A New York jury on Thursday convicted former U.S. President Donald Trump of illegally trying to influence the outcome of the 2016 election that sent him to the White House, unanimously finding him guilty on all of the 34 felony charges he faced.
The 12-member jury deliberated for two days before returning the verdict against Trump, 77, in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president.
Trump is the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee in the November election against President Joe Biden, the Democrat who defeated him in the 2020 election. But Trump now also faces the possibility of being placed on probation or imprisoned for up to four years.
Trump’s sentencing was set for July 11, in the middle of his campaign to return to the White House and just days before the opening of the Republican National Convention on July 15, where he would be formally nominated as the party’s 2024 presidential candidate.
Trump defense lawyer Todd Blanche asked that the verdict be overturned, but New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan quickly rejected his request.
Inside the courtroom, Trump showed little emotion as he learned his fate. But when he emerged from the courtroom, with his jaw tensed, he told reporters that the verdict was "a disgrace."
With a somber expression, he vowed, "This is long from over."
On his Truth Social platform, Trump said in all caps, "My civil rights have been totally violated with this highly political, unconstitutional, and election interfering witch hunt. Our failing nation is being laughed at all over the world!"
Just after the verdict was announced, the Trump campaign sent out a fundraising email in which the former president said, again in all capital letters, "I am a political prisoner!"
From the start of the trial in mid-April, Trump had treated the case with disdain, disparaging prospective witnesses against him despite Merchan's gag order prohibiting him from doing so. Merchan found Trump in contempt of court 10 times and fined him $10,000, which the judge acknowledged was a pittance for a billionaire like Trump.
Merchan had excluded himself and prosecutor Alvin Bragg from his gag order. As a result, Trump virtually every day of the trial assailed them as he walked into court, especially the judge, whom he described as "corrupt" and "conflicted," apparently because he made a $35 donation to Biden and Democrats in 2020.
Biden did not comment on the guilty verdict, but his presidential campaign called for voters to defeat Trump in the November 5 national election.
"Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain," the Biden campaign said. "But today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president."
Trump is certain to appeal his conviction and can continue to run for the presidency. There is no U.S. constitutional prohibition against his becoming president as a convicted felon.
As a president, if he wins the November election, Trump would have broad pardon power related to convicted federal defendants, but he could not pardon himself in a state case like the New York trial in which he was convicted.
Trump is facing three other indictments, including two accusing him of illegally trying to upend his 2020 election loss. But all three cases are tied up in legal wrangling between his lawyers and prosecutors. As a result, the New York case may be the only one decided before the November election.
Trump was convicted after Michael Cohen, his onetime political fixer-turned-acidic critic, testified that Trump told him to "just do it" — pay $130,000 in hush money days ahead of the 2016 election to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to silence her claim she had a one-night sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump had denied any liaison with Daniels but did not testify in his own defense, as was his right.
A hush money deal is not illegal, but Trump was convicted of all charges in the 34-count indictment accusing him of falsifying business records at his Trump Organization real estate conglomerate to hide the 2017 reimbursement of the hush money payment to Cohen, which Trump claimed was for money owed to Cohen for his legal work.
The 34 counts covered 11 invoices Cohen filed with Trump company officials to be reimbursed, 12 ledger entries in the company's records and 11 checks sent to Cohen, nine of which Trump signed.
The Trump defense team claimed Cohen, of his own volition and without Trump's knowledge, wired the hush money to Daniels' lawyer.
The former president had denied the entirety of the indictment against him.
