A member of the UK government has said Donald Trump’s conviction on Thursday night was “extraordinary” but wouldn’t be “drawn into” any further comment.
Mel Stride responded to the news that Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 charges of falsifying business records last night in a bombshell New York legal case.
Following the verdict, there was much speculation about what this meant for the former president if he were to be elected again.
Speaking on Times Radio this morning, Stride was asked if the verdict would impact levels of trust between the UK and a Trump-led US administraiton.
“I’m not going to get drawn into that as an existing Cabinet minister, and member of the Government, we don’t comment on American internal elections, just as we wouldn’t expect them to comment on ours, frankly.
“So I’m afraid I’m not going to say anything on that other than obviously, these are extraordinary events.”
Donors “don’t give a sh*t” about verdict
Speaking to Times Radio, he added: “What I’m absolutely sure of is that whatever the outcome of the election – and I very much hope that Rishi is back in Number 10 for all sorts of reasons that we may come on to – that we will have a good and enduring continuingly positive relationship with the United States, whoever is going to be president in November.
“That’s a relationship which, as you know, goes back many decades, so it’s always been solid and has always been to our advantage, and to the advantage of America in her leadership of the West.”
Excited by polls showing him in the lead and undeterred by his unprecedented criminal conviction, many conservative donors viewed the New York hush money cash as political persecution, echoing the Republican presidential candidate’s claim that Democrats are trying to weaken him ahead of the Nov. 5 election against President Joe Biden.
Prosecutors have dismissed those claims as untrue. A New York jury found Trump guilty on Thursday of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.