Former Vice President Mike Pence reacted on Friday to the criminal conviction of former President Donald Trump in a New York City courtroom and said a ‘terrible message’ has been sent.

‘The conviction of former President Trump on politically motivated charges is an outrage and disservice to the nation,’ Pence told Fox News Digital. 

‘No one is above the law, but our courts must not become a tool to be used against political opponents,’ Pence continued. ‘To millions of Americans, this was nothing more than a political prosecution driven by a Manhattan DA who ran for office on a pledge to indict the former president and this conviction undermines confidence in our system of justice.’ 

‘This conviction also sends a terrible message to the wider world about the American justice system and only further divides us at a time when the American people are struggling under the failed policies of the Biden administration at home and abroad,’ he added.

Pence continued, ‘Having been convicted in a court of law, the former president has every right to appeal this conviction and I trust it will be overturned on appeal in a manner that will restore public confidence in our system of justice and equal treatment under the law.’

Trump was found guilty on Thursday on all counts in his historic and unprecedented criminal trial, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime. 

Moments after the verdict was delivered by the jury, the former president spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. 

‘This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt, as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn’t give us a venue change,’ Trump said. ‘We were at 5% or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.’ 

Trump said ‘the real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people.’ 

Pence joined a long list of Republicans who are defending Trump against the conviction and has previously voiced opposition to the indictment against Trump.

‘I think the unprecedented indictment of a former president of the United States on a campaign finance issue is an outrage,’ Pence told CNN in March 2023. ‘And it appears to millions of Americans to be nothing more than a political prosecution.’

Pence, whose relationship soured with Trump after the Jan. 6 riots, wherein the president faulted him for refusing to send disputed electoral slates back to state legislatures in his then-role as president of the Senate, said in March he is not endorsing the former president.

‘It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,’ Pence told Fox News at the time.

‘I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our courts in a more peaceful world.’

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

President Biden has given the green light for Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike inside Russia, marking a major reversal of policy, Fox News has confirmed. 

A senior U.S. official confirmed that President Biden has signed off on the Ukrainians’ use of U.S. long-range weapons near the city of Kharkiv to protect the second-largest city from ongoing Russian assault. 

The official described the reversal as a ‘limited’ policy shift related to Kharkiv rather than a broad shift in policy that would open up use of U.S. weapons inside Russia. 

‘The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S.-supplied weapons for counter-fire purposes in the Kharkiv region, so Ukraine can hit back against Russian forces that are attacking them or preparing to attack them,’ the U.S. official said. ‘Our policy with respect to prohibiting the use of ATACMS or long-range strikes inside of Russia has not changed.’

This story was first reported by Politico.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh reiterated ‘no change in policy’ multiple times when she was asked about the policy during a briefing Thursday afternoon.

Former President Trump told Fox News Digital his guilty verdict is a ‘scar’ on the New York justice system, while vowing to ‘keep fighting’ and maintaining that Election Day will be ‘the most important day in the history of our country.’ 

The former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree on Thursday after two days of jury deliberations. 

The charges stemmed from a years-long investigation out of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The current DA, Alvin Bragg, took over the investigation in 2022. 

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital shortly after the verdict, Trump said it is ‘a sad day for New York and a sad day for the country.’ 

‘The whole thing was rigged from day one — from the venue to the judge,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘But I’ve never had support like this.’ 

Trump said upon returning to Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan Thursday evening, he was greeted by thousands of supporters ‘going crazy.’ 

Trump pointed to Judge Juan Merchan, saying he was ‘conflicted,’ and said the venue for the trial — Lower Manhattan — was ‘about as bad as it could possibly be.’ 

‘We couldn’t get a fair trial,’ Trump told Fox News Digital. ‘It’s a sad day for New York and a sad day for the country.’ 

The former president said ‘we have to think about how something like this could have happened to our country.’

‘We have a corrupt, Soros-backed DA — just think about what has happened to our country,’ he said. ‘It is hard to believe.’ 

He added: ‘It’s a disgrace to the city, the state and the country.’ 

But the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee stressed to Fox News Digital that he has ‘never had support like I have now.’ 

Trump’s sentencing date is set for July 11 — just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. 

‘We’ll go back and ask for a different day, but he’ll say no,’ Trump said, referring to Merchan. ‘He just says no to everything. This guy never said yes to anything.’

Meanwhile, Trump said he will ‘keep fighting.’ 

‘Of course,’ Trump said. ‘November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country.

‘We’ll be fighting hard,’ Trump said, saying he is excited to get back on the campaign trail. 

‘It’s the first time in six weeks that I’ve been able to get out of that courthouse,’ he told Fox News Digital. 

‘This is a great scar on New York justice,’ he said. 

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital that ‘crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats confined President Trump to a courtroom for more than eight hours a day for more than six weeks and he’s still winning.’ 

‘Now that he is fully back on the campaign trial, Biden and the Democrats better buckle up,’ she said.  

Leavitt told Fox News Digital that Trump ‘generated billions of dollars in earned media coverage throughout the trial; hosted massive rallies and impromptu campaign stops in New York and beyond; increased his lead over crooked Joe Biden in the polls and raised more money than Biden and the Democrats in the month of April — not even a witch hunt trial could slow him down — in fact, it only made him stronger.’ 

Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday declined an invitation to meet with Democratic senators to discuss the controversy surrounding the flags that flew outside homes owned by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

In a letter on Thursday, Roberts penned his response to Democratic senators, writing that he ‘respectfully declines’ their invitation to meet to discuss ethics concerns surrounding Alito flying of an upside-down American flag outside his Virginia home, and an ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag at his New Jersey vacation home.

‘I must respectfully decline your request for a meeting,’ Robert wrote in his response to Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and the Judiciary Committee.

