Trump found guilty of all 34 felony charges in hush money trial
By Deva Lee, Leinz Vales, Matt Meyer, Elise Hammond and Shania Shelton, CNN
Updated 1:01 p.m. ET, May 31, 2024
LIVE UPDATES
Trump found guilty of all 34 felony charges in hush money trial
By Deva Lee, Leinz Vales, Matt Meyer, Elise Hammond and Shania Shelton, CNN
Updated 1:01 p.m. ET, May 31, 2024
What you need to know
- Donald Trump railed against his historic guilty verdict in the New York criminal hush money case during remarks this morning, and he continued to attack the judge and insisted the trial was “very unfair.”
- While a felony conviction of a former president or party frontrunner is unprecedented, Trump can still run for office. Trump’s sentencing hearing is set for July 11, just days before he’s expected to become the official GOP nominee at the Republican National Convention. His sentence is up to the judge, and it could include prison time or probation.
- Prosecutors accused Trump of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included concealing a hush money payment to an adult film star.
- You can see the jury’s verdict on the 34 felony counts and read a recap of the trial.
- Trump also faces three other criminal cases while running for president again.
VP hopeful J.D. Vance vows to back Trump and asserts the former president did nothing wrong
From CNN’s Elise Hammond
Sen. JD Vance looks on as former President Donald Trump speaks to the media during Trump’s trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 13 in New York City. Mark Peterson/Pool/Getty Images
Republican Sen. J.D. Vance said he stands by Donald Trump after the former president was convicted on criminal charges on Thursday. Vance, whose name has been included in the list of possible vice presidential picks, said he will do whatever he can to help the presumptive GOP frontrunner
The Ohio lawmaker claimed the hush money trial was never about justice, instead, it was “about plastering ‘convicted felon’ all over the airwaves.”
Vance complained about Judge Juan Merchan, the jury instructions and said the trial should not have taken place in Manhattan. Trump and his allies have argued that Trump could not get a fair trial in New York.
He also claimed the case was political because Merchan donated to Biden in 2020. Merchan previously contributed $15 earmarked for the Biden campaign and made two $10 contributions — one earmarked to the Progressive Turnout Project, a voter outreach organization, and another to Stop Republicans, a subsidiary of the Progressive Turnout Project.
“You cannot say that this trial was anything more than politics masquerading as justice,” Vance said, adding that the charges brought against Trump should bother Americans of both parties.
“I believe that Donald Trump did nothing wrong. But if you take [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg’s argument, if you take every single thing in that indictment at face value, what it suggests is Donald Trump committed paperwork violation,” Vance said.
29 min ago
Trump also faces 3 other criminal cases while running again for president
From CNN’s Devan Cole, Amy O’Kruk and Curt Merrill
Former President Donald Trump’s motorcade arrives outside of the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, August 24, 2023. Will Lanzoni/CNN
The hush money criminal case against former President Donald Trump was only one of four criminal cases he is juggling while running again for president.
The former president still faces criminal indictments in Georgia, Washington, DC, and Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to every charge in these cases.
Here’s a recap of each case:
· Hush money: Trump was first indicted in March 2023 by the Manhattan district attorney on state charges related to a hush-money payment to an adult film star in 2016. Prosecutors alleged Trump was part of an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election. Further, they alleged he was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including the $130,000 payment. He was found guilty of all 34 counts on Thursday.
· Classified documents: Trump was indicted in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Miami for taking classified national defense documents from the White House after he left office and resisting the government’s attempts to retrieve the materials. The National Archives said in early 2022 that at least 15 boxes of White House records were recovered from the estate, including some that were classified. The charges were brought by special counsel Jack Smith. However, Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed the trial, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury.
· Federal election interference: Smith separately charged the former president last August with four crimes over his efforts to reverse the 2020 election results. The indictment alleges Trump and a co-conspirator “attempted to exploit the violence and chaos at the Capitol by calling lawmakers to convince them … to delay the certification” of the election. That case is currently on hold as the Supreme Court weighs Trump’s claims of presidential immunity in the matter.
· Fulton County: State prosecutors in Georgia brought a similar election subversion case against Trump and others. An Atlanta-based grand jury on August 14, 2023, indicted Trump and 18 others on state charges stemming from their alleged efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. A trial date has not yet been set in that case.
Track the criminal cases against Trump.
1 hr 6 min ago
Send us your questions about Trump’s conviction
From CNN’s Zachary Wolf
Donald Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a felony, but he is not the first felon to run for the presidency. The Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs ran from prison in 1920, although he had no chance of winning the race.
