The conviction, which legal experts say is unlikely to lead to jail time, does not disqualify Trump from running for president. An appeal is likely.
By Lauren Camera
May 30, 2024
U.S. News & World Report
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 30: Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs the courtroom after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. The former president was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first of his criminal cases to go to trial. Trump has now become the first former U.S. president to be convicted of felony crimes. (Photo by Justin Lane-Pool/Getty Images)
(JUSTIN LANE|POOL|GETTY IMAGES
Former President Donald Trump departs the courtroom after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial in New York City on May 30, 2024.
The jury serving in Donald Trump’s hush money trial returned a guilty verdict Thursday against the former president, leaving an indelible blot on American history and scrambling the dynamic in the 2024 presidential election for the presumed Republican nominee.
After roughly nine hours of deliberation, the jurors found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to conceal payments meant to silence stories of an extramarital sexual encounter in an elaborate “catch and kill” scheme carried out during his 2016 presidential campaign in a bid to influence the election.
A largely expressionless Trump looked on as juror number one delivered a guilty verdict on charge one, and then repeated the guilty verdict 33 more times. Each juror then confirmed the verdict individually.
Trump is the first former American president to face a criminal trial and the first to be found guilty.
“You gave this matter the attention that it deserved and I thank you for that,” Judge Juan Merhcan said, thanking the 12 jurors for their civic duty before excusing them.
Last summer, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, including 11 checks, 11 invoices and 12 ledger entries. Trump had denied any wrongdoing, but ultimately chose not to testify.
Before the jury was ushered into a private room to begin deliberation on Wednesday, Merchan gave them specific and at times complicated instructions regarding how they are allowed to reach a verdict, including what evidence and testimony they can consider.
Among other things, Merchan said that in order to find Trump guilty, the jury must unanimously find that Trump falsified business documents, and that he did so in order to commit or conceal a separate crime. Prosecutors allege that the separate crime was a violation of a state election law barring the promotion of a person’s election by “unlawful means.”
Notably, the jurors do not have to agree on what unlawful means were employed in violation of the state election law, and could consider three possibilities: violation of tax laws, violations of federal election law and the falsification of other records.
Jurors reached the unanimous decision after asking for readback of some testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, whose $130,000 payment sits at the heart of the case, and David Pecker, the former publisher of American Media Inc., who helped hatch the “catch-and-kill” scheme. They also asked for a readback of part of Merchan’s instructions.
The jurors’ decision caps the historic six-week trial – the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Trump lashed out after the guilty verdict was delivered.
“This is a disgrace,” an angry Trump told reporters. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.”
Trump spoke for less than three minutes, repeating unfounded claims that the entire case amounted to a political persecution meant to undermine his 2024 campaign.
“I’m a very innocent man,” he said. “We’ll keep fighting. And we’ll fight to the end and we’ll win.”
“The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5th by the people. And they know what happened here.”
Trump is almost certain to appeal the verdict – a process that will take months and is likely to blow past the presidential election.
Merchan scheduled the sentencing hearing for July 11, just four days before the Republican National Convention begins. While Trump could face time behind bars if convicted – up to four years under New York law for each of the Class E felonies with which he’s charged – the odds are low, legal experts say.
For one, Trump is no ordinary defendant, and it would be unlikely that Merchan delivers a prison sentence for a nonviolent crime to a 77-year-old former president with no prior convictions. Instead, experts say, a guilty verdict likely means fines and probation, including anything from community service where he picks up trash in the city’s subway to reporting frequently to a civil servant in the city’s Probation Department.
Notably, the hush money case is the only one of the four active indictments against Trump for which legal experts anticipated a trial starting ahead of the election. The former president also faces charges related to mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and attempting to overturn the election and inciting a riot at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
EXPLAINER: Trump’s Legal Woes, Explained
The conviction does not disqualify Trump from running for president – though it could significantly impact his campaign. About 1 in 4 Republicans said they would not vote for Trump if he is found guilty of a felony in a criminal trial, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in April, along with 60% of independents.
It’s unclear whether that will come to fruition, however.
Trump has been successful in painting his legal challenges – 88 criminal charges across four indictments – as a political witch hunt engineered by President Joe Biden, Democrats and liberal prosecutors and judges. He’s provided no evidence of such a conspiracy, but the narrative has served to bolster support among his most ardent backers and has become a cornerstone of his campaign.
Indeed, a poll from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research published last month found that only 4 in 10 Americans believe Trump is being treated fairly by any of the prosecutors who have brought charges against him and that only about 2 in 10 Americans are “extremely or very confident” that the judges and jurors in the cases against him can be fair and impartial.
Trump has also proven adept at fundraising off his legal challenges. Indeed, just minutes after the verdict was announced his campaign blasted out a fundraising email to supporters, declaring, “I am a political prisoner!” And now that he’s not required to sit in court all day, he can take his show on the road.
Until now, President Joe Biden has shied away from commenting on Trump’s legal challenges, seeking instead to maintain focus on the November election. But in a statement from his campaign, he warned that Trump is running “an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution,” and warned that the only way to stop him is to vote in November.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” the statement read. “But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still 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,” the statement continued. “A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
