Trump rails against guilty verdict in historic hush-money trial as sentencing set for 11 July – live | Donald Trump trials
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Interim summary: Trump found guilty and will be sentenced on 11 July
Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be convicted of a crime. Here’s a recap of what happened:
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Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
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The verdict came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours. Trump was convicted by a jury of 12 New Yorkers of felony falsification of business records.
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Trump will be sentenced on 11 July at 10am ET. The sentencing date is just days before the Republican party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the 5 November election.
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Could Trump go to prison? Here’s what happens next after the guilty verdict.
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Trump has denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal the verdict. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said at the courthouse after the verdict was read. “This was a rigged trial, a disgrace.”
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Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said “the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury”. At a news conference after the verdict, Bragg noted that “this defendant might be unlike any other in American history” but that “ultimately today this verdict in the same manner as every other case.”
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Trump’s conviction set off a political firestorm in Washington. Republicans furiously lambasted the verdict as a miscarriage of justice while Democrats commended New York jurors for rendering a fair judgment in one of the most historic trials in American history.
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Joe Biden’s campaign said “no one is above the law”. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” Michael Tyler, Biden’s communications director said.
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Republicans rallied around Trump, reiterating their baseless allegations that the Biden administration had engaged in political persecution of the former US president. “Today is a shameful day in American history,” said House speaker Mike Johnson. Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House judiciary committee, bemoaned the verdict as “a travesty of justice”.
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Some of Trump’s advisers and family members were even more blunt. “Such bullshit,” Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s eldest son, wrote on X.
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Crowds gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse erupted into simultaneous applause, cheers and groans. A heavy sense of shock and relief appeared to hang in the air, with many protesters, counterprotestors and onlookers wearing a look of surprise on their faces.
Key events
Jonathan Yerushalmy
It’s unlikely to be at the forefront of the former-president’s mind as he reflects on today’s verdict, but after being found guilty of all 34 counts in his hush-money trial, Donald Trump will likely lose the honorific title of “Mr” in the news pages of the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
The Telegraph’s style guide states that “Defendants in criminal court cases … are to be referred to with their honorific Mr, Mrs or Miss: the newspapers and website should share the court’s presumption of innocence.”
“On conviction they lose the honorific, although if cleared on appeal they reclaim it.”
In its front page story on Friday, it appears that the paper has already applied the rule; the former president is referred to as “Trump” throughout the copy, while his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is also not afforded an honorific as he was sentenced to prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress.
Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, the two women Trump was accused of paying hush money payments to, are referred to with the title “Ms” throughout.
The former president has however been spared the same fate in the paper of record in his home town.
In December 1973, the New York Times updated it’s own style guide to say that with “very rare exceptions” those convicted of a crime will no longer be denied an honorific.
“We will no longer omit the ‘Mr.’ before the names of those who, as the present style states, have been convicted of crime or who have unsavory reputations known without question to be deserved,” then managing editor of the New York Times, AM Rosenthal said.
In a tweet on Thursday evening, New York City mayor Eric Adams said he had NYPD personnel on standby for “any and all circumstances, including large-scale protests”.
“Our criminal justice process must be respected,” he said.
As we await the next steps, New Yorkers should rest assured that the NYPD stands ready to respond to any and all circumstances, including large-scale protests. While peaceful protests and assembly will always be protected, we will not be a city of any form of lawlessness.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) May 31, 2024
Anti-Trump protestors and Trump supporters alike had gathered outside the criminal court house in New York City as the verdict was announced. There have been no reports of large-scale protests or unrest at this time.
Todd Blanche, the lead lawyer on Trump’s team, sat down with Jesse Watters on Fox News for a post-verdict interview.
The lawyer said he was unhappy with the rulings but that he wasn’t “going to criticize the judge right now”.
“He jokingly said to us a lot [that] he wanted to be the litigator,” Blanche says of Trump.
— erica orden (@eorden) May 31, 2024
On a special episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, columnist Jonathan Freedland speaks to Guardian US reporter Sam Levine about what the verdict means for Trump himself, as well as for the upcoming election.
Listen to the full episode here.
The New Yorker has published a preview of next week’s issue, the cover featuring a cartoon of Trump extending comically small hands to be placed in handcuffs. The illustration is titled ‘A Man of Conviction’.
The drawing was made by cartoonist John Cuneo, who has illustrated a number of Trump-related covers for the magazine.
Interim summary: Trump found guilty and will be sentenced on 11 July
Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be convicted of a crime. Here’s a recap of what happened:
-
Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
-
The verdict came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours. Trump was convicted by a jury of 12 New Yorkers of felony falsification of business records.
