Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes

NEW YORK — Donald Trump became the first former American president to be convicted of felony crimes on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges in a plan to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to a porn star who claimed they had sex.

Trump sat stone-faced as the verdict was delivered, and cheers from the street below could be heard in the hallway on the courthouse’s 15th floor, where the decision was announced after more than nine hours of deliberation.

“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” an enraged Trump told reporters after exiting the courthouse. “The people will decide the actual verdict on November 5th. They and everyone else are aware of what occurred here.

Judge Juan M. Merchan set the sentencing date on July 11, two days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where GOP officials, who remained steadfast in their support following the verdict, are anticipated to formally nominate him.

The verdict is a shocking legal reckoning for Trump, exposing him to probable prison time in the city where his manipulation of the tabloid press propelled him from real estate tycoon to reality television celebrity and, eventually, president. As he aspires to recover the White House in this year’s election, the decision again puts voters to the test regarding their readiness to support Trump’s reckless behavior.

Trump is anticipated to appeal the sentence, creating an awkward situation as he returns to the campaign trail laden with convictions. There are no campaign rallies scheduled for the time being, but he did fly Thursday evening to a fundraiser in Manhattan that had been arranged before the verdict, according to three individuals familiar with his plans who were not permitted to comment publicly.

Trump | AP news Image

Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes

He plans to appear at Trump Tower on Friday and continue fundraising next week. His campaign was already mobilizing to raise funds in response to the verdict, producing a pitch referring to him as a “political prisoner.”

The charges of falsifying business records carry a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say Thursday whether prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment. It is unclear whether the judge, who earlier in the trial warned of jail time for gag order violations, would impose that punishment even if asked.

Trump will continue his goal of the White House despite his conviction and even incarceration.

Trump faces three other criminal indictments, but the New York case may be the only one resolved before the November election, increasing the significance of the decision. Though the legal and historical ramifications of the verdict are clear, the political consequences are less so, given the potential to reinforce rather than change already hardened views of Trump.

A criminal conviction might end a presidential campaign for another candidate in another time, but Trump’s political career has survived two impeachments, sexual abuse allegations, investigations into everything from potential ties to Russia to plotting to overturn an election, and personally salacious storylines, including the release of a recording in which he boasted about grabbing women’s genitals.

The main claims in the case have been known to voters for years, and while tawdry, they are widely seen as less serious than the allegations against him in three other cases, which charge him of subverting American democracy and mismanaging national security secrets.

Before the verdict, Trump’s team maintained that, regardless of the jury’s finding, the outcome was unlikely to impact voters and that the election would be decided by factors such as inflation.

Even yet, the ruling will likely give President Joe Biden and other Democrats room to reinforce their allegations that Trump is unfit for office, despite the White House’s subdued statement that it respects the rule of law. In contrast, the ruling will give grist for the presumptive Republican nominee to push his unsubstantiated allegations that he is victimized by a criminal justice system that he thinks is politically motivated against him.

Trump insisted 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 incurring fines for violating a gag order with inflammatory out-of-court comments about witnesses.

Following the decision, Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, stated 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 disqualify himself and what he described as excessive pretrial publicity.

Republicans showed no signs of weakening their support for the party leader, with House Speaker Mike Johnson lamenting “a shameful day in American history.” He described the lawsuit as “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”

The first criminal prosecution of a former American president has always been a unique test of the legal system, not just because of Trump’s celebrity but also because of his continuous attacks on the case’s premise and players. However, the 12-person jury’s judgment rejected Trump’s efforts to undermine trust in the proceedings or to 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 stated following the verdict.

The trial contained allegations that Trump fabricated business documents to conceal a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn performer who claimed she had sex with the married Trump in 2006.

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Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, paid Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence during the final weeks of the 2016 election in what prosecutors claim was an attempt to influence the outcome. When Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were classified as legal expenses, which prosecutors claimed was an illegal attempt to conceal the true nature of the transaction.

Trump’s lawyers argue that these were valid payments for legal services. He disputed the sexual encounter, and his attorneys claimed at trial that his famous position made him an extortion target.

Additionally, defense attorneys asserted that personal motives—such as the effect on Trump’s family—rather than political ones were behind hush money transactions to cover negative articles about him. By implying that Cohen’s motivations were personal animosity toward Trump, fame, and money, they also attempted to undermine the credibility of Cohen, the star prosecution witness who admitted guilt to federal crimes related to the payments in 2018.

The trial included weeks of occasionally fascinating testimony that revisited a well-documented chapter in Trump’s history. The publication of an “Access Hollywood” recording in which he discussed sexually assaulting women without their consent, as well as the potential emergence of additional stories about Trump and sex that might have jeopardized his candidacy, both posed challenges to his 2016 campaign.

Trump did not testify, but jurors heard his voice on a secret tape of a call with Cohen in which he and the lawyer discussed a $150,000 hush money arrangement involving Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who has claimed to have an affair with Trump. Trump denies the affair.

Daniels herself testified, providing a graphic account of their sexual encounter in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite. David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified about how he sought to prevent information damaging to the Trump campaign from becoming public, including purchasing McDougal’s story.

Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson, the lawyer who handled the hush money payments for Daniels and McDougal. He described the stressful discussions to compensate both women for their silence, but he also faced hard questioning from a Trump counsel, who pointed out that Davidson had helped organize similar hush money transactions in cases involving other notable persons.

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Trump Becomes First Former US President Found Guilty Of ALL Felony Crimes

Cohen was the most crucial witness, providing an insider’s perspective on the hush money scheme and what he claimed to be Trump’s extensive knowledge of it over several days of testimony.

“Just take care of it,” he cited Trump as saying.

He provided jurors with the most obvious link between Trump and the heart of the accusations, detailing a meeting in which a proposal to compensate Cohen in monthly installments for legal fees was proposed.

He also revealed his emotional break with Trump in 2018, when he began collaborating with prosecutors following a decade-long career as the then-president’s 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 stated.

Although some legal experts condemned the case as the weakest of the prosecutions against Trump, it gained prominence not just because it went to trial first but also because it could be the only one to reach a jury before the election.

The other three — local and federal charges in Atlanta and Washington saying he conspired to overthrow the 2020 election, as well as a federal indictment in Florida accusing him of illegally storing top-secret records — are stalled or on appeal.

SOURCE – (AP)