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John Wahl: Trump verdict a ‘horrible precedent that we have set as a nation’

Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl is worried about the future of the country because of the guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump.

A New York jury convicted Donald Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records Thursday. It was the first time in American history that a former President has ever been found guilty of a crime.

Trump has been instructed to appear before the court again on July 11 for sentencing.

Wahl discussed the verdict Friday on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”

“This is a horrible, horrible precedent that we have set as a nation,” Wahl said. “Basically saying look we don’t care about the rule of law. We don’t care about your trials. And I’m so heartbroken about the process and watching the judge and a prosecutor who have an open bias and admit they have an open bias and still move forward. This is this is kind of a landmark decision, something we’ve never seen before.”

Wahl said it’s obvious that the case was politically motivated against the Republican nominee for President.

“The bottom line is the American people are asking this question right now, ‘Were these court cases and this this case in particular, was it politically motivated?’ And I believe the answer is yes. And I think most Americans think the answer is yes,” he argued. “We live in a free society. We have a constitutional republic. And it’s imperative that we as a people, and we as a country, respect the democratic election process. And in order to truly respect that you have to keep a division between the justice system and politics. And what we have seen here is not just a blurring of the line, but these Democrat elected officials completely crossing that line. And having prosecutors and judges get in the political game and use their positions of power to affect political outcomes. And that is not appropriate in a free society.”

RELATED: Alabama officials react to Trump verdict

The Republican Party leader discussed what his party should do next in response to the verdict.

“Well, I think there’s I think there’s two main things we have to done,” he explained. “We have to speak boldly on this. We really have to explain that because hopefully the American people are going to look past the surface here. They’re going to see the same things. And I think polling will tell us that over the next few weeks if they see through this case. But I think it’s imperative that the Republican Party, that conservatives speak up and explain why this ruling wasn’t appropriate.”

He also said Republicans need to push for real changes to the justice system to make sure this never happens again.

“I think this highlights the need for justice reform,” he said. “And I’m going to tell you, I think in the long run, I want to see Republicans stick that up. I want to see us be the party talking about, ‘hey, look, everyone deserves actually a fair trial.’ And let’s have the Republican Party be the party who’s calling for true justice reform, and making sure that everyone has their Fourth Amendment rights protected, their Fifth Amendment rights protected, their Sixth Amendment rights protected in this legal system. We should be the party calling for reforms and making sure that the rule of law is followed in every single case across this country.”

ALGOP Chairman Wahl also released a formal statement on Thursday following the ruling.

“The people of America should decide who our next president is, not Democrat elected officials or politically motivated prosecutions,” Wahl said.

Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee

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