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.
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.
This blog is closing now but you can read all our coverage of the trial here. Here’s a rundown of the key developments:
Trump was found guilty of all 34 countsof falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The verdict in Manhattan came after a jury deliberated for less than 12 hours.
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.
Trump is unlikely to be sentenced to prison, experts say. He is a first-time offender, and the crime he has been found guilty of is a non-violent paper crime. Any punishment is likely to consist of fines, probation, community service or some combination of those.
Trump denied wrongdoing, calling the trial a “disgrace”. “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.”
His lawyer, Todd Blanche, said Trump would appeal the verdict and complained that his client had not been able to get a fair trial in New York. “Every single person on the jury knew Donald Trump as president, as candidate, from The Apprentice so I don’t accept that this was a fair place to try president Trump,” he said.
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.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and who was one of the key prosecution witnesses, said he was “relieved” by the verdict. “Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law. While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters,” he said.
The lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the centre of the case, said she was “relieved that this case is now over”, in a statement shared by the New York Times. Daniels’ lawyer Clark Brewster said: “She always had great faith in our justice system and in the solemn oath jurors take in undertaking their service. No man is above the law, and the selfless hardworking service of each of these jurors should be respected and appreciated.”
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 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.
Michael Cohen has said he was “relieved” by the guilty verdict. In an interview on MSNBC he said, “This has been six years in the making,” adding:
As we like to state, nobody is above the law, and today’s verdict demonstrates that.
He also called Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche “Sloat” – the “stupidest lawyer of all time” – after Blanche called him “Gloat” – “the greatest liar of all time” – in his closing arguments.
Michael Cohen on his way to testify earlier this month. Photograph: Julia Nikhinson/AP
The Trump verdict is dominating headlines around the world, including the New York Times, the paper of record in a city that for years was intertwined with the image of the former president, and is now the site of his conviction.
In an opinion piece, published after the verdict, the paper’s editorial board offered the blunt assessment that “The jury’s decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder — perhaps the starkest to date — of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.”
The Guardian’s Sam Levine has been in court over the last several weeks covering all the developments – here are three testimonies he found most memorable.
Inside Donald Trump’s hush-money trial: three key testimonies – video
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who is said to loathe Trump but who nevertheless supports him, has given a muted response to Trump’s conviction, posting on X:
These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal.
A bit more on the subject of donations for Trump courtesy of Reuters, which reports a “flurry of support” for the former president that suggests he will “retain significant financial firepower against Biden including from Wall Street, tech and the oil sector”. The news agency writes:
On Thursday, mega donors including casino billionaire Miriam Adelson and hotelier Robert Bigelow lined up behind Trump, with their donations set to bolster a wave of pro-Trump ads, door-knocking and phone banking in battleground states.
The verdict also spurred some longtime Trump donors to boost their financial support for Trump - and, in at least one case, make a big donation to him for the first time.
Robert Bigelow, who is one of Trump’s top supporters having already given over $9 million to an outside group supporting him, said criminal proceedings against Trump were a “disgrace.”
“I’m sending President Trump another $5 million as I promised him,” Bigelow told Reuters.
Don Tapia, a former Trump ambassador to Jamaica, said he and a small network of family and friends with whom he donates had planned to give around $250,000 this election to support Trump.
After Thursday’s conviction, Tapia told Reuters the group would aim to give over $1 million to the pro-Trump spending group MAGA Inc in coming weeks.
“We’re going to go all-in for him,” said Tapia. He sent Reuters a photo of an American flag flying upside down outside his home in Paradise Valley, Arizona to protest the verdict.
A Silicon Valley tech investor, Shaun Maguire, posted on social media site X after the verdict that he had donated $300,000 to support Trump.
“I believe our justice system is being weaponized against him,” said Maguire, who described himself as a former Hillary Clinton supporter who switched to supporting Trump in 2021 after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Maguire told Reuters he had not previously donated to Trump.
Ivanka Trump has posted a picture of herself as a child with her father on Instagram with the words “I love you dad”.
Ivanka has distanced herself from politics after her stint in the White House. She testified at the trial, distinguishing herself from her brothers by appearing calm and delivering her testimony “like a swan gliding across a lake” according to the Guardian’s Lauren Aratani.
Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche has told CNN that he will appeal the verdict “as soon as we can”. He said
Every single person on the jury knew Donald Trump as president, as candidate, from The Apprentice so I don’t accept that this was a fair place to try president Trump.
He added:
There was so much publicity around the witnesses and around – leading up to the trial that our system of justice isn’t supposed to be a system where every person who walks into the courtroom knows about the case.
Blanche said they had been “prepared for a conviction” adding that Trump’s legal team would now “vigorously fight” with motions due in a few weeks and if that failed they would appeal after the sentencing in July.
Blanche also said the former president had been keen to take the stand but was dissuaded by his lawyers:
He wanted to get his story out. I think the judge had made some decisions before the trial, the day the trial started, about what would be allowed to be asked of him by the prosecutors if he took the stand and some of those questions were really complicated to answer because they’re still appeals going on … ultimately it’s his decision and he listened to us and relied on our counsel, and he reached the decision that he thought was right, which I very much agreed with.
Todd Blanche stands behind former US president Donald Trump as he speaks to the media after his conviction. Photograph: Getty Images
The verdict has motivated Trump’s supporters to donate to his presidential campaign, the campaign’s official account has said, so much so that the website crashed.
“So many Americans were moved to donate to President Trump’s campaign that the WinRed pages went down,” the campaign said in a statement on X. The website was back online not long after the initial statement.
Trump began soliciting donations as soon as the verdict was announced, sending an email claiming “I AM A POLITICAL PRISONER”, according to reports, although he has gone home to Trump Tower.
Trump’s supporters in Congress and the Senate have been tweeting vociferously following the announcement of the verdict. Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida said the verdict was the “corrupt result of a corrupt trial, a corrupt judge, and a corrupt DA”.
His colleague Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who earlier this month tried to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, criticised her fellow Republicans for not doing enough to stop the prosecution:
Republicans have done NOTHING to stop the Democrats from destroying our justice system and our freedoms. Many Republicans would just quote the constitution as they are marched to the firing squad. When good men do nothing, evil prevails.
Another extreme-right colleague, Lauren Boebert, said the verdict was “Communism”.
If this were happening in another country, Biden would be asking Congress to authorize a war to reinstate democracy abroad.
In the Senate meanwhile, John Cornyn of Texas, who is running to replace Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell when he steps down after the November election, echoed Trump in calling the verdict a “disgrace” and called on the party to rally round Trump.
South Dakota’s John Thune, the No 2 Senate Republican who is also running to be leader, said the case was “politically motivated from the beginning”.
Speaking after the verdict, Trump called the trial a “disgrace”: “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.” He said the “real verdict” would come on 5 November:
'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.
Robert F Kennedy Jr at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington earlier this month. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock
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.
— 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.”
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.
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.
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.
