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Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.
“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” an angry Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.”
Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP leaders, who remained resolute in their support in the aftermath of the verdict, are expected to formally make him their nominee.
The verdict is a stunning legal reckoning for Trump and exposes him to potential prison time in the city where his manipulations of the tabloid press helped catapult him from a real estate tycoon to reality television star and ultimately president. As he seeks to reclaim the White House in this year’s election, the judgment presents voters with another test of their willingness to accept Trump’s boundary-breaking behavior.
Trump is expected to appeal the verdict and will face an awkward dynamic as he returns to the campaign trail tagged with convictions. There are no campaign rallies on the calendar for now, though he traveled Thursday evening to a fundraiser in Manhattan that was planned before the verdict, according to three people familiar with his plans who were note authorized to speak publicly.
He’s expected to appear Friday at Trump Tower and will continue fundraising next week. His campaign was already moving quickly to raise money off the verdict, issuing a pitch that called him a “political prisoner.”
The falsifying business records charges carry up to four years behind bars, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would not say Thursday whether prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment, and it is not clear whether the judge—who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations—would impose that punishment even if asked.
The conviction, and even imprisonment, will not bar Trump from continuing his White House pursuit.
Trump faces three other felony indictments, but the New York case may be the only one to reach a conclusion before the November election, adding to the significance of the outcome. Though the legal and historical implications of the verdict are readily apparent, the political consequences are less so given its potential to reinforce rather than reshape already hardened opinions about Trump.
For another candidate in another time, a criminal conviction might doom a presidential run, but Trump’s political career has endured through two impeachments, allegations of sexual abuse, investigations into everything from potential ties to Russia to plotting to overturn an election, and personally salacious storylines, including the emergence of a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals.
The case’s general allegations have also been known to voters for years and, while tawdry, are widely seen as less grievous than the allegations he faces in three other cases that charge him with subverting American democracy and mishandling national security secrets.
Ahead of the verdict, Trump’s campaign had argued that, no matter the jury’s decision, the outcome was unlikely to sway voters and that the election would be decided by issues such as inflation.
Even so, the verdict is likely to give President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats space to sharpen arguments that Trump is unfit for office, though the White House offered only a muted statement that it respected the rule of law. Conversely, the decision will provide fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee to advance his unsupported claims that he is victimized by a criminal justice system he insists is politically motivated against him.
Trump maintained throughout the trial that he had done nothing wrong and that the case should never have been brought, railing against the proceedings from inside the courthouse — where he was joined by a parade of high-profile Republican allies — and racking up fines for violating a gag order with inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses.
After the verdict, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche said in television news interviews that he did not believe Trump received a fair trial and that the team would appeal based on the judge’s refusal to recuse himself and because of what he suggested was excessive pretrial publicity.
Republicans showed no sign of loosening their embrace of the party leader, with House Speaker Mike Johnson lamenting what he called “a shameful day in American history.” He called the case “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”
The first criminal trial of a former American president always presented a unique test of the court system, not only because of Trump’s prominence but also because of his relentless broadsides on the foundation of the case and its participants. But the verdict from the 12-person jury marked a repudiation of Trump’s efforts to undermine confidence in the proceedings or to potentially impress the panel with a show of GOP support.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor,” Bragg said after the verdict.
The trial involved charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn actor who said she had sex with the married Trump in 2006.
The $130,000 payment came from Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen to buy Daniels’ silence during the final weeks of the 2016 race in what prosecutors allege was an effort to interfere in the election. When Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were recorded as legal expenses, which prosecutors said was an unlawful attempt to mask the true purpose of the transaction.
Trump’s lawyers contend they were legitimate payments for legal services. He denied the sexual encounter, and his lawyers argued at trial that his celebrity status made him an extortion target.
Defense lawyers also said hush money deals to bury negative stories about Trump were motivated by personal considerations such as the impact on his family, not political ones. They also sought to undermine the credibility of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to the payments, by suggesting he was driven by personal animus toward Trump and fame and money.
The trial featured weeks of occasionally riveting testimony that revisited an already well-documented chapter from Trump’s past. His 2016 campaign, threatened by the disclosure of an “Access Hollywood” recording that captured him talking about grabbing women sexually without their permission, also faced the prospect of other stories about Trump and sex surfacing that could have harmed his candidacy.
Trump did not testify, but jurors heard his voice through a secret recording of a conversation with Cohen in which he and the lawyer discussed a $150,000 hush money deal involving a Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who has said she had an affair with Trump. Trump denies that affair.
