Former US President Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in a New York courtroom on Thursday, May 30, after the jury deliberated for just two days. (The Canadian Press)

By The Canadian Press

guilty

Former US President Donald Trump found guilty on all counts in hush money trial

May 30, 2024 | 2:21 PM

NEW YORK — Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 felony counts of classification of business records at his New York hush money trial on May 30, a landmark jury verdict.

The Thursday, May 30 decision from a Manhattan courtroom makes Trump the first former American president to be found guilty of felony crimes in the nation’s nearly 250-year history.

The jury’s judgment caps a trial centred on lurid claims of sex and financial coverups, exposing Trump to the potential of serving prison time.

They delivered their verdict late Thursday afternoon after two days of deliberations that spanned 9 1/2 hours.

At the heart of the charges were reimbursements paid to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.

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Prosecutors say the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.

The charges Trump faces are punishable by up to four years in prison. He has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.

The case is the first of Trump’s four indictments to reach trial and is the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president.

The verdict represents a stunning courtroom reckoning for Trump, who was indicted in three other felony cases but wasn’t convicted until now.

Coming six months before the presidential election in which Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, the verdict will test voters’ willingness to elect for the first time a candidate with a criminal record related to hush money payments to a porn star.

Sentencing will be on July 11.

— With files from the Canadian Press

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