Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sought to make a statement about former President Trump’s criminal conviction Thursday, repeating the word “guilty” 34 times in a row, once for each of the former president’s guilty counts in the Manhattan hush money case.
The move by Schiff came at the beginning of his line of questioning during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) office and its investigation into Trump’s hush money scheme during the 2016 election.
After being recognized by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) during the hearing, Schiff said, “I want to begin by quoting the jury in the Manhattan hush money payment trial.”
“Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty,” he said. “This was what the jury pronounced, unanimously on every count.”
Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records late last month, making him the first former U.S. president to be criminally convicted.
The charges were in connection with reimbursements made to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and onetime attorney, for a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged past affair with Trump, which he has denied.
Republicans in Congress were quick to lambast the trial and conviction as a fundamentally unfair trial that was politically motivated.
Thursday’s hearing, spearheaded by the GOP-led committee, brought that argument to the forefront, with the committee writing in a statement: “With his unprecedented, politicized indictment of President Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Bragg has opened the door for politically motivated prosecutions of federal officials by state and local prosecutors.”
Schiff pushed back on the claims but quipped that Republicans did not directly argue against the charges.
“My Republican colleagues don’t really contest Donald Trump’s guilt; this is the fascinating thing,” Schiff, who is running for the California Senate seat left open by the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D), said. “Their argument is essentially he should have never been prosecuted, or they falsely claim it was a political prosecution, or they falsely claim it should have been a misdemeanor, not a felony.”
“But they don’t contest — not really — that Donald Trump was making hush money payments to a porn star to hide their affair from voters,” the lawmaker continued. “What they’re really saying is they’re more than comfortable electing — nominating and electing as the president of the United States — someone making hush money payments to a porn star.”
He added, “The party, formally of the moral majority, is now, I suppose, trying to fashion some kind of immoral majority to reinstate Donald Trump as president.”
Thursday’s hearing heard testimony from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Federal Election Commissioner James “Trey” Trainor III, attorney Elizabeth Price Foley and Norman Eisen, the former U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic.