Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley predicted that Donald Trump's guilty verdict will be overturned eventually by the Supreme Court, but "not before the election."
The George Washington University Law professor told Fox News on Monday that Trump's trial is full of "reversible error."
"Few people outside of Manhattan have a lot of faith in the New York system right now, so far president Trump may have some slow sliding initially on appeal, that many of us see layers of reversible error here, and it could end up in front of the Supreme Court," he said.
Legal experts across the political spectrum have reacted in shock to how the trial played out, with political bias infecting the process at every step.
"I personally don't see how this verdict can be sustained. I was in that courtroom and I was shocked by how the court was ruling," Turley said. "I would hope that eventually -- maybe not initially, that eventually, an appeal will prevail and the verdict will be thrown out," he said.
Unfortunately, the appeal is not likely to resolve before the election, Turley said - leaving Democrats free to pummel Trump as a "convicted felon" even if the verdict is ultimately overturned.
"You could certainly make that three-point shot. I would bet against it. The Supreme Court has ruled against Jack Smith trying to short-circuit his case against Trump. They basically said stay in the lane, stay with regular order," he said.
"They're probably going to take the same position here and say there's a lot of issues here, get the New York courts a chance to do the right thing, and eventually the court will get it, but it is unlikely this will be resolved before the election."
Turley expanded on the reasons for appeal in a column for The Hill, citing bias from the judge, the "unprecedented" prosecution theory and "unclear" charges, the judge's decision to let prejudicial testimony into the record, and improper jury instructions that did not require unanimity.
"The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the requirement of unanimity in criminal convictions is sacrosanct in our system," Turley wrote.
"While there was unanimity that the business records were falsified to hide or further a second crime, there was no express finding of what that crime may have been."
The political fallout of the verdict is unclear, but it has energized Trump's base while fueling a dramatic surge in fundraising for his campaign.
