Former US President Donald Trump on Friday gave a speech at Trump Tower in which he railed against his criminal conviction in the hush money trial, AFP reported.
"It was very unfair... You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side -- they were literally crucified," Trump said in the speech in Manhattan, in which he called his adversaries "sick" and "fascists."
He vowed to challenge his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, declaring "we're going to be appealing this scam... on many different things."
Trump also said that he wanted to testify, as was his legal right, but that he was not permitted to.
The former President said he was "honored" to take on the legal establishment but that "it's very bad for my family, it's very bad for my friends and businesses."
The 12-person jury on Thursday found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The verdict came in the jury's second day of deliberations. Trump thus becomes the first former US President to be convicted in criminal court. The sentencing is scheduled for July 11.
The conviction does not prevent Trump from running in the presidential election this coming November. He is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee after securing enough delegates in the primaries in various states.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)