Read our ongoing coverage of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial here.

Donald Trump may have been convicted on Thursday, but there’s a long road ahead before he might face any punishment.

Soon after a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, Trump’s lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, went on CNN and pledged to challenge the verdict. “I think the timing of this trial was really unfair to President Trump. There’s so much publicity around the witnesses and leading up to the trial.” On Friday, Trump piled on, holding a rambling news conference where he railed against the jurors, judge, and his guilty verdict. “This is a scam. There’s a rigged trial. It shouldn’t have been in that venue. We shouldn’t have had that judge,” Trump said.

Meanwhile, Justice Juan Merchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11, but the appeals process could take years to play out in the courts. (And yes, Trump can still run and serve as president.) To understand what might happen next, we asked Glenn Danas, an appellate expert and partner at Clarkson Law Firm, to break down the road ahead. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity:

Shirin Ali: Blanche went on CNN and said he would first challenge the jury’s verdict and then file a formal appeal. What does that mean?

Glenn Danas: It’s called a post-conviction briefing, and you can file a motion asking the court to vacate the jury’s award, saying that it was totally unsupported or irrational. Those kinds of motions don’t have a very high chance of succeeding, but they’re typically made to preserve issues for further appeal.

After Trump has been sentenced, his legal team can file a direct appeal to the First Judicial Department of New York’s Appellate Division, and they’ll also have 30 days to do that. And they can bring up all of the issues that they have—either with trial testimony, that it was prejudicial, or with failure to have allowed any evidence that Trump wanted to put on in his defense, or with jury instructions. All that can be raised and has to be raised in their appeal to the First Department.

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