Interim summary: Trump found guilty and will be sentenced on 11 July
Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be convicted of a crime. Here’s a recap of what happened:
Trump has been found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
The verdict came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours. Trump was convicted by a jury of 12 New Yorkers of felony falsification of business records.
Trump will be sentenced on 11 July at 10am ET. The sentencing date is just days before the Republican party is scheduled to formally nominate Trump for president ahead of the 5 November election.
Could Trump go to prison? Here’s what happens next after the guilty verdict.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal the verdict. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump said at the courthouse after the verdict was read. “This was a rigged trial, a disgrace.”
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said “the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury”. At a news conference after the verdict, Bragg noted that “this defendant might be unlike any other in American history” but that “ultimately today this verdict in the same manner as every other case.”
Trump’s conviction set off a political firestorm in Washington. Republicans furiously lambasted the verdict as a miscarriage of justice while Democrats commended New York jurors for rendering a fair judgment in one of the most historic trials in American history.
Joe Biden’s campaign said “no one is above the law”. “There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” Michael Tyler, Biden’s communications director said.
Republicans rallied around Trump, reiterating their baseless allegations that the Biden administration had engaged in political persecution of the former US president. “Today is a shameful day in American history,” said House speaker Mike Johnson. Congressman Jim Jordan, chair of the House judiciary committee, bemoaned the verdict as “a travesty of justice”.
Some of Trump’s advisers and family members were even more blunt. “Such bullshit,” Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s eldest son, wrote on X.
Crowds gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse erupted into simultaneous applause, cheers and groans. A heavy sense of shock and relief appeared to hang in the air, with many protesters, counterprotestors and onlookers wearing a look of surprise on their faces.
‘It’s a rigged trial, a disgrace’: Trump denounces hush-money trial guilty verdict – video
Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr has accused Democrats of being afraid of losing to Trump at the ballot box and instead going after him via the courts, adding: “This will backfire in November” and “You can’t save democracy by destroying it first.” In a statement posted on X, he continued:
I’m also running against President Trump in this election. The difference is I’m challenging him on his record. His lockdowns during Covid. His atrocious environmental record. His cozy relationship with corporate America. His support for the war machine. His failure to root out waste and corruption in Washington. His service to the billionaire class. His bloating of the national debt.
A day earlier, the long-shot candidate had filed an election complaint alleging CNN is colluding with Joe Biden and Trump to exclude him from a debate the network is hosting next month. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns fear he could play spoiler.
As reactions to Trump’s conviction continue to roll in, one theme from the Republican side has been retribution.
“Time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” representative Mike Collins of Georgia tweeted, adding later: “Hillary Clinton’s campaign-funded Steele dossier is a good start. The statute of limitations expired but I’m told that’s not a thing anymore.”
Hillary Clinton’s campaign-funded Steele dossier is a good start.
The statute of limitations expired but I’m told that’s not a thing anymore. https://t.co/tbgRy4WhXj
— Rep. Mike Collins (@RepMikeCollins) May 31, 2024
Rightwing activist Charlie Kirk tweeted: “How many Republican DAs or AG’s have stones? We aren’t a serious political movement until we are ready to fight fire with fire. Indict the left, or lose America.”
Jonathan Yerushalmy
It’s unlikely to be at the forefront of the former-president’s mind as he reflects on today’s verdict, but after being found guilty of all 34 counts in his hush-money trial, Donald Trump will likely lose the honorific title of “Mr” in the news pages of the UK’s Daily Telegraph.
The Telegraph’s style guide states that “Defendants in criminal court cases … are to be referred to with their honorific Mr, Mrs or Miss: the newspapers and website should share the court’s presumption of innocence”.
“On conviction they lose the honorific, although if cleared on appeal they reclaim it.”
In its front-page story on Friday, it appears that the paper has already applied the rule; the former president is referred to as “Trump” throughout the copy, while his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is also not afforded an honorific as he was sentenced to prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to campaign-finance charges and lying to Congress.
Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, the two women Trump was accused of paying hush-money payments to, are referred to with the title “Ms” throughout.
The former president has, however, been spared the same fate in the paper of record in his home town.
In December 1973, the New York Times updated it’s own style guide to say that with “very rare exceptions”, those convicted of a crime will no longer be denied an honorific.
“We will no longer omit the ‘Mr.’ before the names of those who, as the present style states, have been convicted of crime or who have unsavory reputations known without question to be deserved,” the then managing editor of the New York Times, AM Rosenthal, said.
In a tweet on Thursday evening, New York City mayor Eric Adams said he had NYPD personnel on standby for “any and all circumstances, including large-scale protests”.
“Our criminal justice process must be respected,” he said.
As we await the next steps, New Yorkers should rest assured that the NYPD stands ready to respond to any and all circumstances, including large-scale protests. While peaceful protests and assembly will always be protected, we will not be a city of any form of lawlessness.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) May 31, 2024
Anti-Trump protesters and Trump supporters alike had gathered outside the criminal courthouse in New York City as the verdict was announced. There have been no reports of large-scale protests or unrest at this time.
Todd Blanche, the lead lawyer on Trump’s team, sat down with Jesse Watters on Fox News for a post-verdict interview.
The lawyer said he was unhappy with the rulings but that he wasn’t “going to criticize the judge right now”.
“He jokingly said to us a lot [that] he wanted to be the litigator,” Blanche says of Trump.
— erica orden (@eorden) May 31, 2024
On a special episode of the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America podcast, columnist Jonathan Freedland speaks to Guardian US reporter Sam Levine about what the verdict means for Trump himself, as well as for the upcoming election.
Listen to the full episode here.
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