Trump, on the other hand, is the presumptive nominee for Republicans and has a very real chance of winning the election in November.
Below, let us know your questions about the guilty verdict in the New York trial.
1 hr 4 min ago
Analysis: Trump’s speech touched on a range of grievances familiar to his right-wing base
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower on Friday. Julia Nikhinson/AP
Donald Trump’s defiant speech Friday following his felony conviction serves as another example of how “very attuned” he is to his conservative base, CNN anchor Abby Phillip said.
While assailing what he called a “very unfair” trial, Trump’s address extended to a wide range of other topics, including the auto industry, immigration and crime in New York.
“All of that stream of consciousness — you need a glossary if you are not clued in to the right-wing media ecosystem,” Phillip said. “But for the right-wing media ecosystem, they know what he’s talking about, because he’s been seeding these lines of attack for weeks and weeks and weeks, since even before this trial started.”
“We have yet to see Trump pivot to a message for the broader electorate, just from a political perspective,” Phillip said. “And I suspect you may not see him do that, because you heard him here today, he said, ‘I’m leading. I’m winning.’ And from his perspective, what he is doing is working. He doesn’t need to change.”
1 hr 10 min ago
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan schedules June 13 hearing with Manhattan district attorney and prosecutor
From CNN’s Annie Grayer
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s subcommittee targeting the alleged weaponization of the federal government is demanding Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo appear for a hearing on June 13 following Donald Trump’s guilty verdict.
In a social media post, the committee said the Republican from Ohio wants them to testify about the “unprecedented political prosecution” of Trump.
This is the first sign of Trump’s key hill allies, like Jordan, using their positions in Congress to defend Trump after the verdict.
1 hr 24 min ago
Trump’s sentencing strategy will focus on the 2024 campaign, source says
From CNN’s Paula Reid
While Trump’s legal team is deciding whether to try and push back his July 11 sentencing date, some members of his team see a positive political advantage to keeping it just days before the Republican National Convention as a way to continue to frame him as a martyr, according to a source familiar with the matter.
This issue is going to be discussed over the next few days with both legal and political factors being considered, the source added.
This looks to be a shift in their legal strategy, as it appears going forward the campaign will be the primary consideration. That’s because victory in November is likely the only thing that can protect Trump from at least two other criminal cases that carry far more significant consequences.
Notably, the Trump defense team only raised the 2024 campaign in pretrial proceedings to try to get the trial moved back and in litigation over gag order but did not raise it in courtroom during seven weeks of trial.
1 hr 37 min ago
Trump says crime he was convicted of “sounds bad” but insists he did nothing wrong
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York City on May 31. Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Donald Trump says the 34 felony counts of falsifying business records he was convicted of Thursday sound worse than they are.
A jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to an adult film star shortly before the 2016 election. The case hinged on how reimbursement for the payment was documented, and whether it was part of an effort to aid his election bid.
“Falsifying business records — that sounds so bad, to me it sounds very bad,” Trump said.
“That’s a bad thing for me, I’ve never had that before,” he added.
But Trump disputed that characterization of his crimes, saying he had a legal expense — paying lawyer Michael Cohen — and that it was documented as a legal expense.
A bookkeeper “correctly marked it down in the books,” the former president said, claiming that was done “without any knowledge from me.”
“What else are you going to call it?” Trump said.
Read more about the case and the charges against Trump.
10 min ago
Trump slams Michael Cohen in remarks after historic conviction
Michael Cohen departs his home in Manhattan to testify in Trump’s criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016 in New York on May 20. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Former President Donald Trump railed against his former attorney and key witness in his criminal hush money trial yet refrained from mentioning his name to avoid violating his gag order.
“This was a highly qualified lawyer,” Trump said about Michael Cohen at a news conference at Trump Tower. “Now I’m not allowed to use his name because of the gag order. But you know, he’s a sleazebag. Everybody knows that. Took me a while to find out, but he was effective.”
Trump’s remarks come a day after a New York jury convicted the former president of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump continued to distance himself from Cohen without actually uttering his name.
“He got into trouble, not because of me,” Trump said about his former fixer. “He got into trouble because he made outside deals and he had something to do with taxi cabs and medallions that he borrowed money.”
1 hr 44 min ago
Trump says the trial was “very unfair”
Former President Donald Trump holds a press conference following the verdict in his hush-money trial at Trump Tower on May 31, 2024 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump called the trial “very unfair” in a news conference following his guilty verdict.
