Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024
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Trump's White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC
Donald Trump's lawyer Alina Habba says he would run for president even if he was in jail
The billionaires rallying behind Trump after his conviction
What world made of Trump guilty verdict
Trump's team may use Stormy Daniels' testimony as grounds for appeal
Donald Trump says hush-money trial 'very hard' on wife Melania
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Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial
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Former US president Donald Trump speaks to the media outside his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Thursday. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
The billionaires rallying behind Trump after his conviction
The Trump campaign says it raised $53m within a day of his New York verdict
Miriam Adelson (left) with Mr Trump
Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman backs Mr Trump
Others are likely to follow suit. In the hours following the verdict last week, a number of wealthy billionaires posted messages of support for Mr Trump.
Among them was Silicon Valley investor David Sacks, who posted on X, formerly Twitter, that there "is now only one issue in this election: whether the American people will stand for the USA becoming a Banana Republic".
On 6 June, Mr Sacks and fellow investor Chamath Palihapitiya, are planning to host a fundraiser for Mr Trump in San Francisco. Attendees are reportedly being asked to contribute as much as $300,000.
Another potential donor, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, is expected to make an announcement on X in the coming days about supporting Mr Trump.
While three years ago Mr Ackman said that Mr Trump "should apologise to all Americans" in the wake of the US Capitol riot, the financier has since softened his tone and offered words of support to the former president online.
Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman - one of the most prominent billionaires on Wall Street - has already announced he will support Mr Trump in the election.
Like Mr Ackman, Mr Schwarzman had previously distanced himself from the ex-president.
But in late May, Mr Schwarzman said that he shared "the concern of most Americans that our economic, immigration and foreign policies are taking the country in the wrong direction".
He also said the "dramatic rise of antisemitism has led me to focus on the consequences of the upcoming election with greater urgency".
Other prominent billionaires who have thrown their support behind Mr Trump so far include hedge fund founders John Paulson and Robert Mercer, as well as fracking pioneer Harold Hamm and casino mogul Steve Wynn.
Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz - who said after the US Capitol riot that he regretted voting for Trump in 2020 - has had a change of heart and hosted the former president at his oceanfront Florida mansion in March.
Elon Musk, on the other hand, has previously said he will not be donating to either candidate this electoral cycle, although he does plan to host a livestreamed town-hall style event with Mr Trump.
Similarly, billionaire tech financier and prominent Republican donor Peter Thiel has reportedly turned down requests to donate to the Trump campaign and was said not to be planning any contributions this electoral cycle.
Shaun Maguire, a partner at prominent venture capital firm Sequoia, announced a $300,000 donation to Mr Trump within minutes of last week's verdict, arguing that the trial was unfair.
In a lengthy post on X, Mr Maguire outlined a number of reasons for supporting Mr Trump, including the Biden administration's handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and "weakness" in the Middle East.
The various legal cases against Mr Trump, Mr Maguire added, also served as a "radicalising experience".
"There's a real chance President Trump is convicted of felony charges and sentenced to prison," he wrote. "Bluntly, that's part of why I'm supporting him. I believe our justice system is being weaponised against him."
To date, the Biden campaign has largely surpassed the Trump campaign as far as fundraising.
By the end of April, the campaign had a record $192m cash-on-hand, compared to the Trump campaign's $93.1m.
That same month, however, the Trump campaign raised $76m, surpassing their Democratic rivals for the first time in this election cycle. The Biden campaign raised $51m in April, sharply down from the $90m-plus raised a month earlier.
But despite all the fundraising, Professor Justin Buchler, a campaign finance expert from Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC: "Money is not going to be determinative.
"The primary role of money in a campaign is to increase name recognition. Everybody already knows who Donald Trump and Joe Biden are."
A review of data from CBS, the BBC's US partner, has found that Mr Trump's fundraising tends to enjoy a boost during key moments in his various legal battles.
Before last week's conviction, his single best fundraising days were 4 April last year - the day of his arraignment in New York City - as well as 25 August, when a mugshot of him taken in Georgia was released.
