New York:

A New York jury convicted Donald Trump on all charges in his hush money case Thursday in a seismic development barely five months ahead of the election where he seeks to recapture the White House.

The first criminal trial of a former US president ended with the 77-year-old Trump found guilty on each of the 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a payment meant to silence porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump — who was released without bail and is all but certain to appeal — initially sat still in the drab Manhattan courtroom, shoulders dipping.

Addressing reporters outside minutes later, though, he branded the result a “disgrace” and “rigged,” vowing that the “real verdict” would come from voters in the November 5 presidential election.

The conviction thrusts the United States into uncharted political territory.

However, it does not bar Trump from his continuing his White House run, even in the unlikely event that Judge Juan Merchan sentences him to prison.

Sentencing was set for July 11 — right before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is due to receive the party’s formal nomination to face Democratic President Joe Biden in the election.

Biden’s campaign issued a statement saying that the trial showed “no one is above the law.” It added that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater.”

The 12-member jury deliberated for more than 11 hours over two days before announcing the unanimous conclusion within a matter of minutes.

Merchan thanked the jurors for completing the “difficult and stressful task.”

Their identities had been kept secret throughout proceedings, a rare practice more often see in cases involving mafia or other violent defendants.

– Election conspiracy –

Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, when her claim to have had sex with him could have proved fatal to his campaign.

The trial featured lengthy testimony from the adult performer, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford and who described to the court in graphic detail what she says was a 2006 sexual encounter with the married Trump.

Prosecutors successfully laid out a case alleging that the hush money and the illegal covering up of the payment was part of a broader crime to prevent voters from knowing about Trump’s behavior.

Trump’s defense attorneys had countered that “trying to influence an election” was simply “democracy” and that the former president did nothing wrong.

– Campaigning in courthouse –

The trial has distracted Trump from his campaign to unseat Biden.

However, he milked the media attention throughout, with daily speeches in front of the cameras outside the courtroom in which he complained about being a political victim.

Yet after teasing the prospect for weeks, Trump — who denied ever having sex with Daniels at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament — opted not to testify.

Keith Gaddie, a political analyst and professor at Texas Christian University, said the political impact of the shocking events has yet to be determined.

“It probably doesn’t move a lot of votes, but in particular states with particular swing votes, it could matter around the margins. So in particularly tight races, it can tip things back from one direction to the other,” she said.

The Republican, who made his name as a brash real estate mogul before a stunning ascent to the nation’s highest office in the 2016 election, now faces prison or, more likely, probation.

In theory, he could face up to four years in jail for each count of falsifying business records but legal experts said as a first-time offender he is unlikely to go behind bars.

An appeal could take months to complete.

Should he win the presidency he will not be able to pardon himself, given that the case was not brought by the federal government but by the state of New York, where only the governor could clear his name.

Trump also faces federal and state charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Biden, and for hoarding secret documents after leaving the White House.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

The historic trial of Donald Trump enters its final act Tuesday, with closing arguments to the jury who must then decide whether to hand down the first-ever criminal conviction of a former US president.
Less than six months before American voters choose whether to return Trump to the White House, the stakes riding on the verdict are hard to overstate — for the 77-year-old personally, but also for the country as a whole.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels about a 2006 sexual encounter between them that could have damaged his 2016 presidential bid.

If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison on each of 34 counts, but legal experts say that as a first-time offender he is unlikely to get jail time.

Crucially, a conviction would not bar Trump from appearing on the ballot in November as the Republican presidential challenger to Democrat Joe Biden.

It has taken nearly five weeks, the testimony of more than 20 witnesses and a few courtroom fireworks to reach closing arguments — the last chance for the prosecution and defense to impress their case on the anonymous, 12-member jury.

As expected, Trump chose not to testify in his defense — a move that would have exposed him to unnecessary legal jeopardy and forensic cross-examination.

For a man who has always prided himself on being in charge and in control, the role of silent, passive defendant did not come easily.

At times it has been downright excruciating, especially when Trump was forced to sit and listen while Daniels recounted their alleged encounter in sometimes graphic detail.

Speaking to reporters before and after each day in court, Trump launched regular tirades against Judge Juan Merchan — calling him “corrupt” and a “tyrant” — and condemned the whole trial as “election interference” by Democrats intent on keeping him off the campaign trail.

The politics of the case were in full view in the final days when a coterie of leading Republicans — including several vice-presidential hopefuls — came to the court and stood behind Trump in a gesture of support as he spoke to the press.

In all, he was cited 10 times for contempt of court and fined $10,000 by Merchan for failing to heed a gag order prohibiting him from publicly attacking witnesses, the jury, court staff or their relatives.

The judge has said he expects closing arguments to take up all of Tuesday.

He will then give his final instructions to the jury, who will likely begin their deliberations on Wednesday.

To return a guilty or not guilty verdict requires unanimity. Just one holdout means a hung jury and a mistrial.

Other cases

Aside from Daniels, the key prosecution witness was Michael Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer” turned bitter foe who arranged the $130,000 hush money payment.

