In a verdict that has rocked the 2024 presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 charges in his hush-money criminal trial in New York. Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump is the first former US president to be convicted of a crime.
Prosecutors have accused Trump of falsifying business records, a felony charge that they say Trump did to hide his illegal interference in the 2016 presidential election through $130,000 in hush money payments. The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, and he is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, although legal experts previously told USA Today that the presumptive Republican nominee will likely get probation or a shorter sentence.
Trump called the verdict a “disgrace” and vowed to continue fighting to have the conviction overturned.
The trial of Trump, who is set to become the Republican presidential nominee, has dragged on for more than six weeks and featured dramatic clashes between lawyers, witnesses, the judge and Trump, in the first criminal trial of a former president in US history.
Trump’s conviction marks another historic moment, with uncertain implications for the 2024 presidential election. Though he is not disqualified from running for office and polls suggest a conviction would hurt his prospects, leading Republicans quickly rallied to his side.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg: ‘I did my job’
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he had no response to Donald Trump’s repeated attacks on prosecutors and their staff, but he praised his office.
“I did my job. Our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favoritism, and that’s exactly what we did here,” Bragg said. “I did my job. We did our job. There are a lot of voices out there. The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury spoke.”
− Bert Janssen
Will Donald Trump go to prison?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg avoided a question about whether he would seek prison time when Trump is sentenced on July 11.
“We’ll talk about it then,” Bragg said.
Bragg also declined to say whether he would oppose a request from Trump to be released pending an appeal, saying prosecutors would respond formally at the July 11 sentencing hearing.
“We’re going to let our words speak for themselves in court,” Bragg said.
− Bert Janssen
Trump also faces criminal charges in three other cases.
Donald Trump was found guilty of all charges in a Manhattan hush-money trial but still faces criminal charges in three other cases, including two for allegedly trying to illegally steal the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden.
Trump faces 88 criminal charges in total, including 34 in Manhattan for which a jury found him guilty on Thursday, and three other counts bring his total to 54, including two brought in federal court by Special Counsel Jack Smith on behalf of the Department of Justice.
One of those cases concerns the storage of classified documents. The other federal lawsuit Smith is handling accuses Trump of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A fourth lawsuit, filed in Fulton County, Georgia, accuses Trump and 14 co-defendants, including former lawyers and administration aides, of trying to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all cases. No trial dates have been set for any of the cases, and legal experts generally agree they are unlikely to begin before Election Day, Nov. 5, when Biden and Trump are likely to face off again as the Republican front-runners.
-Josh Meyer
Watch District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s press conference live
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. is scheduled to hold a press conference Thursday evening following Donald Trump’s conviction.
According to a statement from the District Attorney’s Office, the press conference will be held at 6:30 p.m. ET in the New York City Training Room on the 8th Floor.
You can watch his comments live here.
− Anthony Robredo
What was Trump convicted of?
Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Each charge is tied to different business records that prosecutors allege Trump altered to cover up a crime or commit another.
The records include 11 checks made out to former lawyer Michael Cohen, 11 invoices from Cohen and 12 ledger entries for Trump.
The jury found that Trump approved a scheme to repay Cohen $130,000 in hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, paying it in installments over 12 months under the guise of legal expenses.
− Kinsey Crowley
‘Trump is in a deep hole here’: Former federal prosecutor reacts to verdict
Kevin O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor who now practices at Ford O’Brien Lundy, said Trump could appeal whether the evidence was sufficient for a conviction, but because jurors believed witnesses such as his former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels, Trump can no longer challenge the credibility of witnesses, he said.
“Trump is in a deep hole,” O’Brien said. “He’s not getting a second chance. That’s not how the appeals system works.”
Jurors considered the evidence and found witnesses such as former lawyer Michael Cohen and porn actress Stormy Daniels to be credible.
Each charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but legal experts say Judge Juan Marchan could impose suspended or shorter sentences as first-time offenders of nonviolent crimes. A felony conviction would not bar Trump from campaigning or potentially winning the White House.
“He could still easily become president of the United States,” O’Brien said. “There’s nothing stopping him from doing that.”
− Bert Janssen
Can Trump run for president now?