Daniels herself testified, offering a vivid recounting of the sexual encounter she says they had in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite. The former publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, testified about how he worked to keep stories harmful to the Trump campaign from becoming public at all, including by having his company buy McDougal’s story.
Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated the hush money payments on behalf of Daniels and McDougal. He detailed the tense negotiations to get both women compensated for their silence but also faced aggressive questioning from a Trump attorney who noted Davidson had helped broker similar hush money deals in cases involving other prominent figures.
The most pivotal witness, by far, was Cohen, who during days of testimony gave an insider’s view of the hush money scheme and what he said was Trump’s detailed knowledge of it.
“Just take care of it,” he quoted Trump as saying.
He offered jurors the most direct link between Trump and the heart of the charges, recounting a meeting in which a plan to have Cohen reimbursed in monthly installments for legal services was discussed.
And he emotionally described his dramatic break with Trump in 2018, when he began cooperating with prosecutors after a decade-long career as the then-president’s personal fixer.
“To keep the loyalty and to do the things that he had asked me to do, I violated my moral compass, and I suffered the penalty, as has my family,” Cohen said.
The case, though criticized by some legal experts who called it the weakest of the prosecutions against Trump, took on added importance not only because it proceeded to trial first but also because it could be the only only one to reach a jury before the election.
The other three — local and federal cases in Atlanta and Washington alleging that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election, as well as a federal indictment in Florida charging him with illegally hoarding top-secret records — are bogged down by delays or appeals.
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Lock him up!
+1
The only appropriate punishment is a lifetime sentence to a penal colony in Siberia.
A more accurate headline would be to print, “Biden first U.S. President to convict his political opponent in Stalinist-like show trial”
Boo-hoo. Wrong!
+ 1
Our judicial system has been politically weaponized.
Congratulations to all the anti-Trumpers turning our country into a
Banna Republic.
Justice to a leftist is Stanalist-Style. Bring me the man. I will find a crime.
These were state charges in a state court. Ask somebody like Rokita how much influence Biden has on his filings.
Yet you all thought it was so hilarious when he led you in chants of “lock her up”.
+1
> These are state charges, not federal charges.
> The conviction came from a jury.
> During the trial, Trump acted in ways that would’ve gotten anybody else held in contempt of court and thrown in the courthouse jail cell. But this did not happen because – as the judge noted – Trump is a former president.
> Remember, it was a Republican in the FBI who announced an investigation against Clinton right before the 2016 election, which tanked her campaign. The investigation ultimately yielded nothing. Seems pretty suspect. (All the while, her opponent fed into his crowd’s ‘lock her up’ chants.)
Trump got all the due process in the world.
Greg M.
What Hillary Clinton was far worse than what Trump has ever done.
Yet no charges!!
Alvin Brag and Lietta James flat out ran their entire political campaigns
on nailing Trump. They had no idea what they would him with. They just
wanted anything they could find.
Progressive Democrats—Bring me the man, I will find a crime.
What Hillary did was far worse?
Worse than:
**cheating on his spouse while the spouse was pregnant with their son, and then bragging about it, on tape, then funneling money to the porn star with whom he cheated to keep her quiet in the las tmonth of the 2016 campaign?
Seriously? Hillaty was worse?
I thought Republicans were the “family values” party.
👆🏻
Great news. Let’s hope there is at least a small slice of reasonable republicans that will view this as the last straw. Won’t change the other 90%+.
Yet both Banks and Braun (aka Dumb and Dumber) quickly fall in line to parrot their Orange Leader’s “outrage.”
This a supposed violation of a business-records law, that’s a misdemeanor, ramped up to a felony in a state court by a local DA when the underlying federal crime was never even specified! Are you Progressive Leftists really so ignorant as to believe this was anything other than a political-motivated prosecution? This won’t impact the vote of one “reasonable” Republican. The only question is how this will play with the independents. This turns the Nov election into a referendum on the legitimacy of this trial, and my hunch is that won’t end up favoring Biden.
It will be thrown out, too many wrong doings by judge and prosecutor. Go campaign now, drown fjb in his babbling word salad.
I think you might be looking at this through orange colored glasses.
You just mumbled out a word salad, buddy. Maybe it’s time for you to a break from the internet & the news.
P
Spot-on Steve J / Douglas JT. And here I was hoping there is a “small slice of reasonable democrats” who not only know, but have the honor to acknowledge that this was a corrupt & shameful fraud. Our country shouldn’t be run like this. You know it…
Um…I think “corrupt & shameful fraud” is a pretty good description of the conduct that got him convicted. And, yes, the country shouldn’t be run like that.