Walking jurors through the reasoning behind the payments, Cohen said they were made “to ensure that the story would not come out, would not affect Mr Trump’s chances of becoming president of the United States.”

Trump’s defense team devoted most of their questioning trying to discredit Cohen, recalling that he had admitted lying to Congress and spent time in prison for tax fraud.

The defense called only two witnesses of their own before resting.

In addition to the New York case, Trump has been indicted in Washington and Georgia on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

He also faces charges in Florida of allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House.

None of those trials are expected to take place before the November election.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial said the former president was “cursing audibly” during testimony on Tuesday by porn star Stormy Daniels and directed his lawyers to temper their client’s behavior.

“I understand that your client is upset at this point, but he is cursing audibly, and he is shaking his head visually, and that’s contemptuous,” Judge Juan Merchan told Trump attorney Todd Blanche during a sidebar conversation, according to excerpts of the official trial transcript posted online Tuesday evening.

Daniels was testifying in an extraordinary courtroom face-off with Trump about the night she allegedly slept with the Republican in a hotel penthouse in 2006.

She gave at times explicit details of the alleged affair, which Trump has denied. He is accused of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels over the affair ahead of the 2016 election that brought him to power. 

Merchan said Trump’s noise and gestures “has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that,” later adding: “I won’t tolerate that.”

He said he was raising this during the sidebar, when lawyers huddle with the judge in conversations that are not meant to be audible to the jury or wider courtroom, because “I don’t want to embarrass him.”

He said he noticed Trump shaking his head in particular when Daniels discussed swatting the billionaire with a magazine.

“I will talk to him,” Blanche promised.

Trump’s attorneys tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to have a mistrial declared based on Daniels’s testimony.

Speaking to reporters after the day’s proceedings, Trump — who is running for president again this year — called the case a “disgrace” and said he “should be out campaigning right now

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

Donald Trump’s legal battles pinballed from victory to defeat Monday as he was offered a lifeline in his struggle to stave off a half billion dollar fraud judgement while a New York judge rejected efforts to delay a separate criminal trial.

A New York state appeals court slashed a potentially crippling $454 million bond payment due on Monday to $175 million and gave the former president 10 extra days to pay.

The Republican presidential candidate got the unexpectedly positive news about his New York civil fraud case while he was sitting in court for another case — a hearing in his upcoming criminal trial over paying hush money to a porn star. 

Judge Juan Merchan rejected demands from Trump’s lawyers to delay the first ever criminal trial of a former president for at least 90 days and ordered jury selection to begin on April 15.

Trump faces charges of falsifying business records for the payments made on the eve of the 2016 presidential election to make sure porn star Stormy Daniels did not publicize a sexual encounter.

“You are literally accusing the Manhattan (District Attorney’s) office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and trying to make me complicit in it,” a visibly exasperated Merchan told Trump’s attorneys during the hearing in a Manhattan courtroom.

Trump had also been facing a Monday deadline to pay the huge original bond pending an appeal against a judge’s decision that he is liable for fraudulently conspiring to inflate his net worth.

Trump made clear he was unable to find the $454 million and he risked seeing New York state confiscate parts of his property empire if he failed to come up with the bond.

– ‘Rigged cases’ –

The 77-year-old Trump welcomed the appellate panel ruling while denouncing the hush money case as “election interference” and a “witch hunt.”

“I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division and I will post $175 million in cash and bonds or security or whatever is necessary, very quickly, within the 10 days,” he told reporters.

The hush money trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday but was delayed because thousands of pages of potential evidence were belatedly produced by prosecutors.

On Truth Social, Trump denounced both cases as a politically motivated attack ahead of the November 5 presidential election when he will likely again face incumbent Democrat Joe Biden.

“These are Rigged cases, all coordinated by the White House and DOJ for purposes of Election Interference,” Trump wrote. “No crime. Our Country is CORRUPT!”

Trump regularly rails against a judicial system he claims is “fixed” against him.

He has said that New York Attorney General Letitia James — who is Black — is “racist,” and accused Judge Arthur Engeron in the civil fraud case of being “crooked.”

Trump got some positive financial news last week when it was announced that Truth Social would finally go public through a merger, a transaction that could net him billions of dollars.

He cannot tap into the funds for six months, but it potentially could help him secure the bond.

However, in case of non-payment, James could still order a freeze on his bank accounts, or move to seize some of his New York properties.

– Seeking more delays –

Trump’s lawyers have pursued every avenue to delay his many trials — if possible until after the presidential vote.

In the trial involving Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, Trump is accused of illegally using campaign funds to secure her silence about an alleged sexual encounter back in 2006.

If she’d spoken out, the fallout could have been ruinous for Trump’s presidential hopes, coming right on the heels of another scandal over the married businessman’s boasting, caught on tape, that as a celebrity he was freely able to “grab” women by their genitals.

Trump also faces charges of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and for holding on to classified documents after leaving the White House.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)