The BBC has contacted the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment on the fundraising.
Trump's White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC
What world made of Trump guilty verdict
Attack Trump verdict or be exiled - a new test for Republicans
https://www.bbc.com/news/
Ultra-wealthy Republican donors are rallying behind former US President Donald Trump following his historic trial and criminal conviction.
Mr Trump, the Republican candidate for this November's White House election, was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid to former adult-film star Stormy Daniels.
While he has lagged behind Joe Biden and the Democrats' fundraising efforts, the conviction injected new life into his electoral bid - with his campaign announcing that it raised nearly $53m (£41.6m) in just 24 hours after the verdict.
Israeli-American casino billionaire Miriam Adelson is expected to announce a multi-million dollar boost to Mr Trump's campaign this week.
According to US media reports, Mrs Adelson will donate to a political action committee called Preserve America. Political action committees can spend unlimited sums of money backing candidates for elected office.
While it is unclear how much she plans to spend, Politico and other US news outlets have reported that the contribution is expected to exceed the $90m donation to Preserve America by Mrs Adelson and her late husband, Sheldon, ahead of the 2020 election.
What world made of Trump guilty verdict
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c28834k8x9po
Global media sees conviction further polarising America
The first conviction of a sitting or former US president has made headlines across the globe.
Much of the world's media have been reflecting on what this means for Mr Trump's aspiration to return to the White House.
He was convicted 34 times of falsifying business records to disguise payments to an adult film star to buy her silence just before the 2016 election. He denied the charges and the affair.
So how is this history-making conviction being covered, from Buenos Aires to Beijing?
We asked our colleagues at BBC Monitoring, which tracks and analyses media around the world.
Russia: 'Justice New York way'
By Sandro Vetsko, BBC Monitoring Russia specialist
In Russia, the largely Kremlin-controlled media have reported Trump's conviction with a bias in his favour - which is par for the course given they supported Trump in his first run for president and are critical of Joe Biden.
"Justice New York way," was how a presenter on the popular state channel NTV put it, with a correspondent then appearing to suggest the jury may not have considered their decisions thoroughly, saying they deliberated "for just 11 hours".
The Kremlin has portrayed the trial as part of the battle for the White House between President Joe Biden and Trump. "They are effectively simply removing political rivals using all possible legal and illegal means. That much is clear," spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
This line has also been echoed in the media. State Channel One TV host Artyom Sheynin asserted on Telegram that America’s judiciary was geared "too blatantly to benefit Biden".
Italy: 'This could derail White House bid'
By Alys Davies, BBC News, London
An editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde takes the view that while American voters were owed “the truth” of what they call Trump’s criminality, the effects of his conviction remain highly uncertain.
The "real" sentencing will not come on 11 July but on the presidential election day, 5 November, it said.
US bureau chief for the Italian daily la Repubblica, Paolo Mastrolilli, takes a more strident view that the guilty verdict is a “defeat” for Trump that could “derail” his election bid, despite the continued support of his loyal fanbase.
By contrast, a comment piece in German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung decries the US political system and the lack of influence the conviction will, in its eyes, have on Trump's standing among Republicans.
“Guilty 34 times… After such a verdict, a candidate for the most powerful job in the world should be politically finished. Instead, his party continues to bow down to Donald Trump,” writes the paper's US correspondent Peter Burghardt.
Meanwhile Polish daily Rzeczpospolita says the "American left has shot itself in the foot" with Trump's conviction.
Pawel Lekpowski describes Trump as "a victim of the overzealous political correct moral inquisition" and says "the effect of [the guilty verdict] will be the opposite of what was intended.”
China: 'Old people and criminals' run for White House
By BBC Monitoring China team
Beijing has not officially commented on Trump's conviction but the story has generated significant coverage in state media, much of it factual.
The few commentators who have talked about it have cast it in terms critical of American democracy.
The US election has become "a battle between old people and criminals", said one commentary in the state-affiliated outlet Guancha, which often posts blogs and articles on trending topics with a nationalist tone.