Spot on to you too Susie!
A jury of his peers. All 12 of them
Can’t be rigged. Trump fans love “justice” when it leans his way…but fraud when he tells them so.
Everyone can’t be part of the conspiracy folks like you claim…why?
Because it’s nor a conspiracy. This is happening because of a deeply flawed, dishonest man who has somehow used those very flaws and the ridiculous innacuracies to create a troubling following and ultimately some peril to our country.
Its disappointing for so called patriots to ask the system.of justice to see him and his misdoings as wrong?
Angry? Be angry at his illadvised defense that did not demonstrate innocence but rather chose his path to denigrate individuals believing that the defense and not convicted dependent are smarter than a jury.
Shame…On…You.
I agree this was a lesser charge but I also don’t like the kicking of the can by clearly right wing justices on way more serious charges surrounding the classified documents (which Trump accused Hillary of) and the January 6th case which everyone shockingly watched live (including Trump – except he was watching gleefully) on TV yet now conservatives are calling it a lawn party for patriots. Hillary suffered the last minute opening of an investigation into emails found on Huma Abedin’s laptop that revealed nothing, but clearly affected her Presidential campaign. I’m convinced Trump’s campaign would have suffered equally or worse had the Stormy Daniels story came out a week prior yet he conspired to cover up that information. What goes around, comes around
I’ve been following this pretty closely from reputable sources. This just looks like business as usual for the Orange Don. It will drag out for several more years on appeals, mainly because the justice system really is tilted… toward people with money.
I guess orange really is the new black.
I suspect he started his crime life shortly after birth.
Biden got the jump on crime because of his age he is older than Trump. At least we have Trump who isn’t a washed up bumbling idiot like Biden. Give me reasons all you leftists why you want to continue with Biden as president? He and his crooked cronies have screwed up this country.
Patrick – 9 of the 10 major success indicators of a president Biden is well beyond Trump…
Basis data and facts would disagree with you opinion, but don’t let those get in the way of you feeling your feelings…
@ Patrick – my portfolio is doing great. My roads are looking good, too. Sorry about yours.
An obscenity to the legal system, but more profoundly the destruction of our constitution. Appears we have reached a real tipping point in America where the legal system can be weaponized by the party in power to stay in power. Far left is popping corks tonight, drowning in tears come November.
How does a jury of 12 convicting someone on 34 counts constitute a political party weaponizing the legal system?
I’m sure from your point of view everything looks likes the “far left”, but I think a lot of people solidly in the center are celebrating.
No one “popping corks” as it’s a sad time fir USA…and has been all the while MrTrump has been the center of attention (as he prefers). Love America? Consider finding a better hero
No one “popping corks” as it’s a sad time fir USA…Find a better hero than the former POTUS
Overzealous judge coupled with prosecutorial maliciousness. Jury was stacked as no change of venue granted. All checks written were after the election. So how did effect an election? The judicial fraud pulled off here should be obvious.
The defense didn’t object to 11 of the 12 jurors. As for overzealous, any other defendant who made threats against court staff & their family after being warned would have gone to jail.
Leading your followers in chants to lock up your opponent, telling members of your administration that you want the IRS to look into those who criticize you and promising revenge against your enemies all sound a bit more likely political weaponization.
As usual, every accusation is a confession.
If wondering how 12 blue folk could be so dumb? Book deals from blue publishers. The 12 are like God’s to the sinking Biden campaign.
Do you think literally everyone in NY is a Democrat? Or did they just become dems in your mind when they voted to convict?
Judge’s daughter work for a Democratic consulting firm. The judge should have recused himself. It’s was clearly obvious the judge wanted Trump guilty. Political prosecution.
The judge gave Trump WAY more leeway than is normal. Most people who acted the way that Trump did during the trial would’ve been arrested for contempt of court. Trump was lucky to only get fined.
Juries find the facts in jury trials. Not judges. Further, Manhattan is the home of US capitalism and where Trump made his money in business. It’s incredibly unlikely that all 12 members of the jury would be Democrats. It takes a unanimous decision to get a conviction.
Maybe you should spend a few days at your local courtroom to learn how our justice system works before making wild claims.
@ David G…..and Ginny wanted to overthrow the government. Your point?…
The ex-president says his conviction was the result of a “rigged” system and a local jury who are nearly all Democrats. It was all orchestrated by the current president who has been described by the ex-president as an idiot. There are a handful of other indictments which the ex-president wants tossed, or at the very least delayed before the election.