“As far as the trial itself, it was very unfair. We weren’t allowed to use our election expert under any circumstances. You saw what happened to some of the witnesses that were on our side, they were literally crucified by this man,” he said.
Trump went on to criticize Judge Juan Merchan further, saying “he looks like an angel, but he’s really a devil.”
1 hr 50 min ago
Trump continues to attack Judge Merchan after historic guilty verdict
Former President Donald Trump slammed Judge Juan Merchan, calling him “conflicted” in remarks following his historic conviction.
“There’s never been a more conflicted judge,” Trump said. “Now, I’m under a gag order, which nobody has ever been under — no presidential candidates ever been under a gag order before.
“I’m under a gag order, nasty gag order, where I’ve had to pay thousands of dollars in penalties and was threatened with jail,” he claimed.
1 hr 54 min ago
Trump says “bad people” are responsible for his conviction and repeats claim judge was “conflicted”
“If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone,” Donald Trump said Friday, a day after his conviction on 34 felony counts in the hush money criminal trial.
The former president is addressing reporters from Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Trump said there were “bad people” responsible for the conviction and repeated his claim that Judge Juan Merchan was “highly conflicted” in the case.
1 hr 57 min ago
NOW: Trump speaks to reporters after being convicted of 34 felonies
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump Tower in New York on Friday. Pool
A day after a New York jury convicted former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is addressing his historic guilty verdict from Trump Tower.
Moments after the verdict on Thursday, Trump railed against the hush money trial, saying the “real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people,” referring to the general election.
2 hr 43 min ago
Trump Media shares retreat in volatile trading following historic conviction
From CNN’s Matt Egan
Shares of Truth Social owner Trump Media & Technology Group fell about 5% Friday morning in volatile trading following the conviction of former President Donald Trump.
Trump Media is a notoriously volatile stock and has swung between steep losses and sharp gains since the historic conviction.
The Truth Social owner initially plummeted as much as 15% Thursday evening. The stock battled back and opened Friday 4% higher before those gains fizzled.
“Trump is the key figure here, so it’s no surprise that a conviction results in extra volatility as traders reassess what that means for the company,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital.
Read more about how the markets are reacting to the former president’s guilty verdict.
2 hr 56 min ago
Trump campaign says it has raised $34.8 million in small-dollar donations since verdict
From CNN’s Kristen Holmes
Supporters of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gather near his residence at Mar-a-Lago as they react after he was convicted in his criminal trial, in Palm Beach, Florida, on May 30. Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said Friday it had raised $34.8 million in small-dollar donations after a Manhattan jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money criminal trial.
The campaign said the figure was nearly double its biggest day ever on the WinRed platform, which faced intermittent outages yesterday that the campaign attributed to overwhelming traffic.
“Not only was the amount historic, but 29.7% of yesterday’s donor’s were brand new donors to the WinRed platform. President Trump and our campaign are immensely grateful from this outpouring of support from patriots across our country,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in a statement.
“President Trump is fighting to save our nation and November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict,” they added.
2 hr 59 min ago
Trump ally says GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan is wrong for urging Americans to respect the verdict
From CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi
Rep. Byron Donalds speaks with reporters as he leaves the US Capitol on May 17, in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds said that GOP Senate candidate Larry Hogan is “wrong” to have urged Americans to “respect” the verdict in Donald Trump’s hush money trial, arguing “you cannot respect the process when the fix is in from the beginning.”
“I don’t agree with Larry Hogan. He is wrong, because you cannot respect the process when the fix is in from the beginning. It was fixed from the beginning. It was a rigged judicial process in lower Manhattan,” Donalds, a Trump ally and potential vice presidential pick, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan Friday.
He added that if Hogan “is playing to voters in Maryland because Maryland is deep blue, I find that to be reprehensible. But it’s his decision. What happened in New York was wrong.”
Asked by Bolduan if speaking out against the verdict is a new litmus test for Republicans, Donalds said, “No, the litmus test is not for Republicans, it’s for protecting our constitution. It’s for actually protecting the institutions of our country.”
Donalds also said he spoke to Trump last night and that he was “in good spirits, primarily because he knows that this is a joke and it’s a farce.
The Florida Republican reiterated that he thought the verdict was a “travesty of the justice system” and said the charges should have never been brought in the first place.
Pressed on why he doesn’t respect the jury’s verdict, Donalds argued, “So how can I respect the verdict of the jury when every — everything that was put into the jury’s hands was corrupt in the first place?”
9 min ago
Trump will go to Bedminster after delivering remarks at Trump Tower
From CNN’s Kristen Holmes
Former President Donald Trump is expected to travel to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club after delivering remarks at Trump Tower later this morning, two sources familiar with his schedule tell CNN.