Washington has now entered a "deep-water zone", with the "shabby old ship" of the US facing an upcoming political storm, suggested another.
Another in the same outlet said the ruling exposed the deep "polarisation in US party politics".
Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Fudan University, said in another nationalist outlet, Global Times, that Washington's "divisive" political system was destroying the soft power the US had built up - "bad news" for "American hegemony".
Mexico: 'Guilty of Pornogate'
By Pascal Fletcher, BBC Monitoring Latin America specialist, Miami
The welter of headlines on the Donald Trump verdict, from Mexico to Argentina, reflected the region’s uneasy view of the US ex-president.
While major dailies made a point of splashing on their front pages large photos of a stern-looking Trump, they also made clear that the guilty verdict against him would not stop him from running for re-election.
This is a sobering prospect for many Latin American leaders and governments who have deep misgivings, and fears, about his radical proposals and threats to counter foreign migrants and drug cartels from south of the border.
Prominent Colombian daily El Espectador accompanied a front-page article with the headline: "A criminal headed for the White House".
Others across the region varied in tone, from the Brazilian daily O Globo’s statement of historical fact "Trump is the 1st ex-president of the US condemned for a crime", to Mexican daily Reforma’s deeply unflattering headline “Guilty of Pornogate”.
In Argentina, daily Clarin’s initial report called the guilty verdict “a shock” and leftist daily Pagina 12 saw it causing “commotion in the United States”.
Donald Trump featured on many front pages
What world made of Trump guilty verdict
BBCThe first conviction of a sitting or former US president has made headlines across the globe.
Much of the world's media have been reflecting on what this means for Mr Trump's aspiration to return to the White House.
He was convicted 34 times of falsifying business records to disguise payments to an adult film star to buy her silence just before the 2016 election. He denied the charges and the affair.
So how is this history-making conviction being covered, from Buenos Aires to Beijing?
We asked our colleagues at BBC Monitoring, which tracks and analyses media around the world.
Russia: 'Justice New York way'
By Sandro Vetsko, BBC Monitoring Russia specialist
In Russia, the largely Kremlin-controlled media have reported Trump's conviction with a bias in his favour - which is par for the course given they supported Trump in his first run for president and are critical of Joe Biden.
"Justice New York way," was how a presenter on the popular state channel NTV put it, with a correspondent then appearing to suggest the jury may not have considered their decisions thoroughly, saying they deliberated "for just 11 hours".
The Kremlin has portrayed the trial as part of the battle for the White House between President Joe Biden and Trump. "They are effectively simply removing political rivals using all possible legal and illegal means. That much is clear," spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
This line has also been echoed in the media. State Channel One TV host Artyom Sheynin asserted on Telegram that America’s judiciary was geared "too blatantly to benefit Biden".
Italy: 'This could derail White House bid'
By Alys Davies, BBC News, London
An editorial in the French newspaper Le Monde takes the view that while American voters were owed “the truth” of what they call Trump’s criminality, the effects of his conviction remain highly uncertain.
The "real" sentencing will not come on 11 July but on the presidential election day, 5 November, it said.
US bureau chief for the Italian daily la Repubblica, Paolo Mastrolilli, takes a more strident view that the guilty verdict is a “defeat” for Trump that could “derail” his election bid, despite the continued support of his loyal fanbase.
By contrast, a comment piece in German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung decries the US political system and the lack of influence the conviction will, in its eyes, have on Trump's standing among Republicans.
“Guilty 34 times… After such a verdict, a candidate for the most powerful job in the world should be politically finished. Instead, his party continues to bow down to Donald Trump,” writes the paper's US correspondent Peter Burghardt.
Meanwhile Polish daily Rzeczpospolita says the "American left has shot itself in the foot" with Trump's conviction.
Pawel Lekpowski describes Trump as "a victim of the overzealous political correct moral inquisition" and says "the effect of [the guilty verdict] will be the opposite of what was intended.”
China: 'Old people and criminals' run for White House
By BBC Monitoring China team
Beijing has not officially commented on Trump's conviction but the story has generated significant coverage in state media, much of it factual.
