Trump convicted in historic Manhattan criminal trial
A jury found the former president guilty on all counts in the hush-money case, the first criminal conviction of a former US president.
A Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all counts in his criminal trial on Thursday, making him the first former president in American history to be convicted of a crime, in a case that unfolded blocks from where his political career began.
The jury of twelve New Yorkers convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, stemming from a scheme to conceal a hush-money payment to an adult film actress in the final days of the 2016 campaign. Prosecutors argued the payment was an illegal effort to influence the election; the defence insisted the case was politically motivated.
The verdict, delivered after a weeks-long trial that gripped the nation, was a historic moment for the city's courts and for the country. Trump, who was simultaneously running to reclaim the presidency, denounced the outcome as a "disgrace" and a politically driven persecution, and vowed to appeal.
The trial had turned the Lower Manhattan courthouse into the centre of the political universe, with crowds, cameras and supporters and opponents gathering outside each day. It was one of several criminal cases Trump faced, but the only one to reach a verdict before the election.
The conviction raised unprecedented questions about the intersection of law and politics, and its consequences — legal, political and historical — would reverberate through the campaign and beyond, all set against the backdrop of a New York courtroom.