On Thursday, a jury in New York convicted former President Donald Trump of all charges related to falsifying business records before the 2016 election.
Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts related to claims that he paid “hush money” to adult performer Stormy Daniels to conceal an affair they had. The New York Times reported that Thursday’s verdict makes Trump the first U.S. president to be deemed a convicted felon.
Following the guilty verdict, Trump called the trial “rigged” and a “disgrace” devised by the Biden administration.
“I am a very innocent man,” he said.
As Crime Online reported, Trump falsified the payments to make them look like reimbursements to his then-lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen. The payments were presumably made to Daniels to subvert upheaval during Trump 2016 presidential campaign.
Prosecutors presented testimony that Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 to buy her silence at a time — just after the Access Hollywood tape revealed Trump lewdly telling host Billy Bush how he seduces married women because “When you’re a star, you can do anything” — when the then-presidential candidate feared the revelation would damage his 2016 campaign.
Defense attorneys assailed Cohen, calling him “the greatest liar of all time” because he pleaded guilty to eight counts, including campaign-finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud, saying he lied at Trump’s direction during the 2016 campaign, the New York Times said. Cohen spent three years in prison, paid a $50,000 fine, and was disbarred.
After a weeks-long trial that included 20 prosecution witnesses and two defense witnesses — the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee himself declined to testify — the jury heard hours of closing arguments on Tuesday. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass reviewed the state’s case against Trump, noting that the payments became illegal when Trump reimbursed Cohen and the reimbursements were coded in his records as business expenses.
“All roads lead to the man who benefited the most, Donald Trump,” Steinglass said, adding that it was done to “hoodwink the American voter.”
Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche, argued that Cohen was a liar and that the payments were standard operating procedure and not illegal. Cohen, he said, made the payment on his own volition.
This story is developing…
*Additional reporting by KC Wildmoon
