Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
After two days of deliberation, the 12-member jury pronounced Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced.
Trump watched the jurors dispassionately as they were polled to confirm the unanimous verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before the Republican Party is expected to nominate Trump for president ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Trump faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of that crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation. Incarceration would not prevent him from campaigning, or taking office if he were to win.
He will not be jailed ahead of sentencing.
Merchan thanked the jurors for their service and told them they were free to speak about their experience on the jury if they wished. “Nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do. The choice is yours,” Merchan said.
The verdict plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the November vote, when Trump will try to win back the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and was expected to appeal.
“This was a disgrace,” Trump told reporters afterwards as he proclaimed his innocence and repeated his complaints that the trial had been rigged against him.
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” he said.
Trump gave a thumbs-up sign through the tinted window of his SUV as his motorcade left the courthouse. Trump supporters stood in a park opposite the courthouse along with journalists, police and onlookers.
Opinion polls show Trump and Biden, 81, locked in a tight race, and Reuters/Ipsos polling has found that a guilty verdict could cost Trump some support among independent and Republican voters.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week courtroom presentation that featured explicit testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump approved a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
Cohen testified that he handled the payment, and that Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work.
Trump’s lawyers hammered Cohen’s credibility, highlighting his criminal record and imprisonment and his history of lying. Merchan also cautioned jurors to examine his testimony carefully.
The relatively short amount of time jurors needed to reach a verdict was a sign that they thought there was enough evidence to back up Cohen’s testimony, said George Grasso, a retired New York judge who attended the trial.
A source familiar with the Trump campaign’s inner workings said the verdict was expected to prompt him to intensify deliberations on picking a woman as his vice presidential running mate. His campaign website labeled him a “political prisoner” and urged supporters to donate.
BIDEN CAMPAIGN: NO ONE ABOVE THE LAW
Biden’s campaign said the verdict showed that no one was above the law and urged voters to reject Trump in the election.
“There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” the campaign said in a statement.
The White House declined to comment.
Trump’s fellow Republicans quickly condemned the verdict. “Today is a shameful day in American history,” House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in a prepared statement.
The jury notified the court they had reached a verdict at 4:20 p.m. (2020 GMT) and read out all 34 guilty counts shortly after 5 p.m.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche asked Merchan to throw out the guilty verdict, arguing that it was based on the unreliable testimony of Cohen. Merchan denied his request.
Trump’s near-certain appeal is likely to focus on porn star Daniels’ salacious testimony about their alleged sexual encounter as well as the novel legal theory prosecutors used in the case, but he faces long odds, legal experts said.
Falsifying business documents is normally a misdemeanor in New York, but prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office elevated it to a felony on grounds that Trump was concealing an illegal campaign contribution.
Trump had complained that he could not get a fair trial in his heavily Democratic hometown.
The case was widely regarded as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Trump faces. Jurors heard testimony of sex and lies that have been public since 2018, although the charges themselves rested on ledger accounts and other records of Cohen’s reimbursement.
It was known as the “zombie case” because Bragg brought it back to life after his predecessor opted not to bring charges.
This case was also likely to be the only one to go to trial before the election, as the others are delayed by procedural challenges.
If elected, Trump could shut down the two federal cases that accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021. He would not have the power to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and has portrayed his various legal troubles as an effort by Biden’s Democratic allies to hurt him politically.
But Americans are so pompous they only cling to his lie that he will Make America Great Again. Did Americans ever think they were not great? Apparently they didnt. This was when a black man became president. See the racism? It is ignored by American voters!
Zambians don’t understand what a felony is you PFs.
Don’t just copy and paste, you need translate to audiences. Infact you should have translated into Tonga and Bemba mixed.
The case is simple:
“Ba Trump was using company money to pay for amahule yabili, and record as legal charges”.
Only that ECL lifontini, don’t like amahule, I could have explained better for you abena Lusaka.
American justice has delivered. Oh what a great day, what great news.
TRUMP MAY BE CONVICTED BUT HE WILL STILL THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS. HE STILL REMAIN UNSTOPPABLE. THEY HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO STOP HIM MOVING IN THE OVAL OFFICE.
THE SAME WITH LUNGU …..THEY WIL TRY EVERYTHING TO STOP HIM. BUT HATE HIM OR LOVE HIM ,,,,LUNGU WILL BE BACK IN PLOT 1 COME 2026.
