CALIFORNIA, USA — Former president Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, leading to a variety of reactions from people all across the country and political spectrum.
California politicians tell ABC10 they’re saddened by the news, but for different reasons.
"I think we've just crossed into a very dark chapter in American history where the rule of law can be used as a political weapon,” said Representative Tom McClinktock, a republican from El Dorado Hills. "This is not the American concept of equal justice under law.”
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a democrat, says no American is celebrating the guilty verdict.
"He is a convicted felon by an impartial jury of his peers in his own city. I think it's tragic in a way. This is a former American president,” he said. "What's to celebrate? I mean this is so sordid… It's sad and it's frankly pathetic."
The jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star ultimately to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Both republicans and democrats say democracy is at risk this election cycle.
“No democracy can survive when an incumbent president and his partisans can put their opponent in jail, and under the most absurd of pretexts,” said McClintock.
"(Trump) is constantly seeking to undermine the rule of law and free and fair elections, and now the impartial judiciary," said Steinberg.
Other republicans, like Doug Lamalfa who is a Trump supporter, say the verdict “completely upends our justice system as we know it.”
Democrats, like California congressman John Garamendi, say the result will have a “profound effect on our future.”
WATCH MORE: Trump found guilty on all 34 felony counts