The few commentators who have talked about it have cast it in terms critical of American democracy.
The US election has become "a battle between old people and criminals", said one commentary in the state-affiliated outlet Guancha, which often posts blogs and articles on trending topics with a nationalist tone.
Washington has now entered a "deep-water zone", with the "shabby old ship" of the US facing an upcoming political storm, suggested another.
Another in the same outlet said the ruling exposed the deep "polarisation in US party politics".
Shen Yi, an international relations professor at Fudan University, said in another nationalist outlet, Global Times, that Washington's "divisive" political system was destroying the soft power the US had built up - "bad news" for "American hegemony".
Mexico: 'Guilty of Pornogate'
By Pascal Fletcher, BBC Monitoring Latin America specialist, Miami
The welter of headlines on the Donald Trump verdict, from Mexico to Argentina, reflected the region’s uneasy view of the US ex-president.
While major dailies made a point of splashing on their front pages large photos of a stern-looking Trump, they also made clear that the guilty verdict against him would not stop him from running for re-election.
This is a sobering prospect for many Latin American leaders and governments who have deep misgivings, and fears, about his radical proposals and threats to counter foreign migrants and drug cartels from south of the border.
Prominent Colombian daily El Espectador accompanied a front-page article with the headline: "A criminal headed for the White House".
Others across the region varied in tone, from the Brazilian daily O Globo’s statement of historical fact "Trump is the 1st ex-president of the US condemned for a crime", to Mexican daily Reforma’s deeply unflattering headline “Guilty of Pornogate”.
In Argentina, daily Clarin’s initial report called the guilty verdict “a shock” and leftist daily Pagina 12 saw it causing “commotion in the United States”.
And some commentary elsewhere...
Trump's conviction made headlines around the world - from influential pan-Arab TV channels like the Saudi-funded Al-Arabiya to India's newspaper of record, The Times of India.
Much of this reporting was neutral, but some have echoed Trump's criticisms of American institutions.
On CNN Turk, for example, guests suggested the US judicial system was "rigged” and that “the judge and the jury are biased".
One caption on the channel repeated a well-known trope voiced by Trump supporters, asking: “Did the US Deep State block Trump?”
On social media, Iranians who support Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the last Shah of Iran, condemned the verdict, saying "globalists and leftist are doing all in their power to hold back Trump from becoming US's president again".
But the pro-government news website Haqqin.az in Azerbaijan wrote: "The insensitivity of American voters even to the criminal conviction of a presidential candidate suggests that the country has reached the brink - there is nowhere to go further."
Additional reporting by Rupsha Mukherjee, Hilken Boran, Omneya El Naggar and Ghoncheh Habibiazad
The former president says his trial was 'tougher' on his family than on him
Donald Trump says hush-money trial 'very hard' on wife Melania
Donald Trump has said his historic trial and criminal conviction have been "very hard" for his wife, former First Lady Melania Trump.
Last week, jurors found Mr Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
With the verdict, he became the first US president to be convicted of a crime. He has repeatedly called the trial rigged and politically motivated.
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, Mr Trump vowed that success at the upcoming November US election would be his "revenge".
He is slated to be sentenced on 11 July, and plans to appeal against the convictions.
Speaking to Fox on Sunday, Mr Trump said his New York legal battle has been particularly difficult on his wife.
The trial included lurid details of the alleged meeting between Mr Trump and Ms Daniels.
The details included Mr Trump greeting her in silk pyjamas at his hotel suite, and Ms Daniels' claims that he did not wear protection when they allegedly had sex.
In her testimony, Ms Daniels also claimed that Mr Trump and his wife sleep in different beds.
"She's fine, but I think it's very hard for her," Mr Trump said of his wife, adding that "in many ways, it's tougher on them [his family] than it is me".
Under New York law, each of the 34 felony counts Mr Trump was convicted of could result in up to four years in prison - though this is not considered a likely outcome.
In his interview on Fox, Mr Trump acknowledged the possibility of being imprisoned, saying that he is "okay with it" but that he is "not sure the public would stand for it".