He will spend the weekend there before going back to Palm Beach next week. Late next week, he begins his West Coast fundraising tour with stops in California and Nevada.
3 hr 36 min ago
Trump Media shares move sharply higher after yesterday’s guilty verdict
From CNN’s Matt Egan
Former President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social on March 25, in Chicago. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Shares of Truth Social owner, Trump Media & Technology Group, erased their premarket losses and moved sharply higher this morning following the conviction of former President Donald Trump in the hush money trial.
Trump Media shares initially plummeted as much as 15% yesterday on news of the conviction in New York.
Those losses were trimmed by early this morning and have now reversed. Trump Media shares are on track to open the day 6% higher at $55.
At those levels, Trump’s dominant stake of 114.75 million shares is valued at $6.3 billion on paper.
Trump Media has been extremely volatile since going public in late March.
3 hr 39 min ago
Team Trump kicks fundraising into high gear as verdict sets off wave of appeals
From CNN’s David Wright
A supporter of former President Donald Trump joins a small gathering near Mar-a-Lago on May 30, in Palm Beach, Florida. Alon Skuy/Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has launched a wave of new digital advertisements looking to capitalize on a potential fundraising surge following his historic conviction in the New York criminal hush money trial.
In the hours following the verdict, Trump’s Facebook page went up with several variations of ads that blared the news of his conviction and appealed to his supporters.
“I WAS JUST CONVICTED IN A RIGGED TRIAL! Democrats have a sick & twisted goal: Pervert the justice system against me so much, that proud supporters like YOU will SPIT when you hear my name. BUT I KNOW YOU WILL NEVER GIVE UP ON ME – YOU WILL NEVER SURRENDER!” one of the ads says. “I’m asking my STRONGEST supporters to stand with me at this dark moment in history. We will DEFEAT Joe Biden, but only with YOUR SUPPORT! Please chip in anything now.”
The campaign and its allies also sent out multiple emails and texts throughout the afternoon and evening, kicking its fundraising operation into high gear. “I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG! They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME!,” one of the emails said.
Even ahead of the verdict, Trump’s campaign and several allied fundraising committees regularly referenced the case in digital appeals. “Your donation makes a real difference while President Trump is stuck in court. Biden is raising millions to crush our campaign,” read a now-inactive Facebook ad that ran throughout much of May.
Some background: Digital fundraising has been a major component of Trump’s small-dollar fundraising machine, and his operation has plowed millions into the effort, which can generate significant returns. Since April 15, when the New York trial began, a Trump joint fundraising committee with a lead role in digital fundraising has spent nearly $2.5 million on digital ads, according to AdImpact.
4 hr 2 min ago
Trump’s conviction isn’t doing much to shift some voters’ 2024 picks
From CNN’s John King
A man watches the verdict of former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial on May 30 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Some things take time to sink in. But don’t expect committed Donald Trump voters to suddenly waver because their candidate is now a convicted felon.
“Just an abuse of the justice system,” Billy Pierce, a semi-retired consultant and Trump backer in Hartsville, South Carolina, said shortly after the former president was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his Manhattan hush money trial.
Andrew Konchek, a commercial fisherman and Trump supporter in New Hampshire, responded to the verdict with sarcastic references to former President Bill Clinton’s personal scandals. “There’s no direct evidence and from who, Cohen? Who’s a habitual liar and has been disbarred? I smell some bullshit,” he added referring to the prosecution’s star witness, former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.
Another Trump backer in New Hampshire, Debbie Katsanos, texted during the jury deliberations. “I see no crime,” she said. “Certainly at a felony level. I am sorry to say I can’t trust the justice system when it’s being used in a political way. … Yes, no one is above the law, when a law is broken they should be held accountable. I’m just not seeing it in this case.”
Betsy Sarcone was a Nikki Haley voter in the Iowa caucuses and late last year said she would vote Biden if it ended up a Biden-Trump rematch. But she has shifted dramatically since the caucuses.
“This does not impact my plans to vote Republican. I don’t even like Donald Trump and this was a witch hunt, made up crimes on the part of the judge and DA. It will never stand on appeal. … I actually don’t think it will hurt him. People are so sick of the sideshows to distract/avoid/gaslight people away from the real problems in this country.”
Pierce, Konchek, Sarcone and Katsanos are all participating in a CNN project to follow the 2024 election through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in key battlegrounds or are part of key voting blocs. We will check back as news of the historic 34 count conviction sinks in, and as the former president prepares to be sentenced in July – days before he is to be officially nominated for president at the Republican National Convention.
