A jury delivered a guilty verdict Thursday on all thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records in former president Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial.
The jury deliberated for just a couple of days before returning its verdict, although they did go back to the judge several times asking for a re-read of the instructions and testimony from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker.
Trump was in the courtroom when the verdict was returned, as was Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges. According to the New York Times’s Jesse McKinley, reporting from the scene, “He is largely expressionless, a glum look on his face, as ‘guilty’ has just been heard thirty-four times.”
“This was a disgrace, this was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump told reporters outside the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people. They know what happened here. Everyone knows what happened here.”
“I’m a very innocent man,” he said, before pivoting to a stump speech. “This is far from over,” he concluded.
Immediately afterwards, a Trump campaign email blast announced, “I was just convicted in a rigged trial!” It reads:
BREAKING FROM TRUMP: I AM A POLITICAL PRISONER!
Is this the end of America? I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG!
They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME!
Trump is the first US president to ever be convicted of a crime. He is set for sentencing on July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he is set to be confirmed as the party’s nominee.
Given the complex structure of the case against Trump, his conviction may not tank his prospects with voters. “These idiot liberals may have just gotten Trump elected,” tweeted Ann Coulter, no fan of the former president, after the verdict.