"I think it would be tough for the public to take," he said. "You know, at a certain point there's a breaking point."
In another interview published over the weekend, the woman at the heart of the New York case - former adult film actress Stormy Daniels - said she was "shocked" at how quickly the jury reached a verdict.
In her first public remarks since the convictions, Ms Daniels told UK newspaper The Mirror that she believes Mr Trump "should be sentenced to jail and some community service working for the less fortunate".
"Or being the volunteer punching bag at a woman's shelter," she added.
Even after the conviction, Ms Daniels said that the case is "not over" for her.
"It's never going to be over for me," she said. "Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy."
Mr Trump is still facing dozens of other charges in three other criminal cases, including a Georgia case in which he is accused of conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat by President Joe Biden in the state during the 2020 election. That case is currently tied up in appeals.
In Florida - where he faces a federal case over his alleged mishandling of classified documents - a judge has indefinitely postponed the trial, saying setting a date before resolving questions about evidence would be “imprudent”.
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 1
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 2
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 3
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 4
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 5
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 6
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 7
Donald Trump Found Guilty But Fights On To Become The Next USA President
INLTVWorldNews 31stMay 2024 Part 8
Trump's White House bid goes on, lawyer tells BBC
Laura Kuenssberg,Presenter of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg,
@bbclaurak
One of Donald Trump's lawyers has told the BBC "nothing will change" his fight for the White House - despite being convicted following an historic trial in New York.
Jurors found Mr Trump guilty on Thursday of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election campaign.
Mr Trump became the first US president to be convicted of a crime, but he has said the trial was rigged and the prosecution was politically orchestrated.
Alina Habba has told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg the former president is a "victim of political, selective prosecution".
Following the seven-week trial at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Mr Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Mr Trump will be sentenced on 11 July. However, he confirmed he will be appealing against his criminal convictions.
Ms Habba, 40, sat alongside Mr Trump during the trial and said even if jailed, Mr Trump will still stand in the US presidential election in November.
Donald Trump's attorney Alina Habba (L) appeared alongside the former US president after he was convicted
"We have seen some corruption in this country that frankly has never seen before in our judicial system," Ms Habba told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
"It is very real, it is not posturing by any means, it is 100% a problem that this country is going to have to handle and get a grapple on in November.
"He is running for president, nothing will change there.
"The people that need him in this country, because frankly it's more important than anything anybody else thinks.
"Our people are speaking loudly, they're donating, they're small donors, and they are standing up because they are afraid, because we cannot have this happen to us."
On Thursday Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to payments made to Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign
In remarks at Trump Tower in New York on Friday, Mr Trump spoke for more than 30 minutes and angrily attacked his political opponents, the jury and the judge in his case.
He called Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over his trial, a "tyrant" and claimed that he "literally crucified" witnesses.
In response, President Joe Biden's campaign described Mr Trump as unhinged and thirsting for revenge.
"That's how the American system of justice works," Mr Biden said, adding it was "reckless" and "irresponsible" for anyone to suggest the trial was rigged.
Mr Trump's unprecedented conviction has entrenched bitter divisions in the US, in the run-up to November's vote.
Prosecutors successfully laid out a case Mr Trump was afraid Ms Daniels would fatally harm his 2016 presidential campaign by going public with an alleged sexual encounter, prompting him to pay her - then illegally hide the transaction.
Mr Trump denied these allegations.
Ms Daniels herself gave evidence. In another development since the convictions, her lawyer told ABC News Ms Daniels wore a bulletproof vest when she went to the New York courthouse.
Clark Brewster said: "It's so vicious and threatening and so I think from the standpoint of just the fear of what somebody might do," he said of the atmosphere for Ms Daniels.
"It was really fear."
In exclusive comments to the Daily Mirror, Ms Daniels said Mr Trump should be jailed or used as "the volunteer punching bag at a women's shelter".
She told the paper: "It’s not over for me. It’s never going to be over for me.
"Trump may be guilty, but I still have to live with the legacy.”