IN MALAWI IT WILL BE THE SAME………THE PASTOR PRESIDENT WILL NOT SURVIVE THE NEXT ELECTION.
ZUMA IS ALMOST TURNING THE TABLES IN SOUTH AFRICA…..HE MAY NOT WIN OUTRIGHTLY BUT HIS PARTY HAS PERFOMED.
TSHIKESEDI MAY ALSO NOT LAST LONG…..THE M23 ARE GUNNING FOR HIS NECK. STRANGE TIMES WE ARE IN .
My full post has been chopped leaving only the tail-end-By the FBI??????
Obama never did anything great for America or Africa. He was used to promote LGBTQ agenda by the Democrats and to destroy families values. This has wrecked havoc in the black communities. Trump calls a spade a spade. It is better to know where you stand than to deal with racist who wear a plastic smile. We don’t need to be reminded that a lot of countries are in a terrible state. When Trump calls our countries sh*those countries, we get get offended.But deep down our hearts we know that he is just being brutally frank. What is wrong with that?
@Swahili for the unity of Africa, have you been drinking Trump Kool-Aid drinks bedtime? Do you even what you’re talking.
I Obama should have done fir Africa. He was the president of USA not Africa
I personally think Obama was the worst president USA has had in the recent times. He and his Democrats took the world for a ride and we fell for it just because he was a black man. He did nothing for black people.He just brought more destruction with his LGBTQ agenda
I have said it before and I am going to say it again, Donald J Trump is a rear exit of a fat pig. Even good things come to an end. How about this PHONY convicted imbecile. What goes around comes around.
Tombernoco
Like I said in my original post when the man takes to the podium he is incoherent. He is always nonsensical. He cant string sentences logically. He only sees “Me, Me, Me”. Its always me or I. He called African countries sh**thole countries but still went to seek the black vote.
He thinks women are sex objects but forgets he has a daughter, a wife a mother. And still gets the ignorant Americans’ votes because they want to be great again. to bully everyone again. How indeed can anyone with more than high school education suggest to a doctor that he should use bleach to kill the covid virus?
Zambians don’t understand what a felony is you PFs.
Don’t just copy and paste, you need translate to audiences. Infact you should have translated into Tonga and Bemba mixed.
The case is simple:
“Ba Trump was using company money to pay for amahule yabili, and record as legal charges”.
Only that ECL lifontini, don’t like amahule, I could have explained better for you abena Lusaka.
Nostradamus a book keeping error is a misdemeanor according to New York law they’re using and you can’t be charging someone because you hate them especially in an election with hypothetical crimes you didn’t define in the first place. Democrats especially Biden has nothing to run on after destroying the economy except demonize his opponent. This case will be overturned on appeal and the supreme Court will school these haters like they did with the ballot case
We will have another one in 2026 in Zambia.
Convicted for having sex with a woman and rewarding her with cash. And they promote men to sleep and marry fellow men. Women sleeping/marrying fellow women. Was this the ecstatic expectation the black diaspora had in 2008 when Obama got into white House? Trump has vowed to undo this LGBTQ agenda. He he make America revert to Aman is aman and a woman is a woman. That will be good for the world. Karbala Harris was here.What did she bring LGBTQ agenda. Voetsek!!!
@Nostradamus, Tienes unos cojones grandes como los de un toro.
Nkana pa Kitwe unapunzira kuti chi Spanish?
Democrats have opened the borders for Latino mass migration. Accommodating these immigrants in hotels and and giving them paid up credit cards. Democrats controlled Chicago and New York. What about the long suffering black Americans sleeping on the streets doing low paid jobs in macDonalds? They dems pay single mothers to with kids. So it’s an incentive to for black women to have fatherless children. That way they are are assured of govt support. If a black woman is lesbian and joins the Democrats, she is assured of a meteoric rise than a straight family oriented colleague. That’s what Obama and Biden’s Democrats have done to the black people in America. And now they want to impose this nonsense to Africa. Voetsek, Voetsek and Fuseke!!!
You’re talking a lot of nonsense . Please get some psychiatric help.
@Mlevi- too late. The medicine wont work
Lungu should take note about former presidents being convicted