Trump would have faced prison without 2024 win, acting AG Todd Blanche says
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche believes President Donald Trump “absolutely” would have faced prison time had he not won the 2024 presidential election.
Blanche led Trump’s defense team in 2024 in his infamous hush-hush trial in which he was convicted of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to pornographic performer Stormy Daniels to silence her about an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election. The acting attorney general told “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” that by winning the presidency, Trump avoided time spent behind bars after being convicted of 34 felonies.
“[Trump] Fox News host Sean Hannity said: “So is it accurate to say, ‘He either wins in 2024, wins the White House, either the White House or the big house?'”
“Yes. So – oh, yes, definitely,” replied Blanche.
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President Donald Trump appears in Manhattan Criminal Court with attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove during his arraignment on charges related to alleged hush money payments on May 16, 2024, in New York City. (Victor J. Blue-Pool/Getty Images)
“He had a D.C. case hanging over his head. There was a Florida case that had been dismissed, but they were appealing,” the AG continued. “Then he had a judge in New York. There’s no scenario where he wouldn’t send President Trump to prison; and he didn’t after the president won.”
Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies was the first criminal conviction of a current or former US president.
The judge granted Trump unconditional release; While this confirmed his status as a convicted criminal, it also spared him from further penalties, fines or prison time.
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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office described Trump’s crimes as “falsifying New York business records to conceal his illegal plot to overturn the 2016 election.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks at a news conference following the guilty verdict in the criminal case of former President Donald Trump on May 30, 2024, in New York. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
Blanche said the 34 felony counts were an “incredible travesty” and claimed prosecutors used “flawed” evidence rejected by the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to convict Trump.
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“They had to use all kinds of new legal theories, including claiming it was a campaign contribution, but clearly it wasn’t,” Blanche said.
“It was before the election, it had nothing to do with the election. Payments started after the election,” he said.
The acting AG argued that Trump would not have faced federal investigation had he not launched a presidential campaign.
Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 30, 2024, as jury deliberations continue in the criminal hush money case. (Seth Wenig/AP)
“If he had decided not to run, none of this would have happened,” Hannity said.
“Without a doubt,” agreed Blanche. “And those smug prosecutors say: ‘Oh no, this has nothing to do with him running.’ Okay. Yeah, you should work on that in front of the mirror.”
Blanche claimed it was “impossible” for Trump’s trial to be fair and impartial, arguing that jurors were biased against the president.
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“What the judge did in this case was not just about the way the jury was selected – which basically made it impossible to have anyone who was fair and impartial on the jury – [he] “Basically, I encouraged everyone who came into the courtroom to leave,” he said.
“So the only people left were those who saw President Trump there and really wanted to go after him. And so we had a jury that wasn’t a jury of his peers.”
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Blanche said the impact of Trump’s 312-226 victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 is important for her and the country.
“The consequences of 2024 for this country are priceless. But they are also priceless for him and his family,” he said.
Check out Sean Hannity’s entire in-depth interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The latest episode of “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” now available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple.
