Following Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Noah Bookbinder, President of CREW and former federal corruption prosecutor, released the following statement:

“The conviction of a former leader is a sad day for the country, but today’s conviction is also a historic win for accountability, and affirms that Donald Trump indeed broke the law by falsifying records in order to hide information from the American people ahead of the 2016 election. After reviewing an enormous amount of overwhelming evidence, the jury unanimously concluded that Trump engaged in criminal activity that demands accountability, all the more so because it may be only the first piece of what appears to have been a presidential crime spree.

To be clear, Trump’s criminal efforts to manipulate the 2016 election started him down the path that led to his more extreme efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The jury’s convictions in this case ensure that he will not escape accountability for all of his wrongdoing, and his years-long pattern of anti-democratic conduct won’t go unpunished. He should face a sentence that reflects the seriousness of his crime and that matches what any other similarly situated defendant would receive.”