Trump's team may use Stormy Daniels' testimony as grounds for appeal
Previously, Ms Daniels's husband, Barrett Blade, told CNN she felt "a little vindicated".
Mr Blade added that despite the trial ending and bringing some relief, the stress was far from over.
"It brings another weight upon her shoulders of what happens next," Mr Blade said.
"We take it day by day."
Also on Saturday, the Trump campaign sent out a text message to supporters – one of more than a dozen sent since the verdict – which read in part: “They want me behind bars. They want me DEAD.”
Some of his most fervent supporters, such as former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, have alleged without evidence there is a secret plot to assassinate Mr Trump.
Others have made a less conspiratorial argument – pointing out the maximum penalty Mr Trump faces, four years for each of 34 felony counts, would effectively mean he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
Mr Trump alluded to this in his most recent fundraising message, saying his enemies are “attempting to JAIL me for life as an innocent man”.
However, legal experts agree Mr Trump will not receive anywhere near the maximum, and will be sentenced to a much shorter jail sentence, if he is given any prison time at all.
Additional reporting by Mike Wendling.
The full interview with Alina Habba will be played on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 09:00 BST on Sunday 2 June.
Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial
Former US president convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels
Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial – The Irish Times
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has been found guilty on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree after the jury returned its verdict in a courtroom in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon.
The verdict means that Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, becomes the first former president in the history of the US to be found guilty in a criminal case.
The verdict was reached just when everyone in the courthouse in downtown Manhattan was beginning to mentally unwind for the day. It was 4.40pm. Soon, Justice Juan Merchan would tell the 12 jurors to break for the day.
In the morning, they had twice requested specific pieces of testimony from key witnesses, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer. Those testimonies were acted out by court officials who spoke, reporters covering the trial noted, in broad New York accents.
All the main television news channels carried a live clock counter of the hours and minutes the jury spent locked inside, discussing the minutiae of the case. It was the 11th hour of a decision which, speculation went, could last weeks. The end-of-day mood was relaxed, with Trump and his defence team talking and laughing when the most shocking news in a trial defined by shocks, came through.
The jury had reached its verdict.
Just after 5pm, the jury were back in the courtroom. The former president’s demeanour was reported as formal: sitting upright in his chair and looking ahead of him as all 18 jurors – the twelve who decided upon the verdict and six alternates – took their place in the courtroom.
“We received a note from you signed by your jury foreperson at 4.20pm,” Justice Merchan said.
Count one was guilty. Falsifying business records in the first degree.
A guilty verdict was recorded in the next four felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree.
The verdicts continued through all 34 charges. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And on and on. All of this was conveyed to the American public through the prism of television studios: it was left to their imagination to summon up the atmosphere inside the courtroom.
Todd Blanche, the lead defence attorney requested the jurors be polled individually after the verdicts were returned. Judge Merchan thanked the jurors for “dedication and hard work” throughout the trial, telling them they had “engaged in a very stressful and difficult case”.
Trump left the courtroom minutes after the jurors and looked wrathful as he stopped before the television cameras to deliver a summary of what he has maintained since the trial began.
“This was a disgrace,” he said.
“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge that was corrupt. It was a rigged trial, a disgrace. They wouldn’t give us a venue change – we are at five per cent or six per cent in this district. This was a rigged disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be on November 5th by the people. And they know what happened here. And everybody knows what happened here.
“We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man.
“And its okay ... I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now. This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt a political opponent and I think it is just a disgrace.
“We will keep fighting. We will fight until the end and we will win because our country has gone to hell.”
Elsewhere, the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign said in a statement on Thursday: “In New York today, we saw 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. 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.”
The defence team has until June 13th to appeal the decision and the verdict does not mean that the former president will be served with a custodial sentence. His sentencing is due to take place four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee, in July.
On a historic day in US political and legal history, the New Yorker has distinguished himself in a way that no other president ever has – or would want to.