For Trump supporters, here and elsewhere, what is there about the now convicted ex-president history that suggests he is not inclined to lie, cheat, and steal? Trump Airlines, Trump University, Trump Wine, Trump Casino, and the Trump Organization – all failures and most known to have engaged in illegal and fraudulent practices.
As if all that doesn’t set off your alarm bells, this should: the man have never, ever displayed an iota of humor…nor has he ever had a pet. Two behavioral acts that reveal a person’s humanity…two behavioral acts he has never revealed.
Some of Trump’s businesses are very successful.
Which ones?
Would that be a successful business like Trump media that is losing millions each quarter, and who’s stock is only propped up by thousands of Trump acolytes.
David–try real real hard here–please specifically cite his successful businesses.
Judge’s daughter work for a Democratic consulting firm. The judge should have recused himself. It’s was clearly obvious the judge wanted Trump guilty. Political prosecution.
So you’re saying anyone with a relative that has political views or employment can’t possibly be impartial and should recuse themselves? Should this also apply to Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas?
^^^^ bingo Greg. BINGO!
This is the only the first of dozens of indictments against trump. This one hit the courts first because the crimes are from 2016. All of the other cases are related to 2020. There are state and Federal prosecutors working on very solid cases. This is just a preview for the Orange Don.
The most-aggravating one is the classified documents federal casein SE Fla. And while Trump’s defenders love to point at the alleged improprieties of the NY state judge—the federal judge overseeing the Fla trial has been overturned on motions twice already. She’s a Trump appointee who was not well-qualified and probably shouldn’t even be on a federal bench. Yet there she is…gumming up the works at every turn.
Can’t wait for dims’ heads to explode when President Trump is reelected by the Electoral College thanks to minority voters in swing states.
‘minority votes in swing states’ – lol.
Meanwhile
>Trump lost 25% of his primary votes in red Indiana to a candidate who dropped out a months before the election. The same people who voted for Haley largely took the time to fill in the bubble for Jim Banks, so it’s not even like Democrats picked up Republican ballots as was rumored.
>A surprising number of people in NWI, Terre Haute, and other historically blue parts of the state that turned red (or at least turned more red) due to Tea Party-turned-MAGA populism picked up a Democratic ballot in the primary last month, which is especially impressive given the lack of Democratic primaries. People went out of their way to signal their support for dems.
>2023 municipal elections showed historically blue parts of the state turn back to blue, including Terre Haute & Evansville, while Indy is as blue as ever.
I’d be shocked if Trump wins Indiana by more than 10 points, let alone picks up minority votes in swing states.
Note that NONE of the ex-president’s supporters here are not saying their man is not guilty of the crimes for which the jury found him guilty. Lots of false attacks on the Democrats and the judicial system…but no one saying he is innocent.
His obvious guilt in numerous instances over the years has never bren a problem for his supporters. The hypocrisy and projection is non-stop because, in the end, he’s the guy who they think will act on their grievances against all those they judge to be less American and deserving of rights than them. Via the electoral college and with help from SCOTUS, the aim is permanent minority rule.
So, dude what exactly was he charged with? Falsifying business records????? There isn’t a person in this country that conducts business that hasn’t forever gamed the IRS because of the loopholes. He tweaked his books to get around the bimbo hooker. Who cares about his personal relationships? How about JFK and Marilyn Monroe? Clinton and Lewinsky, who the hell cares!!!! I want a government run like a business it should. Thanks to one of the first things Mister smart Joe Biden did was to screw with oil production in this country. Immediately what happened——-gas prices shot up, and in turn affected food production costs, any materials production (look at construction costs approaching $800 to $1000/per square foot for university buildings), and everything else. Exactly what happened during the late ‘70’s. Yeh, let’s all relive those fun times, under democratic control. And here we are again with inflation caused by Joe and his group. Then, they make the stupid call to raise the interest on borrowing. That’s a smart move to getting the economy healthy again. NOT!!! Because food prices, nothing, will ever lower back to levels when Trump was President. So, again all you Biden lovers, give me some reasons why he should continue as president? All I see ahead is continuing inflation, high interest rates and high prices for everything. God forbid if Biden brings the Squad hags and AOC into his fold of know-nothings.
What Hillary did was far worse?
Worse than:
**cheating on his spouse while the spouse was pregnant with their son, and then bragging about it, on tape, then funneling money to the porn star with whom he cheated to keep her quiet in the las tmonth of the 2016 campaign?
