Donald Trump found guilty of all 34 charges in money trial

A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 charges of falsifying business records Thursday, an unprecedented and historic verdict that makes Trump the first former president in American history to be convicted of a felony.

Not only is Trump the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, 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 verdict in the hush money trial was announced after jurors deliberated for nearly 12 hours over two days. Former President Donald Trump leaves Manhattan Criminal Court after being found guilty in his hush money trial on May 30 in New York City. It will ultimately be up to voters in November to decide the significance of the guilty verdict delivered by 12 ordinary New Yorkers, which, on a legal basis, does not prevent him from being elected president again. 

“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 after leaving the courtroom, slamming the presiding judge and the prosecutor who brought the case.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man,” he said as he vowed to continue fighting. Moments after Trump was found guilty, Biden said the only way to defeat his GOP rival is at the ballot box, with his campaign stressing the stakes of the 2024 election. 

“There’s only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,” Biden wrote on X, linking to a fundraising page. 

His campaign said in a statement that the verdict showed “no one is above the law.” 

“Today is a shameful day in American history,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on X, calling the case “a purely political exercise, not a legal one.”