Donald Trump was found guilty yesterday on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a conspiracy to influence the 2016 presidential election, marking the first-ever criminal conviction of a US president.
A jury in Manhattan deliberated for nearly 12 hours before returning a unanimous verdict to New York Justice Juan Merchan. An emotionless Trump sat at the defence table as the foreperson read “guilty” for each of the 34 counts against him. He craned his neck to watch each of the jurors confirm their decision.
The former president – who refused to testify in his own defence – faces up to four years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines when he will be sentenced on 11 July.
“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump said outside the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people, and they know what happened here,” he added. “I’m a very innocent man.”
Trump’s hush-money trial in New York marked the first-ever criminal proceedings of a current or former US president. If reelected, he will be the first president to serve as a convicted felon.
The verdict followed 17 days of witness testimony over nearly six weeks in a courtroom drama that scrutinised his alleged affairs and the power and influence he wielded to cover them up as he successfully campaigned for the White House.
“I did my job,” Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters. More than one year after Mr Bragg brought a grand jury indictment against Trump, the district attorney said the verdict arrived “in the same manner as any other case that comes through the courtroom doors”.
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