President Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts in his New York ‘hush money’ trial, officially becoming the first U.S. president to ever face a criminal trial or become a convicted felon.
A jury in Manhattan, a heavily Democratic area, convicted President Trump on Thursday in a case brought by Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as outlined in Bragg's indictment. He will be sentenced July 11th, though an immediate appeal is obviously expected.
The prosecution's key witness, Michael Cohen, who has a history of dishonesty, testified, revealing that he had stolen from the Trump organization. The defense argued that Cohen, an already convicted perjurer, potentially committed perjury again during his testimony.
The charges against Trump originated from a series of payments totaling $420,000 made to Michael Cohen over 12 months in 2017, which were labeled as “legal services.” Prosecutors argued that these payments were actually reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 he paid to secure a nondisclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election, aimed at silencing her claims of an affair with Trump.
To charge Trump with felonies and navigate around the expired statute of limitations, District Attorney Alvin Bragg needed to assert that the business records were falsified to conceal or commit another crime. However, this underlying crime was ambiguous throughout the trial, with the assumption it was either a campaign finance or election law violation.
Michael Cohen, the sole witness to directly implicate Trump in the documents, made a significant admission during cross-examination. He revealed that he had stolen $60,000 from the Trump Organization through the same reimbursement plan he was testifying about, which was intended to show that Trump fully supported and understood the scheme.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg's team included Matthew Colangelo, a former top official in the Biden DOJ for two years. Before his tenure at the DOJ, Colangelo worked at the New York District Attorney’s office, where he led the investigation that resulted in the dissolution of the Trump Foundation and spearheaded the investigation that eventually evolved into Trump's civil fraud case.
Trump is the first ever U.S. president to face a criminal trial and the first ever president to become a convicted felon.