Read more about voter reaction to Trump’s historic conviction here.
3 hr 59 min ago
The judge scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11. Here’s a look at the potential sentence he could face
From CNN staff
Former President Donald Trump reacts as the verdict is read in his criminal trial over charges that he falsified business records at Manhattan state court in New York City, on May 30. Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Judge Juan Merchan set Donald Trump’s sentencing date for July 11 at 10 a.m. ET.
A panel of New York jurors on Thursday found the former president guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after deliberating for nearly 12 hours over two days.
Not only is Trump the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, but he’s also the first major-party presidential nominee to be convicted of a crime in the midst of a campaign for the White House. And if he defeats President Joe Biden in November, he will be the first sitting president in history to be a convicted felon.
The July 11 sentencing hearing happens just days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
While prison time is a possibility, the judge is not required to sentence Trump to jail. Merchan could sentence Trump to probation or a sentence of up to 4 years on each count in state prison, with a maximum of 20 years.
Here’s a further breakdown of the potential sentence Trump could face:
· The maximum penalty for each count of falsifying business records is four years in prison, the judge has discretion over how long any prison sentence for each count should be, and whether the sentences would run consecutively (one after another) or concurrently (at the same time).
· Even if the judge orders the sentences to be served consecutively, New York law caps total sentencing for this type of low-level felony at 20 years.
· The judge may also consider imprisoning him for a period that is a fraction of the maximum penalty.
· But it’s entirely possible the judge could forego prison entirely and sentence him to probation and/or a fine, especially in light of the nonviolent nature of the charges and because the former president does not have a criminal record.
CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia, Jeremy Herb, Laura Dolan, Kara Scannell and Lauren del Valle contributed reporting to this post.
3 hr 59 min ago
Trump allies rally to his defense after guilty verdict. Here’s what some are saying
Allies of Donald Trump are speaking out against the historic guilty verdict of the former president — with many rallying to his defense.
· Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Trump’s guilty verdict “reinvigorates the base” and “doesn’t change the outcome” of the upcoming 2024 election. “It’s been weaponized,” Mullin – among one of the first Republican senators to endorse Trump in the GOP primary – told Kasie Hunt on CNN This Morning of the judicial system.
· North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said that the guilty verdict in Trump’s criminal hush money trial does not give him pause about possibly serving alongside the former president as his running-mate. Burgum called Thursday a “sad day for America” and said it’s “tough” for Trump to get a fair trial in New York. He criticized how the case ultimately got to court and stressed that if legal experts don’t understand the charges, then neither will voters.
8 min ago
What Trump’s conviction means for his presidential campaign and voting rights
From CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf
Now that a New York jury has convicted former President Donald Trump of all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, the next obvious question is: Can a convicted felon run for president?
The US Constitution lays out just three requirements for presidential candidates. They must:
· Be a natural-born citizen.
· Be at least 35 years old.
· Have been a US resident for at least 14 years.
Trump meets all three requirements. There is, arguably, another criterion laid out in the 14th Amendment, which states that no one who has previously taken an oath of office who engages in insurrection can be an officer of the US. But the US Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that Congress would have to pass a special law invoking this prohibition. That’s not happening any time soon.
Can Trump still vote?
It depends. Each state makes its own rules. Trump is now a Florida resident – and Florida voters, in 2018, overwhelmingly backed a referendum to reenfranchise convicted felons.
In an interview with CNN, Neil Volz, deputy director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, an organization that works to help reenfranchise formerly incarcerated people, predicted Trump will have little problem voting since Florida actually defers to the jurisdiction of a felony conviction as to whether a felon can vote. In New York, after a law passed in 2021, any convicted felon who is not incarcerated is eligible to register to vote.
Even if the judge ultimately tried to give Trump prison time, it is highly unlikely that Trump’s right to appeal his conviction would be exhausted before Election Day. If, somehow, Trump was convicted in one of the two federal criminal cases against him before Election Day, that might be another story.
A version of this story appears in CNN’s What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here.
8 min ago
Right-wing media personalities vow revenge after Trump’s historic conviction
From CNN’s Oliver Darcy
Donald Trump’s media allies are demanding retribution in the wake of his conviction.
Following weeks of attacks targeting the historic hush money case against the former president, prominent right-wing media figures immediately flooded the public discourse Thursday with extreme and disturbing rhetoric after Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts.
