump has promised to appeal to is he unlikely to face any real punishment prior to the election? does he have a strong case in your opinion for an appeal? >> he has issues for an appeal, so -- i can't say you always have issues -- he will appeal the jury instructions. he will appeal that he was kept from testifying because the judge is allowing the prosecutor to ask without certain bad acts. so, the appeal, he has 30 days after his sentence to file a notice and it will be up to his lawyers how fast that appeal will go because there will be deadlines scheduled for them to file briefs and if everyone files everything on time, it could be heard by january of 2025. that's actually short in the appellate land in new york. >> you have heard his repeated claims that he is being treated worse than any other defendant because of his politics. i can't help but think of former baltimore prosecutor marilyn mosby who was sentenced last week to 12 months of home detention, three years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service 41 count of perjury and one count of mortgage fraud. trump, meanwhile is free to travel and campaign while he awaits sentencing. he continues to speak out about the case in spite of a gag order and as we have said, it's unclear he will ever finish -- face justice given the timing of the appeals process and the upcoming election. isn't it the case that he is being treated more leniently than the average defendant? >> how many -- and we are familiar with the justice system -- how many defendants have four open indictments in ford different jurisdictions who are free? just even starting with that and all of the chances he received from violating gag orders. we can just start with that, in my opinion, he has been treated very differently. and the sad part of former d.a. mosby, the prosecutor actually asked for 20 months in prison, so she thankfully had a judge who was kind and fair and said no, i'm not putting this woman in prison. >> if you compare her to trump, we see the difference. lastly, i must ask about the supreme court. on thursday, chief supreme court justice john roberts declined an invitation to meet with his democratic senators to talk about the courts ethical controversies including the upside down american flag that flew outside justice samuel alito's home. that flag was also flown by january 6th insurrectionist. i couldn't help but notice that same flag popped up again this week being flown by trump supporters, demonstrating after the announcement of trump's guilty verdict. the issue of supreme court justices being viewed as -- has been a problem for a while. but this seems like something beyond that. do you think it's a mistake for the chief justice not to engage in a real dialogue about it? >> or at least put out a statement. they created their own code of ethics, the supreme court did, but he's going to do as he did, separation of powers. i don't have to ship to congress because we are separate than you. there should be --. and the confidence in the court is being eroded by the public because of certain members on that court. >> all right, attorney catherine christian, thank you for being with us. coming up, jumps indictment trade a pivotal role in the republican primaries. now his convictions are looming large in the presidential election. our political panel talks about where things could be headed and that is next. next. e spell. how do you spell relief? r-o-l-a-i-d-s rolaids' dual-active formula begins to neutralize acid on contact. r-o-l-a-i-d-s spells relief. when you purchase a pair of bombas socks, tees, or underwear, you also donate one to someone facing homelessness. one purchased equals one donated. 100 million donations and counting. visit bombas.com and get 20% off your first order. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel, which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. craig here pays too much for verizon wireless. so he sublet half his real estate office... [ bird squawks loudly ] to a pet shop. meg's moving company uses t-mobile. so she scaled down her fleet to save money. and don's paying so much for at&t, he's been waiting to update his equipment! there's a smarter way to save. comcast business mobile. you could save up to 70% on your wireless bill. so you don't have to compromise. powering smarter savings. powering possibilities. welcome back to politics nation. it's been historic week in our nation's politics. let's bring in our panel to talk about it. democratic strategist valencia johnson, a former senior adviser for the biden 2020 campaign and now the chief impact officer at 1063 west broad, and susan, republican strategist and msnbc attributed susan, we have to start with the felony convictions. 's campaign claims they raise nearly $53 million in the first 24 hours after the verdict came down thursday. he also has gotten support from some billionaire donors like bill ackman, who is leading the charge against dei and elon musk . including senate minority leader mitch mcconnell who way back in 2021 had said, trump should be subject to the country's criminal and civil laws. has this moment further tightened trump's grip over the republican party? is that even possible? >> that's a great way of putting it. i don't know if it is possible to me more under trump's thumb with the small minority of republicans who voted for biden in 2020, or those who do speak out, but they are certainly in the minority. nothing is going to change the dynamic for trump within the political party. i was really surprised to see that, right after the verdict, a lot of republican congressmen who were in swing districts, meaning they have a tough road in a general election your , they came out