Former President Donald J. Trump will have his second court appearance as a criminal defendant on Tuesday. His first was in April in New York.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
NEW YORK, May 30 (Reuters) – Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced it had found Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11, three days before the start of the Republican National Convention expected to nominate Trump for president formally.
Merchan thanked the jurors for their service. “Nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do. The choice is yours,” Merchan said.
The verdict plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, when Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden which recent polls show the candidates in a tight race currently with Trump holding narrow leads in some key polls.
Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and was expected to appeal. “This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt,” Trump told reporters afterward. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump said, adding: “I am a very innocent man.”
He faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of that crime often receive shorter sentences, fines, or probation. Incarceration would not prevent him from campaigning, or taking office if he were to win.
Trump’s fellow Republicans quickly condemned the verdict. “Today is a shameful day in American history,” House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in a prepared statement.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week trial that featured explicit testimony from former porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she claims she had with Trump back in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
If elected, Trump could shut down the two federal cases that accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021. He would not have the power to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and has portrayed his various legal troubles as an effort by Biden’s Democratic allies to hurt him politically.
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