On Fox News and other right-wing outlets, pro-Trump media personalities erupted in anger, blaming everyone from Judge Juan Merchan��and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to President Joe Biden and the entire US justice system for the “disgraceful” conviction.
While not surprising, the furious bluster reverberating across right-wing media still carried its intended effect, burning away public trust in America’s core institutions and leaving a lasting impact on the legitimacy of the rule of law in the United States.
The toxic commentary is also enflaming desires of retribution held by Trump supporters, with popular right-wing media figures openly declaring their hope that the GOP candidate to nakedly seek revenge against his critics, should he emerge victorious in November and return to the Oval Office.
Read more about how Trump’s media allies are reacting to his historic conviction.
5 hr 34 min ago
How world leaders are reacting to Trump’s historic conviction
From CNN staff
World leaders and top officials have reacted to Donald Trump’s historic conviction after a jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush money criminal trial.
The unprecedented and historic verdict that makes him the first former president in US history to be convicted of a felony.
Here are some reactions to Trump’s verdict from across the world:
Hungary: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán prompted Trump to “keep on fighting.” Orban said: “Let the people make their verdict this November!” he said.
Italy: Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said Trump was a “victim of judicial harassment and a process of political nature.” Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has not commented on the conviction.
Russia: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that it is “obvious” political rivals are “being eliminated there through all legal and illegal means,” in reaction to Trump being found guilty on 34 felony counts by a New York jury.
7 min ago
Here’s what happens now that Trump has been convicted in his hush money criminal case
From CNN’s Devan Cole
A New York jury convicting Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records brought the former president’s weekslong trial to a close but ushered in a new phase of the historic case.
Now in the unique position of being the first former US president convicted of a felony, Trump faces the possibility of a prison sentence or probation for his crimes stemming from a hush money payment scheme he helped facilitate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump – who is known for mounting lengthy appeals of court rulings against him – is also likely to appeal the conviction, which could significantly delay his sentencing, currently set for July 11.
Here’s what to know about the case following Trump’s conviction:
When will Trump be sentenced?
Judge Juan Merchan has set Trump’s sentencing for 10 a.m. ET on July 11. For now, the former president will remain out of prison as he awaits his sentencing. Prosecutors did not ask for Trump to post any bond.
Can Trump appeal his conviction?
Shortly after Trump was convicted, his attorney Todd Blanche asked Merchan for an acquittal of the charges notwithstanding the guilty verdict. The judge rejected the pro forma request.
Can Trump still be elected president?
Nothing in the US Constitution bars a convicted criminal from running for the nation’s highest office, University of California, Los Angeles law professor Richard L. Hasen has consistently said.
“The Constitution contains only limited qualifications for running for office (being at least 35 years old, a natural born citizen, and at least 14 years a resident of the U.S.),” Hasen continued.
Will the conviction cost Trump his right to vote?
Trump is a Florida resident. When it comes to the Manhattan guilty verdict just rendered, Trump’s right to vote in Florida in November’s election will depend on whether he is sentenced to a term in prison and if he has finished serving that prison sentence by the time of the election.
Florida’s felon voting prohibitions apply to people with out-of-state convictions. However, if a Floridian’s conviction is out of state, Florida defers to that state’s laws for how felon can regain their voting rights.
Read more on the aftermath of Trump’s guilty verdict.
6 hr 12 min ago
Analysis: Trump conviction heralds a somber and volatile moment in American history
From CNN’s Stephen Collinson
Donald Trump’s first act on becoming a convicted criminal was to launch a raging new attack on the rule of law, laying bare the gravity of the choice awaiting America’s voters.
In one sense, Trump’s conviction on all counts in his first criminal trial affirmed the principle on which the United States is founded — that everyone is equal and that no one, not even a billionaire and former and possibly future president, enjoys impunity.
But Trump’s authoritarian outburst minutes after the guilty verdict in New York and a race by top Republicans to join his assault on the justice system underscore how threatened those bedrock values now are.
“This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be November 5, by the people, and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” Trump said.
President Joe Biden’s campaign echoed his opponent’s belief that the ultimate judgment on the former president will come in the general election.
“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,” said campaign communications director Michael Tyler.
Among an electorate that Trump has constantly polarized, the verdict is likely to be greeted with fury by his supporters and jubilation by his critics. But in truth, this is a somber and even tragic passage of US history. Americans have never seen an ex-president convicted of a crime, and a country already torn apart by bitter political and cultural polarization is likely in for a rocky time.
The implications are enormous.
