Trump found guilty in historic criminal trial » Capital News
MANHATTAN, New York May 31 – Donald Trump has been found guilty on all counts in his historic New York criminal trial, becoming the first former or sitting president to be convicted of a crime as he makes a bid to return to the White House.
The panel of 12 Manhattan jurors reached their unanimous verdict on Thursday after two weeks of deliberations and a six-week trial.
The court heard from more than 20 witnesses, including Stormy Daniels, whose alleged sexual encounter with the former president was at the centre of the case.
Trump, 77, called the verdict a “disgrace”, adding: “We’ll fight to the end.”
The former president was accused of concealing a payment to buy the silence of Ms Daniels, a former adult-film star, in the final days of his 2016 election campaign.
He will be sentenced on 11 July – just days before the Republican National Convention, when he will be confirmed as the party’s White House candidate.
While he could in theory face prison, a financial penalty is seen as the more likely punishment following Thursday’s unanimous verdict. For now, Trump has been released on his own recognisance.
The former president pursed his lips as the jurors confirmed the guilty counts on all 34 charges, turning his head to look at them.
Amid a massive police presence outside court afterwards, Trump said: “This was a disgrace, this was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.”
As he spoke, hundreds of onlookers gathered and a helicopter circled overhead.
He was expected to speak again to media in front of Trump Tower in New York City on Friday morning.
At a news conference later, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment on whether he would seek a prison term for Trump.
Asked about criticism of the case – his predecessor had opted not to bring the charges against Trump – the Democratic prosecutor said: “I did my job.”
“Our job is to follow the facts without fear or favour, and that’s what we did here.”
Trump will almost certainly appeal, which does not prevent him from running against President Joe Biden, the Democrat incumbent, in November’s election.
If he were to defeat Mr Biden, he would become the first convicted criminal to occupy the White House.
Trump’s political allies issued statements in his defence after the verdict.
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said it was a “shameful day in American history” and symbolic of the “weaponisation” of the justice system to “silence dissent”.
But the Biden-Harris campaign said the verdict showed “no one is above the law”.
“There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said.
During the trial, the prosecution set out to prove that Trump falsified records when he repaid his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush-money payment to Ms Daniels.
They said he recorded the reimbursements as legal expenses in order to circumvent campaign finance laws.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead lawyer, told Justice Juan Merchan that the court should not allow the verdict, arguing that Cohen committed perjury on the stand.
The Trump team’s motion to acquit, however, was denied by Justice Merchan.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, Cohen said that the verdict “is an important day for accountability and the rule of law”.
“The truth always matters,” he added.
Trump was required to sit in the Manhattan court for the duration of the trial, which kept him largely off the campaign trail.
But he launched near-daily attacks on Mr Biden, arguing that the case brought by Manhattan’s district attorney was politically motivated.
The former president faces three other criminal cases, including two of alleged election interference, but it looks unlikely that those trials will begin before the general election on 5 November.
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