Nearly two years after a Manhattan jury found President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts in a hush money case, the legal battle to erase the president’s lone criminal conviction remains alive across multiple courts, even as the political moment that surrounded the historic verdict has largely faded into history.When the verdict came down on May 30, 2024, then-President Joe Biden was still seeking reelection, and Democrats openly hoped the conviction would cripple then-candidate Trump’s bid to return to the White House.Instead, Biden’s disastrous debate performance less than a month later upended the race, and within weeks, he dropped out altogether. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee, and Trump ultimately won the presidency for a second, nonconsecutive term, despite becoming the first former president ever convicted of a crime.
Trump’s then-legal team included Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who, in the second administration, were rewarded for their loyalty by being named acting attorney general and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, respectively.
President Donald Trump walks out of a courtroom after a jury convicted him of felony crimes for falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 30, 2024. (Seth Wenig/AP)
