In Historic First, Trump Found Guilty on All 34 Counts in Hush Money Trial

*Ex-president: This was a rigged trial by a conflicted corrupt judge

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A jury in Manhattan, New York, yesterday found former President Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, CNBC reported.
Trump, who will be sentenced July 11, was charged with falsifying business records related to a 2016 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels by his fixer Michael Cohen. Trump is set to face President Joe Biden in November’s presidential election.

The New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels by his then-personal lawyer before the 2016 election. Trump is the first former US president to be convicted of any crime.
His sentencing was quickly scheduled for July 11 at 10 a.m. ET. That is four days before the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is set to be formally confirmed as the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Trump, who remains free without bail, faces a maximum possible sentence of four years in prison for each count.
Trump’s demeanour did not change during the reading of the verdict. His son Eric Trump looked angry after the jury foreman repeatedly said “guilty” to each count as it was read.

“This was a disgrace,” Trump said after the verdict. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.”
“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 said. “I am a very innocent man,” he added.

The 12-member jury deliberated less than 10 hours over two days before sending out a note to Judge Juan Merchan saying they had reached a verdict.
Before the announcement, Trump, his lawyers, prosecutors and reporters expected the jury to be dismissed for the day at 4:30 p.m.
Trump was sitting in the courtroom with his arms crossed and a resigned look on his face minutes after the announcement was made. The jury, which had asked for time to fill out the verdict form, was brought into the courtroom about a half hour later, CNBC added.

Trump, 77, was charged in the case with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels by his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen before the 2016 election.
“Jurors, I want to thank you very much for your service,” Merchan said after the verdict was read. “That’s a long time to be away from your job, your families, your other responsibilities.

“I want you to know that I really admire your dedication, your hard work,” the judge said.
The verdict in Manhattan Supreme Court came hours after jurors heard readbacks of testimony by Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, as well as portions of legal instructions they received Wednesday from Merchan. Trump is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a crime.
The records at issue in the case relate to reimbursements by Trump and the Trump Organisation to Cohen, the former fixer who paid Daniels to keep quiet about a sexual tryst she said she had with Trump in 2006.

Cohen testified during the trial that Trump directed him to pay off Daniels before the 2016 election to prevent her story from damaging his presidential campaign.
Trump, who is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faces three other pending criminal cases.
In two of those cases, Trump is charged with crimes related to his efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
One of those cases is in federal court in Washington, D.C., and the other is in Georgia state court in Atlanta.

Trump is charged in federal court in Florida with crimes related to his retention of classified government records after he left the White House in January 2021 and to his attempts to prevent those documents from being recovered by federal officials.
Trump also faces a civil judgment in Manhattan Supreme Court ordering him to pay more than $450 million in damages to the state of New York after he was held liable for business fraud involving the Trump Organization and its valuation of real estate assets.

He also faces two civil defamation verdicts by federal juries that awarded damages of nearly $90 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, who testified that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in a dressing room of a Manhattan department store. Trump is appealing the verdicts in the three civil cases.