BOSTON (WHDH) – Massachusetts officials and representatives reacted to former President Donald Trump’s guilty verdict Thursday afternoon.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat representing Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District, said in a statement that Trump’s guilty verdict is an “important step toward accountability.”
“Accountability is welcome and long overdue. This man is undoubtedly unfit to serve in public office. The threat he poses to our nation and our democracy cannot be overstated,” Pressley said.
Pressley also said Trump is not a man persecuted because of his politics. Rather, she said “he has been defrauding people, exacting harm, and evading legal accountability for decades.”
“From discriminating against Black tenants to defrauding small businesses, to bribery, hush money schemes, election interference, and insurrection, this man has broken the law to advance his own interests at the expense of other people and to the detriment of our democracy,” she continued.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democrat representing Massachusetts’ 6th Congressional District, said in a press release “it was only a matter of time before [Trump’s] actions led him to face our justice system.”
He said that whether or not people like the verdict, this is how the justice system and a healthy democracy are supposed to work.
“No one is above the law, not even a former president,” Moulton said. “This is also no time to gloat. We’re in uncharted waters now that a convicted criminal is still a frontrunner for the presidency.”
U.S. Congresswoman Lori Trahan, a Democrat representing Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District, made a brief statement in a post on X.
“No one is above the law,” Trahan wrote.