OAN’s Sophia Flores and Brooke Mallory
Thursday, May 30, 2024
The jury in the so-called Trump “hush money” case has found 45th President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The verdict was reached by the jury in just over 11 hours.
Prior to the declaration, reporters, prosecutors, and Trump all anticipated that the jury would be excused for the day at 4:30 p.m. Shortly after the verdict was read, Trump was seated in the courtroom with his arms crossed and a dejected expression on his face.
Meanwhile, supporters of Trump expressed their thoughts on the verdict on social media platforms.
“Ray Charles could’ve seen that coming,” said one commenter on Meta (Facebook).
Many had expected the guilty verdict, especially in light of the fact that the trial took place in the overwhelmingly liberal state of New York, with a liberal judge whose daughter works for a company that provides digital campaign work like online fundraising, mobile messaging, and web design for Democrat politicians.
In this case, Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies regarding manipulating business records pertaining to a $130,000 payment made by his personal attorney Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.
The Manhattan Supreme Court jury’s decision was rendered just hours after they were shown excerpts of Merchan’s legal instructions on Wednesday, in addition to readbacks of Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony.
Trump is the first former president of the United States to face criminal charges.
During the trial, Cohen alleged that Trump gave him the order to pay Daniels before the 2016 election in order to stop her from hurting his chances of winning the presidency.
“This was a disgrace, this was a rigged trial… They wouldn’t give us a venue change… This district and this area… The real verdict is gonna be November 5th by the people… We didn’t do a thing wrong, I’m an innocent man. I’m fighting for the country, I’m fighting for the constitution… We will fight for our constitution,” Trump said after the trial.
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