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New York v Donald Trump
Trump Guilty on all 34 Felony Counts
... jury unanimous
Trump Guilty on all 34 Felony Counts
... jury unanimous
Donald Trump Is Guilty On All 34 Felony Counts,
... sentencing 11 July 2024 - fine, probation, or prison?
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW
Donald Trump, today, Thursday, the 30th day of May 2024, at approximately 04:pm (ET), became the first US president to be convicted of a crime, in fact, a felony. A New York jury found Trump guilty of multiple felony counts for falsifying business documents to cover up a payment used to silence a porn star, with whom Trump had an extra-marital affair, ahead of the 2016 election. A clear and unequivocal violation of campaign finance law. A conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is, in fact, and in law, felonious conduct.
After two days of deliberation, the 12-member jury pronounced Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts in the indictment, charges which compelled him to stand trial, as a defendant.
Trump watched the jurors as they were polled by the court to confirm their unanimous verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set the sentencing date for 11 July. It is noted that the 11th of July is several days before the Republican Party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the 5 November election.
In New York State, the crime of falsifying business documents and records carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison on each count. However, experience illustrates that those convicted often receive much shorter sentences, including the imposition of fines or even probationary sentences.
As currently understood, even incarceration would neither legally prevent Trump from campaigning, although travel restrictions could be involved, nor actually taking office if he were to win by getting the most Electoral College votes, as he failed to do in the 2020 election.
It is not anticipated that Donald Trump will be jailed ahead of his sentencing.
Nonetheless, the jury's verdict could involve unforeseeable legal maneuvering which might add more drama to an already fraught November presidential election in the United States. Unchartered waters ahead of the November plebiscite, may be a good or an untoward thing, and only time will reveal which dire3ction these recent events take us.
Trump, who lost handily to Biden in 2020, hopes to win back the White House.
Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and is expected to file an appeal, and a myriad of other legal challenges to his convictions.
Trump told reporters afterwards as he proclaimed his innocence and repeated his complaints that the trial had been rigged against him.
"The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people," he said.
Trump gave a thumbs-up sign through the tinted window of his SUV as his motorcade left the courthouse. Trump supporters stood in a park opposite the courthouse along with journalists, police and onlookers.
Opinion polls show Trump and Biden, 81, locked in a tight race, and Reuters/Ipsos polling has found that a guilty verdict could cost Trump some support among independent and Republican voters.
The case had been widely regarded as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Trump faces. But the verdict looms large now as it is likely to be the only one before the election with the others delayed by procedural challenges.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week courtroom presentation that featured explicit testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump approved a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when Trump faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
Cohen testified that he handled the payment, and that Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work.
Trump's lawyers hammered Cohen's credibility, highlighting his criminal record and imprisonment and his history of lying. Merchan also cautioned jurors to examine his testimony carefully.
The relatively short amount of time jurors needed to reach a verdict was a sign that they thought there was enough evidence to back up Cohen's testimony, said George Grasso, a retired New York judge who attended the trial.
A source familiar with the Trump campaign's inner workings said the verdict was expected to prompt him to intensify deliberations on picking a woman as his vice presidential running mate. His campaign website labeled him a "political prisoner" and urged supporters to donate.
Biden's campaign said the verdict showed that no one was above the law and urged voters to reject Trump in the election.
"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box," the campaign said in a statement.
The White House declined to comment.
Trump's fellow Republicans quickly condemned the verdict. "Today is a shameful day in American history," House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in a prepared statement.
The jury notified the court they had reached a verdict at 4:20 p.m. (2020 GMT) and the foreperson read out all 34 guilty counts shortly after 5 p.m.
After two days of deliberation, the 12-member jury pronounced Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts in the indictment, charges which compelled him to stand trial, as a defendant.
Trump watched the jurors as they were polled by the court to confirm their unanimous verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set the sentencing date for 11 July. It is noted that the 11th of July is several days before the Republican Party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the 5 November election.
In New York State, the crime of falsifying business documents and records carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison on each count. However, experience illustrates that those convicted often receive much shorter sentences, including the imposition of fines or even probationary sentences.
As currently understood, even incarceration would neither legally prevent Trump from campaigning, although travel restrictions could be involved, nor actually taking office if he were to win by getting the most Electoral College votes, as he failed to do in the 2020 election.
It is not anticipated that Donald Trump will be jailed ahead of his sentencing.
Nonetheless, the jury's verdict could involve unforeseeable legal maneuvering which might add more drama to an already fraught November presidential election in the United States. Unchartered waters ahead of the November plebiscite, may be a good or an untoward thing, and only time will reveal which dire3ction these recent events take us.
