The adult film star, who was paid $130,000 as “legal expenses” for her silence about her affair with the former US president, warned the presidential candidate is “completely and utterly out of touch with reality”.
The prosecution and the guilty verdicts are unprecedented. But making history is not the same as shifting election outcomes
Guilty. The New York jury’s unanimous verdicts on 34 counts mean that Donald Trump is not only the first sitting or former US president to be prosecuted in a criminal trial, but the first to be convicted.
Trump was found to have falsified business records to hide $130,000 of hush money paid to cover up a sex scandal he feared might hinder his run in 2016. Before his entry into politics, it would have been taken for granted that such charges would kill a campaign. Yet Trump is running for the White House as a convicted criminal. If he is jailed when he is sentenced in July – which most experts think unlikely – it is assumed that he would continue. If anything, the prospect of such a sentence spurs him on.
Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
The verdict came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours in the unprecedented first criminal trial against a US president, current or former. It marks a perilous political moment for Trump, the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination, whose poll numbers have remained unchanged throughout the trial but could tank at any moment.
Jurors in Donald Trump’s criminal trial found the former president guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
The jury of seven men and five women living in Manhattan, over the course of two days this week, weighed whether the former president’s alleged efforts to conceal an affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels, which he feared would damage his 2016 bid for the White House, were illicit.
Calls, notes and witness testimony appear to fit with prosecutors’ case that Trump falsified records as part of plot to influence 2016 election
As the jury began deliberations on Wednesday, Donald Trump appeared to have little room to extricate himself from the mass of evidence presented in the weeks-long case.
A recording of Trump directing hush money to be paid in cash. Handwritten notes by Trump’s ex-chief financial officer about how to reimburse Cohen. A parade of witnesses who testified the Trump campaign was desperate to suppress the story of his affair with the adult film star Stormy Daniels.
by violating the Federal Election and Campaign Act, which in 2016 made it a crime for any person to make contributions to a campaign in excess of $2,700 per year, or for a corporation to make a contribution of any amount to any candidate’s campaign in a federal election.
by causing the falsification of other business records, including bank records for the shell companies that Cohen established on false pretenses to pay the hush money to Daniels.
by violating federal tax and New York state tax law 1801(a)3 and 1802 since Cohen’s reimbursement for the hush money was “grossed up” to compensate him for taxes he would have to pay on the $130,000 when he recorded it as income on his tax returns.
Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money case in New York inched towards its conclusion on Wednesday with jury deliberations starting just before 11.30am local time.
Right after jurors began weighing the former president’s fate, Trump railed against the proceedings and compared himself to a saint, saying in the hallway: “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges. The charges are rigged. The whole thing is rigged.”
Joshua Steinglass tells hush-money jurors that scheme to bury negative stories before 2016 election distorted democracy
Donald Trump’s secret plot to bury negative press ahead of the 2016 election deprived Americans of their right to choose a candidate at the ballot box, said the prosecution in its summation on Tuesday at the former president’s New York hush-money trial.
Joshua Steinglass’s closing statement reminded jurors of a summer 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where the real estate mogul sat with then consigliere Michael Cohen and tabloid honcho David Pecker.
Trump will once again be joined in the courtroom by political allies, according to CNN. Among those expected at the Manhattan criminal court today are Trump’s son Don Jr; Sebastian Gorka, a former aide to Trump and an ex-editor at the rightwing website Breitbart; and Trump’s former acting attorney general Matt Whitaker, who was a prominent critic of the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.
CNN has a list of all the people expected to join Trump in court today:
Mike Johnson and other Republicans vying for Trump’s approval haven’t realized that they, too, will one day pay a price
When, in the early days, Donald Trump’s diehard fans failed to show up in front of 100 Centre Street at the Manhattan courthouse to clamor about the rank injustice of the case of The People of the State of New York v Donald J Trump,the lonely defendant roused himself from his fitful slumbers to choreograph a dance of the marionettes. The political delegations that started appearing on 14 May attired for perfectly flattering cosplay in Trump matching red ties was a refrain of surrogates echoing insults and imprecations that if the former president were to mutter himself would earn him further contempt of court citations.
Trump assembled around him a miniature court and hierarchy that populated a desolation row. In the front row were seated Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, now installed as the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. There were the senators and congressmen, the failed presidential candidates and hopeful running mates who repeated Trump’s scripted talking points against the judge, the prosecutors and the justice system. There were the Fox News anchors, Jeanine Pirro, who exchanged smiles and nods with Trump, and Laura Ingraham, reprimanded by court officers for staring through forbidden binoculars as though she were on safari. There was former Trump White House adviser Boris Epshteyn, indicted in the Arizona fake electors scheme.
The ex-president walked into the courtroom with a phalanx of supporters as the defense’s witness prompted near-chaos
Donald Trump’s criminal hush-money trial entered its 19th day on Monday in Manhattan with what has become a routine procession. Trump walked into the hallway, and then the courtroom, with a phalanx of supporters that included his son, Eric, and Republicans of varying prominence.
This morning, some of Trump’s guests included Kash Patel and the law professor Alan Dershowitz, whose reputation has waned due to his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. Others present included: a former leader of the New York Hells Angels chapter, and a disgraced former NYPD commissioner.
Judge Juan Merchan is speaking about whether or not to restrict the testimony of a Federal Election Commission (FEC) expert, who the defense wanted to call.
Judge Juan Merchan says he expects closing arguments to be next Tuesday. “It’s become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow,” Merchan says.
Trump’s former fixer gave damning testimony – and he’ll return to the stand on Monday as the trial moves towards a close
Donald Trump’s criminal trial is drawing to a close, with two looming questions: what will the jury decide, and how will America react?
After weeks of testimony from witnesses including the porn star Stormy Daniels, National Enquirer boss David Pecker and former senior Trump aide Hope Hicks, the trial came to an inflection point this week with its star witness. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and attorney who has since turned into a bellicose critic of his old boss, was on the stand all three days court was in session this week. He delivered damning testimony – then faced a tough if uneven grilling from Trump’s team.
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