Keith Duggan
Keith Duggan is Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times
Keith Duggan is Washington Correspondent of The Irish Times
[ Trump verdict a stunning end to a quintessentially New York legal tale ]
[ Timeline: Trump’s $130,000 hush money payment and the path to the guilty verdict ]
[ Explainer: What charges did Trump face in New York’s hush money trial? ]
[ Explainer: What charges did Trump face in New York’s hush money trial? ]
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Trump verdict a stunning end to a quintessentially New York legal tale
November’s presidential election - and America itself - has entered uncharted territory
The 2024 US presidential election – and America itself – entered uncharted territory on Thursday afternoon when a 12-person jury found Donald Trump, former president polling favourite to return to the White House, guilty of 34 felony charges after an electrifying close to the so-called “hush money” trial in Manhattan.
The decision came late in the afternoon, with Justice Juan Merchan receiving a note at 4.20pm, by which time everyone was preparing to go home. By 5pm, the jury was back in the courtroom and in front of a still, stony-faced Trump, the foreman went through all 34 counts and confirmed that it was a unanimous decision.
Just like that, it was all over. The Trump defence team had hardly left the courthouse when a statement was released from president Biden’s campaign team.
“Today we saw 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. 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.”
[ Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial ]
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Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in criminal hush money trial
Former US president convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels
Former US president Donald Trump speaks to the media outside his criminal trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City on Thursday. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has been found guilty on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree after the jury returned its verdict in a courtroom in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon.
The verdict means that Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, becomes the first former president in the history of the US to be found guilty in a criminal case.
The verdict was reached just when everyone in the courthouse in downtown Manhattan was beginning to mentally unwind for the day. It was 4.40pm. Soon, Justice Juan Merchan would tell the 12 jurors to break for the day.
In the morning, they had twice requested specific pieces of testimony from key witnesses, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the publisher of the National Enquirer. Those testimonies were acted out by court officials who spoke, reporters covering the trial noted, in broad New York accents.
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All the main television news channels carried a live clock counter of the hours and minutes the jury spent locked inside, discussing the minutiae of the case. It was the 11th hour of a decision which, speculation went, could last weeks. The end-of-day mood was relaxed, with Trump and his defence team talking and laughing when the most shocking news in a trial defined by shocks, came through.
The jury had reached its verdict.
Just after 5pm, the jury were back in the courtroom. The former president’s demeanour was reported as formal: sitting upright in his chair and looking ahead of him as all 18 jurors – the twelve who decided upon the verdict and six alternates – took their place in the courtroom.
“We received a note from you signed by your jury foreperson at 4.20pm,” Justice Merchan said.
Count one was guilty. Falsifying business records in the first degree.
A guilty verdict was recorded in the next four felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree.
The verdicts continued through all 34 charges. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And on and on. All of this was conveyed to the American public through the prism of television studios: it was left to their imagination to summon up the atmosphere inside the courtroom.
Todd Blanche, the lead defence attorney requested the jurors be polled individually after the verdicts were returned. Judge Merchan thanked the jurors for “dedication and hard work” throughout the trial, telling them they had “engaged in a very stressful and difficult case”.
Trump left the courtroom minutes after the jurors and looked wrathful as he stopped before the television cameras to deliver a summary of what he has maintained since the trial began.
“This was a disgrace,” he said.
“This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge that was corrupt. It was a rigged trial, a disgrace. They wouldn’t give us a venue change – we are at five per cent or six per cent in this district. This was a rigged disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be on November 5th by the people. And they know what happened here. And everybody knows what happened here.
“We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man.
“And its okay ... I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now. This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt a political opponent and I think it is just a disgrace.
“We will keep fighting. We will fight until the end and we will win because our country has gone to hell.”
Elsewhere, the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris campaign said in a statement on Thursday: “In New York today, we saw 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. 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.”
The defence team has until June 13th to appeal the decision and the verdict does not mean that the former president will be served with a custodial sentence. His sentencing is due to take place four days before the Republican National Convention begins in Milwaukee, in July.
On a historic day in US political and legal history, the New Yorker has distinguished himself in a way that no other president ever has – or would want to.:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/irishtimes/142e9869-5a99-49bd-a9f5-90adedbadb25.png)