Trump, who lost handily to Biden in 2020, hopes to win back the White House.
Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and is expected to file an appeal, and a myriad of other legal challenges to his convictions.
Trump told reporters afterwards as he proclaimed his innocence and repeated his complaints that the trial had been rigged against him.
"The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people," he said.
Trump gave a thumbs-up sign through the tinted window of his SUV as his motorcade left the courthouse. Trump supporters stood in a park opposite the courthouse along with journalists, police and onlookers.
Opinion polls show Trump and Biden, 81, locked in a tight race, and Reuters/Ipsos polling has found that a guilty verdict could cost Trump some support among independent and Republican voters.
The case had been widely regarded as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Trump faces. But the verdict looms large now as it is likely to be the only one before the election with the others delayed by procedural challenges.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week courtroom presentation that featured explicit testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.
Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump approved a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when Trump faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehavior.
Cohen testified that he handled the payment, and that Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work.
Trump's lawyers hammered Cohen's credibility, highlighting his criminal record and imprisonment and his history of lying. Merchan also cautioned jurors to examine his testimony carefully.
The relatively short amount of time jurors needed to reach a verdict was a sign that they thought there was enough evidence to back up Cohen's testimony, said George Grasso, a retired New York judge who attended the trial.
A source familiar with the Trump campaign's inner workings said the verdict was expected to prompt him to intensify deliberations on picking a woman as his vice presidential running mate. His campaign website labeled him a "political prisoner" and urged supporters to donate.
Biden's campaign said the verdict showed that no one was above the law and urged voters to reject Trump in the election.
"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box," the campaign said in a statement.
The White House declined to comment.
Trump's fellow Republicans quickly condemned the verdict. "Today is a shameful day in American history," House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said in a prepared statement.
The jury notified the court they had reached a verdict at 4:20 p.m. (2020 GMT) and the foreperson read out all 34 guilty counts shortly after 5 p.m.
... the jury has spoken
DA Alvin Bragg, 30 May 2024
... the jury has spoken
DA Alvin Bragg, 30 May 2024
With humility and factual bearing, DA Alvin Bragg thanked the jury, those ordinary citizens that are the bearers of the constitutional guarantee of a trail by one peers, for their diligence.
The contrast to the bootlicking chorus of elected official Trump supporters could not be more polar opposite, or pathetic.
Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, asked Merchan to throw out the guilty verdict, arguing that it was based on the unreliable testimony of Cohen, which is false, and the necessity to corroborate evidence was clearly explained to the jury in their instructions.
Merchan, naturally, denied the request to throw out the guilty verdicts, which could land the convicted felon in prison for several years.
Trump will appeal, and his appeal may zero in on Stormy Daniels', at times, overly prurient testimony about their alleged sexual encounter. And, second, the novel legal theory prosecutors used in this case, but Trump and his legal team will have to do a lot better than concentrating on the fact that Cohen might prove less than reliable to a jury, as they did in this case.
Falsifying business records in New York, is in most instances charged a misdemeanor. However, prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office elevated the false business charge to a felony, because they came to realize that Trump was actually concealing an illegal campaign contribution.
The prosecutors had the burden of proving Trump guilty - beyond a reasonable doubt - the highest standard of proof under US law.
The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken, Bragg said.
Jurors heard testimony of sex and lies that have been public since 2018, although the charges themselves rested on ledger accounts and other records of Cohen's reimbursement.
It was known in court circles as the, zombie case, because Bragg pursued the case against Trump, after his predecessor, Pomerantz, opted not to bring charges. But that is another story, altogether. And, the issue as to whether Vance had once accepted campaign donations from Trump, is rarely mentioned, since he was two possible prosecutors, ago.
Whereas, Trump, if elected could shutter the two federal cases that allege that he tried illegally to overturn his 2020 election loss, on the one hand, and the charges that he mishandled classified documents, and obstructed the governments attempts to get the documents back from him, after leaving office in 2021, on the other.
Trump, even if elected, would not have the power to reverse the New York State convictions, nor to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in the State of Georgia. The rights not enumerated to the federal government, are reserved to the states, and those not held to the state, remain with the people themselves.
Trump, continues to tell his increasingly wavering and shrinking base that all his legal troubles and the mounting number of cases against him is all an effort by the current president, Biden, and his allies to hurt him politically.
How convenient, Donald. Convict, Donald
Count 1: Michael Cohen’s invoice for January-February 2017
The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.
