Donald Trump was found guilty in the landmark hush money case in New York.
For the first time ever, a former president of the United States has been found guilty of a crime when a jury in New York found him guilty on all 34 felony counts of fabricating business documents on Thursday.
The jury deliberated for nine and a half hours on Wednesday before returning its verdict in the landmark case.
On July 11, four days prior to the Republican National Convention, he will be sentenced. On each count, he might be sentenced to a fine or up to four years in jail; however, it is anticipated that his sentences will be imposed concurrently rather than consecutively.
This was a scandal. Following the trial, Donald Trump angrily told reporters, “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted and corrupt judge.”
In the Manhattan courtroom where Donald Trump has been on trial since April 15, the verdict was read. In the last weeks of the 2016 presidential election, he entered a not-guilty plea to 34 charges of falsifying business documents pertaining to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by his former attorney, Michael Cohen.
With his eyes squinted, Trump watched as the jury foreperson read “guilty” to each count.
After a trial that lasted for several weeks, the judge expressed gratitude to the jury. Judge Juan Merchan addressed them, saying, “I want to thank you for giving this matter the attention it deserves.” As the jurors left the courtroom, Trump seemed as though he was scowling at them.
After the jury adjourned, Todd Blanche, Trump’s lawyer, filed a move for acquittal, which the judge declined.
Alvin Bragg, the district attorney for Manhattan, declined to comment on the possible punishment, stating that his office would speak for itself in court documents.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors — by following the facts and the law in doing so, without fear or favor,” Bragg stated. When asked about his thoughts on the decision, Bragg—who received numerous threats from Trump backers during the investigation—replied, “I did my job.” We fulfilled our duties.”
Following the announcement, Trump, the presumed Republican nominee for president, started raising money by declaring on his website that he is “a political prisoner” and pleading with his supporters to donate money.
Legal experts have told Latest News that even if Trump receives a jail sentence, he will almost certainly be let to stay out of jail while he files an appeal, which could take several months or more. This indicates that he would probably be able to accept the Republican presidential nomination in July without any problems thanks to the sentence.
It also probably wouldn’t affect his chances of winning an election. After the decision on Thursday, Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and Latest News & MSNBC Legal Analyst, stated, “There are no other qualifications other than those in the Constitution.”
In a statement, President Joe Biden’s team acknowledged the verdict but emphasized that Trump must lose in November.
Michael Tyler, the director of communications for the campaign, stated that although “we saw in New York today that no one is above the law,” the verdict “does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality.” Voting at the polls remains the sole means of preventing Donald Trump from gaining the presidency.”
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury during his final statement this week that “the law is the law, and it applies to everyone equally.” This defendant is not subject to any particular standards.
Steinglass stated, “You, the jury, have the power to hold the defendant accountable.”
Trump had insisted that there had been no crime and that the DA’s office had no case. “Trumpeter Trump is not guilty. In his farewell remarks, Blanche maintained that the payments to Cohen were legal and that “he did not commit any crimes.”
A “planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures, to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records and bank forms to conceal those payments along the way,” according to the prosecution, included the covert payment to Cohen.
“Electoral fraud occurred. In his opening remarks, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo stated, “Pure and simple.”
Prosecutors claimed that even though Trump was not charged with conspiracy, he intentionally caused the documents to be manipulated in order to conceal a violation of state election law. This is a felony accusation since it elevates the original misdemeanor of falsifying business records to a felony.
Following a dramatic trial spanning several weeks, during which Cohen—Trump’s self-described former fixer—and Daniels—who testified that she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 following their meeting at a celebrity golf tournament—traded blows, the jury found Trump guilty. Trump has refuted the allegation, and his legal representative proposed that Cohen took independent action because he believed it would appease “the boss.”
Additional witnesses were former employees of the White House, including adviser Hope Hicks, former executives of the Trump Organization, and former publisher David Pecker of the National Enquirer.
Trump declared before the trial started that he would “absolutely” testify, but he did not take the witness stand to give his own version of events. Robert Costello was the principal witness for the defense, a lawyer Cohen contemplated hiring in 2018. During his testimony, Costello expressed his anger against Merchan by making crude remarks and facial expressions, claiming that Cohen had informed him that Trump was unrelated to the Daniels’ payment. During Costello’s evidence, the judge once ordered everyone out of the room and threatened to find him in contempt.
Cohen admitted in court that he had misled to others about Trump’s involvement at the time in order to shield his former employer, and that he had lied to Costello because he didn’t trust him.
Cohen was the only witness to confirm Trump’s direct participation in both the $130,000 payment and the ensuing repayment scheme. After days of questioning Cohen’s trustworthiness, Blanche forced him to admit that he had lied in the past, even while testifying.
Cohen claimed that throughout 2017, Trump made a number of cash payments to Daniels, which the Trump Organization described as payments made in accordance with a retainer agreement “for legal services rendered.”
The prosecution maintained that witness testimony and documentary evidence corroborated Cohen’s version of events, and that there was no such arrangement.
Blanche argued that Cohen was being compensated for his legal services as Trump’s personal attorney and that the string of checks that the then-President Trump issued him in 2017 “was not a payback to Mr. Cohen for the money that he gave to Ms. Daniels.”
Former senior vice president of Trump’s business Jeff McConney’s testimony refuted such claim. McConney stated that Allen Weisselberg, the company’s chief financial officer, informed him that Cohen was getting paid back for a $130,000 payment. Weisselberg’s handwritten notes regarding the payment formula were submitted as evidence by the prosecution. Cohen claimed that just a few days before he was sworn in as the 45th president, Trump approved the plan in a meeting with him and Weisselberg.
Weisselberg refrained from testifying. Due to his evidence in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump and his business, he is being held on a perjury accusation. Weisselberg, who worked for Trump for decades, was stated by Cohen, McConney, and other witnesses to have consistently asked for his approval before making significant purchases.
The defense called two witnesses, compared to 20 called by the prosecution.
Falsely, Trump had often asserted that Biden had contrived the charges against him in order to keep him off the campaign trail. However, Trump ultimately succeeded in taking the campaign to court, receiving prominent Republicans as his guests in court, such as Sens. JD Vance of Ohio and Rick Scott of Florida, as well as House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. In addition, Trump exploited court delays to promote his political views to his followers, and his surrogates disregarded Merchan’s gag order by disparaging witnesses, specific prosecutors, and Merchan’s daughter.
During the trial, Merchan fined Trump $10,000 for breaking his order, which included attacking Cohen and Daniels. If he continued to break the order, Merchan threatened to have him imprisoned.
Cohen wrote a piece on X applauding the decision. “Today is a critical day for legality and responsibility. The truth always matters, even though it has been a challenging journey for my family and me,” Cohen wrote.
Following a year-long investigation by Bragg and his predecessor, Cyrus Vance, Trump was indicted in March of last year. Although Trump has subsequently been accused in three more cases and entered not guilty pleas, these accusations were the first to be brought against a former president. Before the Nov. 5 deadline, it doesn’t seem likely that any of the three cases—a federal one saying he mishandled sensitive papers and national security information, a state one alleging election tampering in Georgia, and a federal action in Washington, D.C.—will go to trial.presidential election.