6 hr 12 min ago
Alvin Bragg spoke to reporters following Trump’s guilty verdict on Thursday. Here’s what he said
From CNN’s Kaanita Iyer
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg held a news conference shortly after the jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial found the former president guilty of 34 felony counts.
Bragg began the conference by thanking the jury, and went on to applaud the prosecution team and defend the work of his office.
“Our job is to follow the facts and the law without fear or favor, and that’s exactly what we did here,” Bragg said, adding that while there are “many voices out there, the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury.”
He also noted that both the trial and verdict were arrived at “in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors.”
However, Bragg declined to answer questions on Judge Juan Merchan potentially sentencing Trump to prison, or on how the district attorney’s office would respond to an appeal.
“I’m going to let our words in court speak for themselves when we get to the sentencing matter,” Bragg said. “I’m not going to address hypotheticals. They raise arguments, we’ll respond.”
6 hr 11 min ago
Michael Cohen says he’s “relieved” and was not surprised by Trump guilty verdict
From CNN’s Celina Tebor
Michael Cohen, speaking after Donald Trump’s guilty verdict Thursday, said he was “relieved” and wasn’t surprised by the verdict.
“This has been six years in the making,” he told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
When Maddow asked if he was surprised by the verdict, Cohen said: “No. I was not.”
“At the end of the day, the facts are what prevailed here,” Cohen said. “It’s accountability, it’s exactly what America needs right now.”
Cohen praised the judge and prosecutors for their work, and said he stayed off social media in respect for the judge and the process.
He said he faced difficulty dealing with the anxiety of the trial.
“I was nervous because so much was riding on the result of this, and I wanted to ensure that my testimony was perfect. I knew that there could be no deviation from perfection,” he said.
Cohen called Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, a “SLOAT” – stupidest lawyer of all time. During his closing arguments, Blanche had called Cohen a “GLOAT” – the greatest liar of all time.
7 min ago
What the Biden campaign thinks Trump’s historic verdict means
From CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere and Kevin Liptak
Well before the Manhattan jury finished deliberating on Thursday, most of President Joe Biden’s advisers concluded that a guilty verdict wouldn’t drastically alter their 2024 election strategy.
But it has stoked some hopes among supporters of the president that if 12 people who focused on Trump voted to find him guilty, there might actually be enough undecided voters who, if the Biden campaign can figure out how to get them to focus on Trump, will vote to keep him from returning to the White House.
Aides have discussed among themselves whether the Biden campaign would use the term “criminal” to describe the likely Republican nominee in their messaging, even as they acknowledge the former president’s legal issues are largely baked in and voters care about other issues more.
Still, a guilty verdict is a guilty verdict, and 34 of them hardly make for bad news for Biden’s campaign five months before Election Day.
The convictions might not move the needle in a major way in the election, those close to the Biden reelection effort told CNN, but an acquittal could have really helped Trump – and that makes Thursday’s historic decision a win for the Biden campaign, if only because it is not a loss.
Read more about what the Biden campaign believes Trump’s historic verdict signifies.
3 hr 1 min ago
Trump trends on Chinese social media after historic verdict
From CNN’s Nectar Gan
As Donald Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a felony on Thursday, the historic verdict sparked huge interest – and a fair amount of schadenfreude – in China.
As a rising authoritarian superpower, China has long sought to project its political system as superior to American democracy.
But while Trump’s trial has been a boon for that narrative, it’s also offered a potential window into something unimaginable and dangerous in the Chinese Communist Party system — an elected leader held accountable by independent courts and prosecutors, convicted by a jury of his peers.
For months, Chinese propagandists have attempted to use Trump’s indictments to strengthen Beijing’s narrative of a United States in decline, citing the months-long legal battle as a prime example of the polarization and dysfunction of American politics.
And as China woke up Friday to the news of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, the country’s heavily censored social media lit up.
On Weibo, China’s X-like platform, the verdict became the top trending topic, racking up more than 120 million views by the afternoon.
Under leader Xi Jinping, China’s most assertive leader in decades, the country’s social media platforms have become increasingly dominated by anti-American, nationalistic voices.
Some nationalist influencers gleefully mocked the verdict.
“Although he is guilty, he can still run for president. A ‘criminal’ can become president – this is the ridiculous aspect of Western-style democracy,” said one such blogger.
5 hr 27 min ago
Trump attorney shares why the former president didn’t testify
From CNN’s Kaanita Iyer
Donald Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday that the former president wanted to testify, but he relied on counsel and ultimately did not take stand.
