Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records by a jury of 12 on May 30. The verdict comes after a six-week trial with 22 witness testimonies.
Minutes before court was to adjourn, the jury requested more time so as to deliver their verdict the second day of deliberations. With this result, Trump becomes the first ever American president to be convicted of a crime.
![Former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a fist as he arrives back at Trump Tower after being convicted in his criminal trial in New York City, on May 30, 2024. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F31%2Fid5660027-Trump-trial-GettyImages-2154739489-1200x833.jpeg&w=1200&q=75)
Trump sat stoic as the verdict was delivered, and his attorneys moved for judgment immediately.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan swiftly denied the motion, and has scheduled the sentencing hearing for 10 a.m. on July 11. This is just four days before the Republican National Convention where Trump will be nominated GOP presidential candidate.
Trump attorneys have vowed to appeal a conviction.
“This was a rigged decision right from day one. And we will fight for our Constitution,” Trump said outside the courtroom.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg held a press conference after the verdict.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived today at this trial and ultimately this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors,” Bragg said. “Many voices out there; the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”
He would not speak to whether prosecutors were seeking a prison sentence.
Many legal experts do not expect President Trump to face jail time. Other than prison, probation or home confinement are also options.
The sentencing decision will be up to the discretion of Judge Merchan, who will take into account President Trump’s criminal record—he has no prior history—and other factors, like his personal history and the crimes itself.
George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley commented that the verdict could be overturned.
“I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems,” he wrote on social media.
Criminal defense attorney Keith Johnson told The Epoch Times, “The key issue is whether the sentence will require the former president to have his travel restricted through home confinement or some other restrictive measure imposed by the court.”
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti said on X that “Donald Trump’s legal team lost a very winnable case.”
“They lost because they adopted a Trumpian strategy, attacking everyone and denying everything,” he added.
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz similarly criticized the Trump defense for not raising issues he said it should have during the trial. “This was not a well-tried case by the defense,” he said on Rumble.
“There’ll be a strong appeal,” he predicted.
Reactions to the historic verdict were expectedly partisan, and both the Trump and Biden campaigns were soon fundraising. For a short while, the Trump fundraising site appeared to have crashed from the volume of traffic, returning an error message to users.
Biden-Harris 2024 Communications Director Michael Tyler stated “we saw that no one is above the law” but that the verdict did not change the fact that Trump will be the Republican nominee.
White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams posted a brief statement on social media platform X: “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”
The verdict is expected to have little impact on the election—at least according to polls.
According to a poll released by NPR and PBS on Thursday, two-thirds of respondents said that a guilty verdict wouldn’t make a difference in how they will vote in November, while 76 percent said the same regarding a not guilty verdict.
Around 17 percent of respondents told pollsters that a guilty verdict would make them less likely to vote for the former president.
Undecided voters in battleground states shared mild reactions with The Epoch Times.
Krishna Gogi, 23, and Rishi Pammi, 21, of Canton, Mich., both university students, were only vaguely aware that Trump was standing trial and had no reaction to the verdict. “I’ve lost confidence in both parties,” Gogi said, “especially with everything that’s happened in Palestine.”
Hazel Gomez of Detroit said, “This feels like an odd election year. We’re not being engaged by either party. I pray the presidency will be taken seriously.”
—Catherine Yang
![Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) addresses the media outside of Manhattan Criminal Court on behalf of former President Donald Trump in New York on May 14, 2024. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.theepochtimes.com%2Fassets%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F05%2F14%2Fid5649812-Mike-Johnson-GettyImages-2152360413-LSedit-1200x800.jpg&w=1200&q=75)
RADIATON COMPENSATION REVERSAL
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has walked back a decision to bring a House vote on the reauthorization of the RECA program. The program will expire June 10 this year, and gives monetary compensation to Americans affected by radiation during the development of nuclear weapons from 1945-1962.
The renewal of the program itself has general support in both chambers of Congress, but there is controversy over whether the program should be expanded to the tune of around $60 billion. An expansion would extend benefits to more states where uranium was processed, and a broader scope of eligible diseases.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben-Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) as well as Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), and Cori Bush (D-M.O.) are firm supporters of the expansion. Hawley sponsored an expansion bill that passed the Senate with 69 votes in March.
Lawmakers were present at Capitol Hill for a press conference on May 16 to promote the expansion-and-renewal legislation. While Hawley was elsewhere detained during the presser, the novelty of a Cori Bush-Josh Hawley alliance was mentioned by Bush, to applause and cheers from all present.
But Johnson had intended to put a different reauthorization bill on the House floor next week, a smaller, cheaper reauthorization sponsored by Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah). This move drew a firestorm of X-posts from the above-mentioned lawmakers.
Hawley and Wagner both promised to kill the Lee/Romney bill, or any legislation that does not include Missouri. Indeed, a spokesperson for Johnson said it was a conversation with Wagner that caused him to reverse course.
Moving forward, it remains to be seen whether the Hawley proposal will advance, or perhaps some sort of compromise bill will take shape before the June 10 deadline. For now, anyway, the Lee/Romney proposal really does appear to be, as Wagner put it, “dead on arrival”
—Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed an FEC complaint, saying he is being unfairly excluded from the presidential debates. The complaint, filed against President Biden, Donald Trump, and CNN, alleges that he is being held to an unfair standard, and asks that the June 27 debate be postponed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has declined a meeting with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) regarding recusal requests aimed at Justice Samuel Alito. Alito is facing scrutiny after his wife displayed controversial flags at their homes.
The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in favor of the NRA in its First Amendment Case. The NRA had alleged that officials in NY were coercing insurance companies to shun them.
The Biden administration has authorized Ukraine to use American weapons inside the Russian border. The move, which may further cement the U.S. involvement in the conflict between Russia Ukraine, follows advice from France and Britain suggesting that the weapons be allowed.
Joe Biden may be losing the Black vote, according to some Democrat politicians and experts in the field. They cite a lack of enthusiasm, “disconnection with the message and messengers,” and influence from the Trump campaign as some of the culprits.