Sen. Warren says if found guilty, Trump likely will make unfounded claims legal system is corrupt

With the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump now in the hands of a New York jury, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said if the former president is found guilty, she anticipates he will step up his attacks on the American judicial system.

"This is a standard Donald Trump move," Warren said Wednesday on WBUR's Radio Boston, shortly after the jury began deliberations on 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial of an American president.

Trump, who denies the charges, is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a payment to a porn star — allegedly to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Warren predicted that if the verdict doesn't go his way, Trump will almost certainly double down on unfounded claims that he's a victim of a corrupt legal system. The state's senior senator called it part of a long effort by Trump to undermine American institutions of government. She said he responded the same way when he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

"What was his response?" she asked. "It was violence; it was to tear down the very foundation of our democracy."

Trump faces dozens of other criminal indictments in three other cases, but the New York case is likely to be the only one that will go to trial before the November election.

The former president, who's hoping to reclaim the White House, has complained that the trial has kept him off the campaign trial, though he has managed to hold a number of rallies in recent weeks.

After listening to Justice Juan Merchan's instructions to the jury, Trump told reporters, “Mother Teresa could not beat the charges.”