‘As noted in my letter to Chairman Durbin last April, apart from ceremonial events, only on rare occasions in our Nation’s history has a sitting Chief Justice met with legislators, even in a public setting (such as a Committee hearing) with members of both major political parties present,’ he said.

Roberts said his attendance at a meeting with Senate Democrats was ‘inadvisable’ and underscores the importance of separation of power between the Supreme Court and the legislative branch. 

‘Separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence counsel against such appearances,’ he wrote. ‘Moreover, the format proposed — a meeting with leaders of only one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the Court — simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable.’

Robert’s response came a day after Alito said he won’t recuse himself from former President Trump’s immunity case or other cases relating to the 2020 presidential election or the Jan. 6 Capitol protests because of the flags, which are like those carried by rioters.

‘Flying an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ movement — clearly creates the appearance of bias,’ said Durbin in a statement. 

‘Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President’s immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering,’ he argued.

In Alito’s response, he wrote that the two incidents ‘do not meet the conditions for recusal.’ 

He said of the Virginia incident, ‘I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag.’

‘I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention,’ Alito continued. ‘As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.’ 

Alito said, ‘My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly’ and she ‘therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.’

Alito wrote in his letter that his wife was ‘greatly distressed at the time due, in large part, to a very nasty neighborhood dispute in which I had no involvement.’

He told the lawmakers, ‘I am confident that a reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that the events recounted above do not meet the applicable standard for recusal’ and ‘I am therefore required to reject your request.’ 

Alito also said he had ‘no involvement in the decision’ to fly a flag ‘bearing the legend ‘An Appeal to Heaven’ that flew in the backyard of our vacation home in the summer of 2023.’ 

‘My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not. My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years,’ said the Supreme Court justice. 

Alito said he was not familiar with the ‘Appeal to Heaven’ flag when his wife flew it and that ‘she may have mentioned that it dates back to the American Revolution, and I assumed she was flying it to express a religious and patriotic message.’ 

‘She did not fly it to associate herself with that or any other group, and the use of an old historical flag by a new group does not necessarily drain that flag of all other meanings,’ Alito concluded. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Sen. Durbin for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Shannon Bream contributed to this report.

Those considered to be top names on former President Trump’s running mate shortlist didn’t hold back in torching his guilty verdict handed down earlier in the afternoon by the jury in his New York City trial.

The jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the hush money payment to adult fil actress Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 presidential election.

‘This decision is a disgrace to the rule of law and our Constitution,’ Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance wrote on X. ‘Dems invented a felony to ‘get Trump,’ with the help of a Soros-funded prosecutor and a Biden donor Judge, who rigged the entire case to get this outcome. This isn’t justice, it’s election interference.’

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the verdict a ‘complete travesty,’ and argued it ‘makes a mockery of our system of justice.’

‘A political show trial conducted by an openly pro-Biden judge whose daughter makes money off the case, a jury from the most liberal county in America, absurd and ridiculous charges and outrageous jury instructions that guaranteed guilty verdicts Biden and the Trump-deranged left will stop at nothing to remain in power,’ Rubio wrote on X.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy predicted the trial’s outcome would ultimately backfire, referencing to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s promise to ‘nail Trump,’ and Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter being a ‘Democratic operative,’ while Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders caked the trial ‘politically motivated,,’ and a ‘sham.’

‘The American people decide our elections. Donald Trump will be our next president,’ she wrote on X.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote, ‘Today’s verdict represents the culmination of a legal process that has been bent to the political will of the actors involved: a leftist prosecutor, a partisan judge and a jury reflective of one of the most liberal enclaves in America — all in an effort to ‘get’ Donald Trump.’ 

‘That this case—involving alleged misdemeanor business records violations from nearly a decade ago—was even brought is a testament to the political debasement of the justice system in places like New York City,’ he wrote. ‘This is especially true considering this same district attorney routinely excuses criminal conduct in a way that has endangered law-abiding citizens in his jurisdiction.’ 

‘If the defendant were not Donald Trump, this case would never have been brought, the judge would have never issued similar rulings, and the jury would have never returned a guilty verdict. In America, the rule of law should be applied in a dispassionate, even-handed manner, not become captive to the political agenda of some kangaroo court,’ he added.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the American people could see the outcome of the trial ‘for what it is: a politically motivated prosecution orchestrated by those who want to ‘get’ President Trump.’

‘On November 5th, Americans will render their verdict on Joe Biden’s failed leadership based on the issues that affect them everyday,’ he wrote on X.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum wrote, ‘This verdict is a travesty of justice. The judge was a Biden donor. The prosecutors were Biden supporters. This Lawfare should scare every American. The American people will have their say in November.’

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott posted a video of himself on X blasting what he called a ‘hoax,’ a ‘sham,’ and evidence of an ‘obsolete injustice justice system.’

‘DA Bragg and the judge should be ashamed of themselves. This isn’t just ridiculous, this actually erodes the confidence that Americans have in the justice system. Unbelievable,’ he said.

‘But good news is coming. DA Bragg, hear me clearly. You cannot silence the American people. You cannot stop us from voting for change. Joe Biden’s injustice, Joe Biden’s two-tier injustice system, weaponizing the justice system of the United States of America against a political opponent, un-American. Joe Biden, you’re fired. We the people stand with Donald Trump.’

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem blasted Merchan in her own post, calling him a ‘massively conflicted Biden donor and liberal judge.’

 She referred to the guilty verdict as a ‘wrongful conviction,’ and wrote, ‘President Trump did nothing wrong, and even the liberal media knows it. The judge violated Trump’s constitutional rights and did everything in his power to get this outcome despite the clear evidence Trump was innocent. No doubt Trump will be easily vindicated soon as the case will obviously be overturned on appeal.’