Donald Trump tried to hide his emotions after a jury convicted him on all 34 felony counts, but a courtroom observer said his dejection was obvious.
A Manhattan jury found the former president guilty of falsifying business records to conceal violations of other laws, including campaign finance laws, and MSNBC's Lisa Rubin described the unprecedented scene inside the courtroom when it became apparent that a verdict had been rendered.
"I was in the courtroom [Thursday] for the verdict, and I can tell you that just the very existence of a verdict was a huge shock to everyone there," Rubin told "Morning Joe." "Given the fact that Judge [Juan] Merchan assembled the parties at 4:15 [p.m.]. He came in, said he was prepared to release the jurors at 4:30, and he just needed to take care of a couple of things. then he stepped off the bench. 4:30 came and went, at 4:36, there was just this tension all throughout the courtroom as everyone was waiting, thinking, what in the world is happening? Could we possibly have a verdict? Indeed, when he retook the bench and said, 'I have a note from the jury, they have a verdict,' both people on both sides of me gasped audibly. You could hear it reverberate throughout the crowd. Just the existence of the verdict was shocking."
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"But I think the reactions of the parties was also so telling," Rubin continued. "Former President Trump tried to put a good face on the verdict. When he walked out, you could see he set his jaw in that Trump-like way, pursed his lips in the way we're used to. He set his face to look ahead, yet he looked like a man defeated and resigned. He walked slowly and lumberingly. Once they were out of the courtroom, we, the press corps, about 100 of us, were left in there with the [district attorney's] office. I don't know if I've shared this before, but when Trump moves out into the hallway for security purposes, everyone is frozen. That includes the staff of the Manhattan district attorney's office. If you were counting on them to look as if they just scored the biggest score in that office's history, you wouldn't have seen it on their faces or on Alvin Bragg's face. He looked straight ahead, and the prosecutors on his team didn't crack a single smile among them. Maybe there was a little twinge of relief in their shoulders and body language, but this was a group of people that knew that all eyes of the world would be on them in this moment if they were lucky enough to get a conviction, let alone 34 of them, and they met the moment with their seriousness of purpose."
"This is not a group of people, despite what Donald Trump and his Republican allies are saying, that relished this victory, that are rejoicing in it," Rubin concluded. "It was a somber and sad day for America that we have now seen a former president convicted on 34 felony counts, and you could see that in all of their faces."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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