MANHATTAN—Kim Sabot, 60, drove in from Long Island, New York, and even booked a hotel room because she wanted to be present when the Manhattan Criminal Court case against President Trump was adjudicated.
“It’s history in the making,” Ms. Sabot told The Epoch Times.
Wearing a Make America Great Again (MAGA) baseball hat and waving a MAGA flag, Ms. Sabot was one of a group of supporters who were on hand today in lower Manhattan to protest against Mr. Trump’s conviction.
He was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Mr. Trump’s sentencing date is set for July 11.
Ms. Sabot and her friends were among the lone voices amid a sea of New Yorkers in favor of the guilty verdict and calling for Mr. Trump’s imprisonment, but she was undeterred.
“The verdict is great because it’s just going to put his numbers way up and it’s just exposing more corruption,” Ms. Sabot added.
For Manhattan resident Michael Handy, the verdict is bittersweet.
The 80-year-old military veteran is fearful the conviction will be overturned on appeal.
“I was hoping this verdict would happen but it’s mixed news in a way because I think it might not go anywhere,” Mr. Handy told The Epoch Times. “This feeds fuel to his fire. It may bolster some of his people because they believe him when he says the court system is corrupt.”
Queens resident Richie Frank, 52, said that the adjudication of guilt doesn’t change his mind about Mr. Trump.
Mr. Frank, who is of Dominican and Cuban descent, plans to vote for Mr. Trump in November.
“He’s a real guy,” he said. “I love the guy. He used to stop by in Queens and get a sandwich on 108 Street. Big tipper. Everybody says he’s racist but his limo driver was a black dude who said Trump treated him nice. All my family, except for one cousin … we’re all voting for Trump.”
West Harlem resident Vivica Jimenez, 50, is relieved that Mr. Trump received a guilty verdict because she believes he now has less of a chance to be reelected president in November.
The poster she held in her hands stated, “Trump, I Don’t Trust You.”
“He is white,” Ms. Jimenez told The Epoch Times. “He is privileged. He asked for the Central Park Five to be executed so many years ago, and those poor kids were innocent. He’s a fraud. He’s a charlatan.”
Ms. Jimenez was referring to the full-page advertisements Mr. Trump placed in New York newspapers in 1989 calling for capital punishment to be reinstated so that those who allegedly raped a jogger in Central Park would be put to death.
One of the exonerated members of the “Central Park Five,” Yusef Salaam, was elected to the New York City Council.
Mr. Salaam posted on social media in April: “On May 1, 1989, almost thirty-four years ago, Donald J. Trump spent $85,000 to take out full-page ads in The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post and New York Newsday, calling for the execution of the Central Park Five…an act he has never apologized for, even after someone else confessed to and was convicted of the crime, the convictions of all five of us were overturned, and we were renamed the Exonerated Five.”
Stephanie Lu, 60, an immigrant from China, said she feels sad. The Queens resident sees the guilty verdict as a weaponization of the justice system.
“I came here almost every day to support him,” Ms. Lu told The Epoch Times. “We ran from communist China, so we know. We are very familiar with this. This is political persecution.”
When asked about the people who were calling for Mr. Trump’s imprisonment, Ms. Lu added, “I feel sorry for them. Trump is fighting for them, too. One day, they’ll pay the price. One day, they’ll realize. I hope it’s not too late.”
From The Epoch Times