Former President Donald Trump appeared in court for a money laundering trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday, before a New York jury convicted him on 34 felony charges.
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NEW YORK – Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the results of the 2016 election, a historic verdict as Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, campaigned again for the White House.
This is the first time a former or sitting US president has been convicted of criminal charges.
On Thursday, 12 New York jurors said they agreed that Trump falsified business records to hide a $130,000 cash payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the 2016 pageant.
The decision came after about a day and a half of deliberation.
As the verdict was read, Trump remained silent and silent. But the former president spoke to reporters outside the courtroom, calling it a “rigged, disgraceful trial,” and said the “real verdict” would come on Election Day.
Trump’s legal team has signaled it will appeal the sentence.
New York Judge Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11 – just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention. Trump faces a maximum penalty of 4 years in prison, but as a first-time white-collar offender, he faces no jail time, and may receive probation.
Jurors heard from 22 witnesses during four weeks of testimony in a Manhattan criminal trial. Jurors also considered other evidence — mostly documents like phone records, invoices and checks to Michael Cohen, a loyal Trump “fixer,” who paid Daniels to keep her story about her relationship with the former president alive.
The fact that payments and invoices are labeled as legal services is not in dispute. Prosecutors must prove that Trump falsified the records in order to commit another crime — in this case a violation of New York’s election law that makes it a crime for “two or more persons to conspire to promote or prevent the election of another person to public office in a manner that unauthorized.” Jurors can choose whether the illegal methods violated the Federal Election Campaign Act, falsified tax returns, or falsified other business records.
Trump’s defense focused heavily on Cohen’s credibility, and argued that influencing the election was not illegal.
The ruling comes more than a year after a grand jury indicted Trump on March 30, 2023, marking the first time a former or sitting president has faced criminal charges.
Republicans dismissed the indictment as an overreach of power by Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges. On Thursday, after being convinced, Republican elected officials were quick to rally around Trump again.
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Bragg said: “While this defendant is unlike any other in American history, we come to this trial – and ultimately today in this verdict – in the same way as every other case that comes through the courtroom door. : by following facts and laws, and doing so without fear or pleasure.”
What the jury heard
In August 2015, two months after Trump announced his 2016 presidential bid, David Pecker, then publisher National Inquirer tabloid, met with Trump and Cohen at Trump Tower, according to testimony from Pecker and Cohen.
At that meeting, Pecker testified, it was agreed that he would be the “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign. Her job is to find negative stories from women who can “take off the market”, by buying the rights but never publishing them.
The plan, as Pecker described it, was that they would tone down the story, while at the same time publishing negative stories about Trump’s opponents. Some of those stories, Pecker said, were sent to Trump and Cohen for approval before publication.
Over the next year, Pecker said he took on the role. That testimony was corroborated by Keith Davidson, an attorney representing Daniels and his ex Playboy model Karen McDougal. Around June 2016, McDougal considered going public with the story of her one-year affair with Trump. But Pecker bought the rights to the story, hoping that he would be reimbursed by Trump. That never happened.
In early October 2016, according to the testimony of former Trump communications assistant Hope Hicks, the campaign was shaken by the launch Access Hollywood tape, where Trump can be heard boasting “When you’re a star let’s do it. You can do anything. Grab him by the p****.”
The next day, according to Pecker, Cohen and Davidson, Daniels threatened to go public with allegations that she had sex with Trump in 2006 in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite during a celebrity golf tournament.
In her testimony, Daniels said there was a “power imbalance” when, after leaving the suite’s bathroom, she found Trump in his hotel bed in his underwear. That’s when, Daniels said, they had sex.
He testified that Trump had a possible role in the TV show Celebrity Apprentice. This detail – which is not expected at all – caused the defense to ask for a mistrial, which was denied. It also provided a motive for Trump to suppress the story. Prosecutors said, “Trump knew what was going on in that hotel room” and did not want to leave. The adult film actor’s testimony also included intimate details about his sexual comments, some of which Judge Merchan agreed with the defense were unnecessary.
As October approached, Cohen testified, he frantically opened his bank account and tried to find a way to pay the $130,000 to keep Daniels. But Trump, Cohen said, wanted to delay the payment until after the election, with the idea that after that it does not matter if Daniels has paid.
This point, that Trump made payments to influence the election by keeping women voters on board, was confirmed by several other witnesses. Hicks testified that Trump, while in the White House, told him it was better for the story to come out in 2018, rather than 2016.
Cohen eventually sent the money to Daniels, with the understanding, he said, that he would be reimbursed by Trump. Cohen testified about several conversations with Trump, supported by phone records, including the day he made the payment. But the defense rattled Cohen in the cross-examination when he presented evidence that one of the calls that Cohen had said was made through Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, instead of Schiller about the threat of a 14-year-old prankster.
Still, the heart of the case lies in the testimony of what happened after the election, when the records were falsified, particularly the handwritten notes and documents of former Trump Organization supervisor Jeff McConney.
McConney notes a key note: a bank statement showing Cohen’s wire transfer. The memo included handwritten notes from Cohen and Trump’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, describing a $130,000 payment that would be “collected” to cover Cohen’s taxes. That amount, combined with other compensation and bonuses, totaled $420,000, paid over 12 months at a rate of $35,000 per month.
The payment will be described under “lawful retention”. (Weisselberg, who was jailed for perjury in Trump’s civil fraud trial, did not testify.)
On the stand, Cohen described the payment scheme that was the basis of 34 counts of falsified business records: 11 false invoices, 12 false ledger entries and 11 checks falsely recording the payments as legitimate “retainers.” Nine of the checks were signed by Trump, himself.
Cohen said he and Weisselberg met and discussed the deal with Trump shortly before he left for Washington, on or about January 17, 2020. Cohen said Trump approved the deal, saying at the end of the meeting “it’s going to be one heck of a ride” in Washington . Cohen said he and Trump discussed the arrangement again, in early February, in the Oval Office. White House photos and records prove the two met in the Oval Office at the time.
The defense presented only two witnesses, including Robert Costello, a lawyer who wanted to represent Cohen after Cohen’s home and office were searched by the FBI in 2018. Costello has taken the stand to dispute Cohen’s claim that Costello forced Cohen to stay. “Team” Trump. But Costello’s email showed that Trump decided which lawyer Cohen wanted to pay, and Costello was concerned about not giving “the appearance that we’re following instructions from (Rudy) Giuliani or the president,” the former New York City attorney said. the mayor who was Trump’s lawyer at the time.
How this belief could affect the 2024 election
Trump has repeatedly blamed the criminal charges he faces as “election interference” affecting his 2024 campaign.
The quiet money case is likely to be just one of four Trump criminal cases to be heard before the 2024 election in November, as federal trials in Washington, DC, and Florida, and state cases in Georgia are in various stages of delay. .
This decision in New York could have a ripple effect as Trump campaigns as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Now, the 54 other criminal charges he faces have yet to turn off potential voters and, among some Republicans, the case has bolstered support for him. However, trust may not play well with independent and swing voters.
The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, from May, shows that 17% of voters said they would vote for Trump if he were impeached, while 15% said they would be more likely to vote for him. And 67% of registered voters nationally said it would make no difference to their vote if Trump were found guilty in the quiet money trial.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, said in a statement: “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”
President Biden’s campaign, however, has a longer statement. “In New York today, we see that no one is above the law,” said spokesman Michael Tyler. “There is still one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted or not, Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee.”
