America reacts as Donald Trump found guilty on all 34 counts in New York trial
Donald Trump has been found guilty on 34 criminal counts in his New York hush money trial in a historic verdict.
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Donald Trump has been found guilty in his New York hush money trial in a historic verdict.
Jurors found Mr Trump guilty on all 34 counts on Thursday afternoon, making him the first former US President with a criminal conviction.
He stared silently straight ahead, frowning as each count was read out.
The court security officer then asked the jurors if they found him guilty on all counts.
“Yes,” the jurors responded.
A sentencing hearing has been set for July 11 at 10am – four days before the Republican National Convention, when the party will officially nominate him for President.
He faces a minimum of probation and a maximum of up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors haven’t said what penalty they will be seeking.
Trump reacts
Mr Trump gave brief comments to media outside the court, claiming the trial was “rigged” and a “disgrace”.
“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt,” he said.
“The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here.”
He insisted “we didn’t do anything wrong”.
“I’m a very innocent man and it’s OK, I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our Constitution,” he said.
“This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent, and I think it’s just a disgrace and we’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight to the end and we’ll win.”
Mr Trump said the country “has gone to hell”.
“We don’t have the same country any more,” he said.
“We have a divided mess. We are a nation in decline, serious decline. Millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists. They are taking over our country. We have a country that’s in big trouble. But this was a rigged decision, right from day one with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over. Thank you very much.”
What happens next?
Mr Trump will hold a press conference at 11am on Friday (1am Saturday AEST) at Trump Tower in New York.
If Mr Trump decides to appeal, the process could take at least a year during which he would likely remain out free pending the decision, experts told the NY Post.
“[Any appeal] won’t be [decided] before the election,” said former prosecutor Michael Bachner.
If he loses an appeal with the mid-level appeals court, Mr Trump would need to seek to have New York’s highest court hear the case, which could take another year.
The Biden-Harris campaign said the verdict showed that “no one is above the law”.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” the campaign said in a statement.
“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.
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
‘Shameful day’
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was a “shameful day in American history”.
“Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon,” Mr Johnson said in a statement.
“This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one. The weaponisation of our justice system has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, and the decision today is further evidence that Democrats will stop at nothing to silence dissent and crush their political opponents. The American people see this as lawfare, and they know it is wrong – and dangerous. President Trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict – and he WILL WIN!”
Following the verdict, the Trump campaign’s online donation portal, WinRed, appeared to go offline.
“The American people see through Crooked Joe Biden’s rigged show trial,” the Trump campaign wrote on X.
“So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump’s campaign that the WinRed pages went down. We are working on getting the website back online as quickly as possible. Stay strong.”
The BBC reported earlier that Trump looked calm but less jovial as he sat in his chair at the defence table.
“Let there be no outbursts of any kind,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said ahead of the decision.
Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka responded to the verdict by posting a picture of herself as a young child with her father, simply writing “I love you dad”.
Mr Trump’s crimes
Mr Trump was accused of 34 counts of fraud by falsifying business records to cover up payments of $200,000 ($US130,000) to porn star Stormy Daniels.
It was alleged Mr Trump wanted to buy her silence about an alleged extramarital sexual encounter which was in danger of becoming public knowledge in the run up to the 2016 US Presidential election.
Paying to keep stories quiet isn’t illegal but falsifying business records is.
The prosecution has attempted to persuade the jury that the payments were effectively electoral interference which is more serious crime.
Mr Trump, 77, denied a sexual encounter with Ms Daniels took place and denied all the charges.
The jury began its deliberations on Tuesday.
The former President spent much of the trial railing against what he perceived as the its unjustness but he was also grumpy about the temperature in the Manhattan courtroom which he commented on multiple times.
Judge Merchan put a gag order on Mr Trump preventing him from maligning witnesses or jurors as there were concerns it could disrupt the trial.
Earlier in May, Judge Merchan said Mr Trump has violated that order on nine occasions and fined him $13,856 ($US9000) with a warning he could go to jail if he kept ignoring the order.
‘I’m not a bank’
The three star witnesses called by the prosecution team were Mr Trump’s former lawyer and “fixer” Michael Cohen, Ms Daniels and publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer David Pecker.
Mr Pecker testified about a “catch and kill” scheme run through the National Enquirer’s parent company where stories damaging to Mr Trump in the run up to the election were bought and then not published.
But Mr Pecker said he hesitated to pay for yet another story – that of Ms Daniels’ alleged sexual encounter.
“I’m not a bank,” he told the court.
But he was also concerned that big retailers who distributed the National Enquirer would remove the magazine if they found out they were involved with an adult entertainer.
The defence pointed out buying stories was not illegal.
‘Brief’ sexual encounter
Ms Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, testified she met Mr Trump when the adult film company she was working for sponsored a golf tournament at Lake Tahoe, California, in July 2006.
She was encouraged to meet Mr Trump at his suite.
The actor said she went to the toilet at one point and when she returned Mr Trump was on the bed in boxer shorts and a T-shirt.
“The intent was pretty clear,” she told the jury.
Ms Daniels said the alleged sex with Mr Trump was “brief” and he did not wear a condom which was a “concern”.
The defence tried to discredit Ms Daniel’s testimony claiming a porn star wouldn’t have been surprised by seeing a semi naked man on a bed.
“If I came out of the bathroom and saw an older man in his underwear that I wasn’t expecting to see there, yeah (I’d be surprised),” she replied.
She was also accused of lying about having sex with Mr Trump to profit from it.
“Nobody would ever want to publicly say that,” she retorted.
Star witness a ‘liar’
The key witness was Michael Cohen. He testified that with the National Enquirer baulking at paying Stormy Daniels and with the Trump Organisation being slow with the cash, he was forced to pay Ms Daniels $200,000 from his own funds to keep her story quiet as the election was nearing.
He claimed he had a phone call with Mr Trump who green the money transfer.
“He wasn’t thinking about Melania,” Mr Cohen claimed about the alleged porn star pay-off.
“This was all about the campaign”.
Mr Cohen then claimed that money he later received as the personal lawyer of the by then President Trump included a portion that was in reality a reimbursement for the cash he gave to Ms Daniels.
Mr Trump’s defence team had urged the jury to ignore Mr Cohen’s testimony and called him a “liar” repeatedly pointing out that he had done prison time.
However, Mr Cohen’s jail sentence was for violating campaign finance laws which was in another case related to Mr Trump.
The defence also called into doubt an alleged call Mr Cohen had with Mr Trump suggesting the brief call – which wasn’t to Mr Trump’s phone – was an entirely different matter.
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