Seriously? Hillaty was worse?
I thought Republicans were the “family values” party.
Patrick: if you take the time to read the indictment, here’s what he was charged with:
On 34 occasions, conspiring to put together a scheme to pay a porn star with whom he had extra-marital sex, to keep her from telling the world about it. 34 specific incidents of putting together a fake payoff scheme. And lying about the reasons for the scheme. 34 incidents with corroborating witnesses and documents.
For the record–he cheated on his wife while she was pregnant with their son. Then bragged about it–on tape.
There could be upcoming federal charges too, because if those payments were falsely recorded on his federal tax returns, it’s a crime. You know– those tax returns that he refused to show the public because he was forever “under audit.”
So although this whole trial is a bit of a sham Trump was found guilty by a jury of his peers, so case closed. I really doubt that appeals will change anything. Trump was a way better President than Joe ever will be (and that is not a very high bar) and Niki Hailey would be better than either one. It is just a testament to how screwed up our culture is today that for two elections in a row we are left with two of the worst candidates imaginable.
Alvin Bragg and Lietta James both down grading violent crimes to misdemeanors and reducing bail or no bail for violent thugs .
**** Thugs attacking cops, physically threatening people on subways,
punching innocent bystanders ( knocking them out ), attacking and
stealing don’t even get charged in NYC. ****
Yet, Bragg and James miraculously brought felony charges for
a non violent crime on Trump. Bookkeeping errors.
“Bookkeeping errors”? Hardly. Of course watching nothing else but FOX News would lead you to believe that because it tells you what you want to hear. Trump doesn’t make errors; he’s a hands-on genius, remember? His past is catching up to him.
Keith B., speaking of “thugs attacking cops”, you do realize your hero has promised to pardon the J6ers that did exactly that on his behalf, right?
It’s odd how your concerns about “law and order” get applied so selectively.
Brent B. evidently all your info comes from MSNBC. I fear your koolaid is much more tainted
I think that this all started when then-VP Biden was sent by President Obama in 2015 to Detroit to figure out a solution to Covid. I’m pretty sure that’s it.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan; the Republican Party has left me, I have not left the Republican Party. When did the party which passed the civil rights laws in the 1960’s become the anti-everything party (except for WASPs of course). What happened to compromise, the building block of the nation? Why are people following a man who openely states he will weaponize the Justice Department and form a dictatorship and opening suppports Putin in his moves to expand Russia. What happened to the leaders we enjoyed in the past. The nation is devolving into a shadow of the greatness it once was.
Exactly
Trump and his Dad have been criminals their entire lives.
I just finished reading “A Fever in the Heartland” (a great book that I would highly recommend) about the KKK in Indiana in 1920’s and the corrupt leader of the KKK in Indiana, D.C. Stephenson, who ended up being convicted of rape and murder. The similarities between Trump and Stephenson are shocking. I will admit that I voted for Trump before (I’m a lifelong Republican), but I will never vote for him again. And frankly, I’m not sure I will ever vote Republican again; the behavior of the Republican party in supporting Trump for the last couple of year has been disgusting. WAKE UP, PEOPLE!!! This guy is as un-American as they come!!!
Thank you, David T. I am an independent who leans liberal but who has voted for more Rs than Ds in my 40 years of voting here in Indiana. I find it disheartening when so many friends and people for whom I have great respect have thrown away years of sensibility to support a man who has zero principles, no conscience, and completely lacks empathy. Not one person can articulate to me truly valid reasons for supporting this man, without spouting lies, half-truths, and “facts” which do not exist. While I wish the Ds put forth a better candidate then Biden, another Trump term will be the end of our Republic as we know it.
Neutral opinion:
If Trump was not running for president, he would not be in any legal trouble and was a massive waste of government resources. I think we can all agree on that
When Donald doesn’t get what he wants, his “go to” excuse is the system is rigged.
Long before his entry into politics and his legal woes, the star of the “The Apprentice” (supposedly a “reality” show but one that was actually fake through-and-through) ranted that a vast conspiracy of well-connected insiders had colluded to rob him of Emmy Awards in 2004 and 2005 that he said were rightfully his.
His behavior, then and now, are classic signs of a psychotic delusional disorder that results in an unshakable belief in things that are blatantly untrue.
Biggest spender in history, 4 bankruptcy filings, 4,000 lawsuits, fought w DOJ in 1973 discrimination case, etc., etc. ….yeah let’s try him again. Geez you guys serious?