Donald Trump has been found guilty by a New York jury on all counts related to his hush money trial.
The jury deliberated for less than 12 hours and found that Trump broke the law by forging business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election in a bid to influence the outcome. Trump’s team tried to conceal the payment as “legal expense.”
The utter catharsis of Stormy Daniels taking down Trump after getting slut-shamed on the witness stand
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) May 30, 2024
Found guilty on all 34 counts he faced, Trump is now the first former president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime.
An attorney for the former commander-in-chief, Todd Blanche, asked the judge to set sentencing for mid- or late July. Trump will now face pre-trial hearings in Florida for his classified documents case.
Upon leaving the courtroom, Trump was visibly unhappy with the verdict.
“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people. They know what happened here, and everybody knows what happened here,” he said.
Here's Donald Trump saying this is rigged like a bad parlay pic.twitter.com/Y5RugM70mj https://t.co/ARA8ltmK3U
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod ???????? (@big_business_) May 30, 2024
Trump insists that he is a “very innocent” man who is “fighting for our country” and “fighting for our constitution”.
Despite the conviction, Trump’s conviction does not prevent him from becoming president again if he wins at the ballot box in November.
“Our whole country is being rigged right now,” Trump stated, further vowing, “We’ll keep fighting. We’ll fight till the end, and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell. This is long from over.”
The Biden-Harris administration quickly released a statement in response to the verdict.
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only 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 statement reads.
I hope the Exonerated 5 are somewhere giggling their asses off at Trump being found guilty on all 34 counts. Karma is a B!! pic.twitter.com/xgFcyQSPKl
— Reecie @BlackWomenViews (@ReecieColbert) May 30, 2024
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power. A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November,” the statement concludes.
Fani is gonna put him in prison though.
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) May 30, 2024
Trump’s sentencing date has been set for July 11 at 10 a.m E.T. His defense team must submit any motions no later than June 13 and prosecutors must respond by June 27.
