Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for New York governor in 2022, said on Saturday that Democrats have set a bad legal precedent and have “unleashed a beast” with the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.

He also predicted that Trump’s political support would dramatically increase, Breitbart News reported.

A Manhattan jury has convicted Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, in relation to payments made to adult entertainment star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election. Critics on the left and right say the case was essentially manufactured by far-left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Zeldin mentioned that the charge was upgraded from a misdemeanor to a felony without informing Trump of the specific charge.

“I was a prosecutor, and every single case I had, I told the accused up front exactly what they were being charged with,” Zeldin explained. “They knew every element of the charge, and they were able to prepare their closing statement, their opening statement, their cross-examination, their own witnesses — all to be able to defend their client against every element of the charge. And here, one of the elements was that it was being charged as a felony because of some mysterious, unidentified, underlying charge.

“It wasn’t even until the prosecution got to their closing argument, which was after President Trump’s counsel gave their closing argument, and then you had jury instructions telling the jury they didn’t even have to agree. They could pick whatever charge they want; they didn’t even have to all agree on it. So, I mean, that’s just one of many examples of why this case should be overturned on appeal,” he told Breitbart.

President Trump is absolutely right for wanting to appeal. He should. I’m sure he woke up the next day wanting to fight harder than he ever has, and, for tens of millions of Americans who supported him before, they support him more intensely now, and I know: I’ve seen on social media,” Zeldin continued.

“There are a lot of people who never supported President Trump, [but], after they watched this travesty, they woke up the next day deciding that, yeah, for the first time ever, they were going to support President Trump. And they’re articulating as if they are willing to walk on broken glass to support President Trump. They went from independent, undecided, to strong, passionate, loyal supporters because of what they [Democrats] did. Man, they unleashed a beast. This is a can of worms that was opened, and it’s up to the rest of us to make sure November 5 is the final verdict,” Zeldin added.