“He wanted to get his story out. I think the judge had made some decisions before the trial, the day the trial started, about what would be allowed to be asked of him by the prosecutors if he took the stand and some of those questions were really complicated to answer because they’re still appeals going on,” Blanche said, adding “ultimately it’s his decision and he listened to us and relied on our counsel, and he reached the decision that he thought was right, which I very much agreed with.”
5 hr 26 min ago
Trump attorney says his legal team was “prepared for a guilty verdict”
From CNN’s Kaanita Iyer
Todd Blanche appears on CNN after a Manhattan jury found his client, Donal Trump, guilty of falsifying business records on Thursday, May 30. CNN
Donald Trump attorney Todd Blanche shared with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Thursday that the legal team was “prepared for a guilty verdict.”
Trump reportedly told people that he believed it would be a hung jury, and while Blanche said they “were fighting to win the case, of course, but a hung jury would have been as close to a win as we could’ve gotten.”
“But we were prepared for a conviction. I think that was expected,” Blanche added.
5 hr 25 min ago
Trump will be sentenced just days before officially becoming the GOP presidential nominee
From CNN’s Elise Hammond
Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced just days before the Republican National Convention where it is expected he will officially become the party’s nominee for president — something his team was worried about when looking at the timing of the hush money trial, sources told CNN’s Kristen Holmes.
Trump’s sentencing hearing is set to take place on July 11. The RNC begins on July 15 in Milwaukee. Trump is required to be in court for the sentencing.
While it is historic that Trump is the first former president to be convicted of criminal charges, “it is also historic that he will be the Republican nominee, being sentenced just days before,” Holmes said.
The former president’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, originally asked for a late-July sentencing date to take place after the convention, Holmes reported.
“Donald Trump’s team has been incredibly concerned about this trial around the convention. When they were using their delay, delay, delay tactics one of the senior advisers told me that they were worried about pushing this too far and that the trial would butt up against the convention,” Holmes said.
5 hr 26 min ago
Stormy Daniels is still processing Trump’s conviction surrounding hush money payment, her husband says
From CNN’s Elise Hammond
Stormy Daniels is still processing the news of Donald Trump’s conviction in the hush money trial, shortly after the guilty verdict was read Thursday, said her husband Barrett Blade.
“It’s a big weight off her shoulders at this point,” Blade told CNN.
On the stand, Daniels described how she and Trump met at a celebrity golf tournament and what she says happened when she went to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006. She also told the jury about a $130,000 hush money payment she received from former Trump attorney Michael Cohen before the 2016 election.
“She was brought into this. This wasn’t her seeking justice for herself. She was standing up for herself early on and saying what was right, but this whole hush money trial is really nothing … it’s not her story,” he said.
Still, Blade said Daniels “feels a little vindicated that, you know, she was telling the truth” after the jury heard her testimony. He said they would have supported the jury’s decision either way.
“Hopefully people will finally start seeing the truth and if they do, they do, if they don’t, they don’t. I don’t know that that ever changes,” he said.
5 hr 26 min ago
What it was like inside the New York courtroom when Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies
From CNN’s Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle and Jeremy Herb
Before the historic and unprecedented guilty verdict was delivered against Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon, the former president appeared to be the most relaxed he’d been since his hush money trial began in April.
Trump was smiling and laughing with his attorney, Todd Blanche, as they waited for Judge Juan Merchan to announce the jury was heading home for the day.
With Trump and prosecutors assembled, Merchan returned to the bench at 4:13 p.m. ET to let the parties know that he planned to send the jury home for the day in about 15 minutes. The judge left the courtroom, and Trump, his lawyers and the prosecutors remained behind to wait for the end of the day.
But everything changed when the judge re-entered the courtroom at 4:36 p.m. ET with a stunning note: The jury had reached a verdict.
The jury needed 30 minutes to fill out the forms, leaving Trump and the attorneys sitting in the courtroom until the judge and jury returned. They mostly sat still while waiting, occasionally making small talk amongst themselves.
When the judge returned to the bench, he warned the parties and the audience against “reactions” or “outbursts of any kind” before the jury entered.
The six alternates entered and sat in the first row of the gallery, behind prosecutors. The 12 jurors took their seats in the jury box. A clerk prompted the jury foreman with each of the 34 counts. He answered “guilty” 34 times.
The attorneys were silent and serious as the verdict was read. Only the sound of feverish typing could be heard from the galley filled with press and several members of the public as the foreman delivered Trump’s fate.
Reporters could not initially see Trump’s facial reaction when the first guilty verdict was read – the courthouse had the video screen off while the foreman read most of the verdict, as the court turned off video whenever jurors were moving.
Keep reading about how the moment unfolded.
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