Yes, Thursday’s verdict will not affect Donald Trump’s ability to seek re-election in the White House, even after being convicted of a felony. The Constitution is very clear: the qualifications to serve as president are:
- Be a natural-born U.S. citizen
- Have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years
- Be 35 years of age or older
− Marina Pitovsky
What will happen to Trump now? President Trump’s Sentencing
Judge Juan Marchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11, and he will remain free until then.
Because this is Trump’s first felony, he is likely to face a light sentence, such as probation or house arrest, probably less than a year.
Trump is likely to appeal his conviction, which would delay his imprisonment until after the election.
− Kinsey Crowley
Who were the key witnesses in Donald Trump’s historic trial?
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen was a key witness who testified that Cohen submitted an invoice for “legal fees” that Trump knew was a $130,000 payment to keep porn actress Stormy Daniels quiet before the 2016 election. But Trump lawyer Todd Blanche charged that Cohen lied when he testified that he had notified Trump about the payment to Daniels. In his closing argument, Blanche called Cohen the “liar in chief” and the “embodiment of reasonable doubt.”
Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, detailed the alleged sexual relationship, leading Merchant to question why the defense didn’t do more to block her testimony. Trump has repeatedly denied having sex with Daniels, and Blanche argued that regardless of whether the allegations were true, the payments “started as blackmail.”
David Pecker, the former CEO of American Media Corp., which owned the National Enquirer, said that in an August 2015 meeting between Trump and Cohen, they agreed to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s presidential campaign, buying negative stories about the candidate but never publishing them.
Pecker acknowledged that he paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for the article, then refused to pay Daniels after Trump didn’t repay him. Cohen presented an audio recording of Trump mentioning the $150,000 figure, which prosecutor Joshua Steinglass described as “staggering.”
− Bert Janssen
Will Trump go to jail?
Yes, the felony of falsifying business records can be upgraded to a felon because prosecutors can prove there was intent to commit or cover up another crime, carrying a maximum sentence of four years in prison, but New York State limits sentencing for the type of felony that Trump faced (a Class E felony) to 20 years.
But legal experts say it’s highly unlikely that Trump would receive such a severe sentence, as he has no criminal history and has never been convicted of a violent crime. Ahead of the trial, several people spoke to USA Today about what would happen if Trump were convicted. Nearly all of them expect that if convicted, Trump would face anything from probation to up to four years in prison, and that he’s likely to land on the low end of that range.
− Aisha Bagchi
Donald Trump reacts to guilty verdict
Donald Trump was quick to respond to the jury’s decision to find him guilty on all 34 criminal counts.
“This is just a disgrace,” Trump told reporters in a hallway outside the courtroom. “We did nothing wrong. I’m innocent.”
Trump ignored a shouted question asking whether he would withdraw from the presidential race.
“It’s not over yet,” Trump said. “We’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep fighting to the end and we’re going to win.”
− Bert Janssen
Reaction of the people around the courthouse
As news of the guilty verdict spread, anti-Trump protesters outside the courthouse cheered and drivers honked their horns. “Guilty!” several yelled.
− David Jackson
The jury delivers a verdict
A jury has reached a verdict in former President Donald Trump’s New York hush-money criminal trial, which revolves around allegations that Trump falsified business records to hide hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The jury confirmed they had reached a verdict in a note signed by the jury foreman at 4:20 pm local time, but Judge Juan Marchan said the jurors had requested an additional 30 minutes to complete paperwork and other formalities.
As the jury entered the courtroom, the former president, his lawyers, prosecutors and reporters waited in near silence inside the courtroom.
− Aisha Bagchi
A drama-filled trial
The six-week trial has featured dramatic clashes between lawyers and witnesses, the judge and President Trump.
The testimony featured some tense moments, including when defense lawyer Todd Blanche accused Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen of lying on the stand and former Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks was reduced to tears.
Meanwhile, Judge Juan Marchan threatened to jail Trump if he continued to violate a gag order banning him from talking about witnesses in the case. Marchan also rebuked “outrageous” comments made by Blanche in her closing argument, who said jurors “should not send somebody to jail” based on Cohen’s testimony.
Republican supporters showed up in droves to support Trump, and one conspiracy theorist set himself on fire outside the courthouse.
− Bert Janssen