-
Trump will be sentenced on 11 July at 10am ET. The sentencing date is just days before the Republican party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the 5 November election.
-
Could Trump go to prison? Here’s what happens next after the guilty verdict.
-
Trump has denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal the verdict. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said at the courthouse after the verdict was read. “This was a rigged trial, a disgrace.”
-
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said “the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury”. At a news conference after the verdict, Bragg noted that “this defendant might be unlike any other in American history” but that “ultimately today this verdict in the same manner as every other case.”
-
Trump’s conviction set off a political firestorm in Washington. Republicans furiously lambasted the verdict as a miscarriage of justice while Democrats commended New York jurors for rendering a fair judgment in one of the most historic trials in American history.
-
Joe Biden’s campaign said “no one is above the law”. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” Michael Tyler, Biden’s communications director said.
-
Republicans rallied around Trump, reiterating their baseless allegations that the Biden administration had engaged in political persecution of the former US president. “Today is a shameful day in American history,” said House speaker Mike Johnson. Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House judiciary committee, bemoaned the verdict as “a travesty of justice”.
-
Some of Trump’s advisers and family members were even more blunt. “Such bullshit,” Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s eldest son, wrote on X.
-
Crowds gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse erupted into simultaneous applause, cheers and groans. A heavy sense of shock and relief appeared to hang in the air, with many protesters, counterprotestors and onlookers wearing a look of surprise on their faces.
Stormy Daniels ‘relieved that this case is now over’
The lawyer for Stormy Daniels says she is “relieved that this case is now over”, in a statement shared by the New York Times. Daniels’ lawyer Clark Brewster said:
She always had great faith in our justice system and in the solemn oath jurors take in undertaking their service. No man is above the law, and the selfless hardworking service of each of these jurors should be respected and appreciated.
Cameras have not been allowed inside the courtroom while proceedings have been under way, but a sketch artist captured scenes as the verdict was read out in Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Laurie, a woman who had been a regular figure outside the Trump proceedings over the last several weeks, and who declined to give her last name, said:
It’s the right verdict, it’s correct.
I think there was a preponderance of evidence, that was glaring, to convict him … they had witnesses and he didn’t take the stand to refute, they didn’t put him on the stand.
Maybe because he lies all the time and it would be too difficult to rein him in.
Another onlooker, named Karen, was outside across the street from court after the news broke and shared her relief:
This is a sign that there is something salvageable in our version of democracy … nothing is over, he’ll tie it up in the court systems forever but we’ve got to take our celebrations when we can.
Just before the verdict came in this afternoon, the Republican Senate candidate for Maryland, Larry Hogan, posted to X defending the US legal process and calling on Americans to “respect the verdict”.
Chris LaCivita, a senior Trump campaign adviser, responded to Hogan, writing: “You just ended your campaign.”
E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused Donald Trump of sexual assault and won nearly $90m in civil judgments against him, responded to the verdict by posting a photo of Stormy Daniels and the caption:
Justice!!
What is Biden’s next move?
David Smith
Twelve jurors in New York have presented their fellow Americans with a simple question: are you willing to elect a convicted criminal to the White House?
On Thursday, Donald Trump was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in his hush-money trial, a verdict making him the first former president to be found guilty of felony crimes in America’s near 250-year history.
It was a historic moment in which the US joined other democracies in showing the world it is willing to hold its political leaders to account.
It also represents an earthquake in a presidential election where poll after poll shows Trump to be the marginal favourite over incumbent Joe Biden, despite the president’s efforts to move the needle. If this doesn’t do it, perhaps nothing will.
Sentencing was set for 11 July, just days before the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, where Trump would become the first convicted criminal to be anointed a party presidential nominee. A time traveller visiting from the year 2014 would be staggered.
Yet the one question that transfixed Washington throughout the seven weeks of the often tawdry trial has been: historians care, journalists care and late-night comedians definitely care, but will it matter to voters?
Read the full analysis by the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith, here.
Trump to hold press conference tomorrow morning
Donald Trump has posted to his Truth Social site that he will hold a news conference at the Trump Tower at 11am ET tomorrow.
Joan E Greve
Democrats were more muted in their response to the verdict, framing the jurors’ decision as a reflection of the strength of the US justice system.
Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign communications director, said:
In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law. Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary courts subcommittee, argued the verdict confirmed that Trump was “not fit to lead the greatest nation in the world”.
It’s only in honest courtrooms that the former president has been unable to lie and bully his way out of trouble. Americans trust juries for good reason.
Senator Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate judiciary committee, added:
I commend the jurors for their service and urge all Americans, no matter their party affiliation, to accept and respect the outcome of this trial.
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