NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all counts in his hush money trial and made him the first former U.S. president convicted of a crime.
The verdict on 34 charges, reached after deliberating for 11 hours over two days, means Mr. Trump will campaign against President Biden as a convicted felon.
Mr. Trump, seated, looked at the foreperson but then looked straight ahead and briefly shook his head as the foreperson repeatedly said “guilty” to all the counts.
Mr. Trump’s son Eric was stoic and looked straight ahead.
The foreperson held a microphone in his right hand, and his voice was flat and unwavering. Then, one by one, the jurors confirmed the verdict.
The courtroom was silent except for the furious typing of reporters who filled the room.
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Mr. Trump, who faces up to four years in prison for each count, is sure to appeal the verdict. He says the case is a charade to thwart his run for president, noting prosecutors sat on the case for years before procuring an indictment.
The appeal would likely forestall prison time or other penalties.
During the trial, prosecutors said Mr. Trump took part in a scheme to seek and quash unflattering stories about him near the 2016 election, which he won.
Judge Juan Merchan said sentencing will be on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Mr. Trump is set to receive the party’s presidential nomination. Until then, Mr. Trump is free on his own recognizance.
Mr. Trump walked out of the courtroom up the center aisle with a stern look and did not utter a word.
Outside the courthouse, Mr. Trump told reporters: “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. … The real verdict is going to be on Nov. 5, by the people. They know what happened here.”
He said the trial should have been moved to another venue.
“I’m a very innocent man. Our whole country is being rigged right now,” Mr. Trump said. “This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound a political opponent. We’ll keep fighting till the end. … We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over.”
Later, at a press conference, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the jury rendered justice and politics did not play a role in the trial.
“I did my job. Our job is to follow the facts of the law without fear or favor, and that’s exactly what we did here,” he said. “This type of white-collar prosecution is core to what we do at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
He said his team followed the office’s legacy of “independent professional prosecutors.”
At trial, Mr. Bragg’s team said Mr. Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 in hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels when she shopped a story about a 2006 sexual encounter with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump wanted to bury the story because his campaign was under duress from the leak of “Access Hollywood” audio in which he spoke crudely about women, according to prosecutors.
They said efforts to make Mr. Cohen whole in 2017 turned criminal when Mr. Trump and his orbit logged a series of checks as payment for legal services, shrouding the aim to reimburse Mr. Cohen for the Daniels payment. Prosecutors said the records were falsified with intent to hide another unidentified crime, perhaps an election or tax crime.
The other crime, which prosecutors deemed a New York election law against election conspiracies, elevated the business records fraud from a misdemeanor to a felony. The judge said the jury didn’t have to agree on the “unlawful means” Mr. Trump used to further the conspiracy.
The defense said Mr. Cohen paid Ms. Daniels on his own to earn kudos from Mr. Trump and that Mr. Trump thought he was signing checks for Mr. Cohen’s legal services while carrying out his presidential duties.
The trial stemmed from one of four criminal indictments against Mr. Trump in separate jurisdictions, though the others are unlikely to go to trial before the November election.
Jury selection began on April 15 and lasted only four days, a surprising pace for such a fraught case.
The trial opened on April 22 and featured lengthy testimony from former National Enquirer executive David Pecker, who described a plot with Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen to elevate positive stories about Mr. Trump and serve as the “eyes and ears” for negative stories.
Jurors asked the court to read back some of Mr. Pecker’s testimony on Thursday. It included his description of an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower and discussions about the purchase of story rights from Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump denies the affair and the sexual encounter claimed by Ms. Daniels. Yet Ms. Daniels recounted the alleged encounter in graphic detail from the witness stand, saying an invitation to dinner in a hotel suite unexpectedly turned into sex.
The defense objected to the salacious testimony, and the judge, getting uncomfortable, stepped in at least once.
Mr. Trump’s defenders and legal experts said Judge Merchan should have stepped in more. They also say the judge aided prosecutors in other ways, such as allowing the state to theorize Mr. Trump exceeded federal campaign contribution limits and severely limiting what a proposed defense expert could say about election laws. The defense decided not to call the witness.
Mr. Cohen was the star witness of the trial, recounting his efforts to pay Ms. Daniels and corroborating handwritten notes from Trump Organization officials about efforts to repay him alongside money for a bonus.
The defense tried eviscerating his credibility, even getting him to admit he stole $30,000 from the Trump Organization.
Later, in a dramatic high point, Judge Merchan cleared the courtroom because Robert Costello, the main witness for the defense, showed too much sass on the witness stand.
“Are you staring me down?” Judge Merchan exclaimed.
The judge also fined Mr. Trump thousands of dollars for violations of a gag order that prohibited the former president from commenting on jurors or witnesses, even threatening to throw him in jail if it happened again.
All of it unfolded under the eye of dozens of reporters who lined up early to see the historic trial firsthand, along with a handful of members of the public.
Mr. Trump was joined by an entourage throughout, with his son Eric, attorney Alina Habba and legal adviser Boris Epshteyn as fixtures. A rotating roster of Republican lawmakers attended court, including some of Mr. Trump’s potential running mates, such as Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, as well as businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
After the proceeding concluded Thursday in Manhattan, Judge Merchan thanked the jurors and said he would thank them again in chambers but could not discuss the case.
“That’s a long time you were away from your jobs, your families, your other responsibilities,” Judge Merchan said.
He said jurors are free to discuss the case with others or not. “The choice is yours,” he said.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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