Former President Donald Trump appeared on Fox & Friends on Sunday to speak about the impact his guilty verdict has had on his family, saying that he thinks it has been "tougher" on his family than it has been on him.
In the first interview Trump gave since the verdict was announced on Thursday finding him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, Trump said the people involved in the case against him were "bad people" who are trying to "create havoc."
“I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time. They do that for this reason,” Trump said “But they put this stuff in to create havoc. These are bad people. I know everything they’re doing, I know every move they make, I get it. But a lot of people don’t. But it’s tougher, or I think it’s, probably in many ways, it’s tougher on my family than it is on me.”
With the case over, Trump is free to return to the campaign trail, at least until his sentencing in July just days before the Republican National Convention.
He is technically still under a gag order that prevents him from talking about witnesses in the case and jurors, according to legal expert Norm Eisen.
The Associated Press said it wasn't clear whether the gag order was still in effect, but it was not lifted by Judge Juan Merchan after the verdict was given.
Even so, Trump has violated the order multiple times and continued to call Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and chief witness against him, a "sleazebag" without naming him on Friday.
When Pete Hesgeth asked how Melania Trump was doing after the verdict, he said, “She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her, but she’s fine."
Trump also talked about his son Barron, 18, who graduated from high school on May 17. "He's amazing," Trump said. “He’s a very good student. He’s applied to colleges and gets into everywhere he goes, you know. He’s very sought after from that standpoint."
Trump didn't say where Barron would be attending college, likely to avoid giving notoriety and attention to the school.
According to the Washington Examiner, Barron was asked to be a delegate for Florida at the Republican National Convention in July, but he declined.
Melania was absent from the courtroom during the trial, but she appeared with her husband at a fundraiser in April for Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBT group.
A poll taken right after the verdict by Daily Mail showed Trump getting a six-point bump, but as he said, he doesn't know if it will last.
