Stunned Trump fans burst into tears outside courthouse as he’s found guilty on all counts
There was a stunned silence in the park across the street from the courtroom, where a jury found Donald Trump guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying company records.
The news spread quickly through the large crowd of about 70 people who had gathered since Thursday morning, and Trump’s supporters were overcome with emotion.
One man was crying hysterically, others were red with anger and a few were unusually quiet after the verdict.
Richie Frank, a Trump supporter for 30 years, said the sentence had been “imposed for eight years.”
A Trump supporter cries outside the Manhattan courthouse after hearing that the former president was found guilty by a jury on all 34 counts of falsifying corporate records
Two Trump supporters hold each other in fear as word of the verdict reaches the crowd outside
Former President Donald Trump walks around giving comments to members of the media after being found guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying company records
‘The verdict is false. Everyone was compensated for him. It is a deep state, it is another country running this country,” he told DailyMail.com
“He shouldn’t be locked up, but if he is, Eric Trump will be president.”
“There is talk of blackmail and that is why this guilty verdict is being handed down. No one knows what he is guilty of.’
Meanwhile, others cheered and celebrated the news, with one man shouting “Guilty” and unveiling a banner with the same statement.
A Trump supporter and an anti-Trump demonstrator got into a heated argument after the verdict.
Protester John Michael Lockhart told him, “I’m on the right side of justice.
‘He is guilty of fraud. I am happy with the verdict. “I came from Louisiana for this, I’ve been waiting eight years for this,” he said.
“I ran a newspaper for 25 years and closed it during his tenure because I was printing the truth and the people of Louisiana couldn’t handle it.
“I will not tolerate racists or bigots.”
Supporters of Donald Trump look dejected outside the Manhattan courthouse as they hear the former president has been found guilty
Two members of the crowd looked excited off the field, but it was unclear which side they were on
While the Trump supporter, who did not want to be named, said: “They hate Trump, they’re our own people, our own people are screwing over New Yorkers.
‘This man is innocent. You won’t get a fair trial in New York. I’m a native New Yorker and that’s a dirty court.”
The former president was found guilty of all 34 crimes after a very short deliberation and will be sentenced on July 11.
It comes after five weeks of dramatic evidence and 22 witnesses questioned on the stand.
It is the first time that a former American president has faced a criminal trial.
Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and will face Joe Biden in the November elections.
It means the verdict could upset the 2024 White House race and prove a pivotal moment in United States history.
Prosecutors had to set a high bar to convince a 12-person New York jury that Trump conspired to help his 2016 election campaign by paying porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about their alleged sexual encounters.
A couple kiss in celebration, while others celebrate in the background after finding out Trump has been found guilty
A woman holds up a banner outside the courthouse celebrating Trump’s conviction
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has gathered all the evidence and witness statements they say are enough to charge Trump with 34 felony counts of “falsifying corporate records.”
Trump’s team tried to vigorously defend the former president and distance him from Cohen’s payments to Stormy Daniels.
They also reiterated some of their strongest points: that hush money payments are not illegal and that Trump merely wanted to spare his family the humiliation of Stormy’s alleged affair claims.
It is the first time that a former American president has faced a criminal trial.
Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and will face Joe Biden in the November elections.
It means the verdict could upset the 2024 White House race and prove a pivotal moment in United States history.
The charges Trump faces each carry a maximum prison sentence of up to four years.
Prosecutors told of a plot by Trump to “corrupt” the 2016 election by concealing a $130,000 hush-money payment from his “fixer” Michael Cohen to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claimed she and Trump had sex a decade earlier, which he has denied.
The case featured explosive evidence from Daniels and exposed the “catch and kill” practices of the tabloid National Enquirer, which bought and suppressed stories that could be damaging to Trump.
But the actual criminal complaint concerns something more prosaic: the reimbursements that Trump signed for Cohen for the payment.
The fees, paid by Trump in monthly installments, were recorded as legal fees.
Prosecutors say this was a fraudulent label intended to conceal the purpose of the hush money transaction and illegally interfere with the 2016 election.
Defense lawyers argued that Cohen actually did substantial legal work for Trump and his family and was paid for it.
During a marathon day of closing arguments on Tuesday, prosecutors and defense attorneys had one last chance to score points with jurors as they began their momentous task.
The two sides offered starkly different explanations about Trump’s guilt, the strength of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses.
Prosecutors accused Trump of trying to mislead voters in the 2016 election by suppressing embarrassing stories that could torpedo his campaign.
“The name of the game was concealment, and all roads inevitably lead to the man who benefited most: the defendant, former President Donald Trump,” prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told jurors.
Trump supporters react after the verdict was announced in the criminal trial of former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
Trump supporters check their phones for information about the case as the verdict is announced
He said Daniels’ story was “messy” and that “some of you are probably uncomfortable hearing it, but that’s the point.”
“In the simplest terms, Stormy Daniels is the motive.”
But Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche said Daniels could not be trusted.
And he labeled the prosecution’s key witness – Cohen – the “greatest liar of all time,” earning him the acronym “the GLOAT.”
Blanche said, “President Trump is innocent. He committed no crimes, and the prosecutor did not meet his burden of proof, period.”
Trump has not taken the stand to testify in his own defense.
Near the end of the trial, Trump angrily posted on social media that he was the victim of a “Kangaroo Court!” and added, “In God we trust!”
Jurors heard how the 2016 payout to Daniels played out against the backdrop of the revelation of a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump bragged about sexually grabbing women without their consent.
Had the Daniels story emerged in the wake of the ‘Access Hollywood’ scandal, it would have further damaged his campaign, the court heard.
Steinglass told the judges, “It’s not about whether you like Michael Cohen. It’s not about whether you want to do business with Michael Cohen.
“What matters is whether he has useful, reliable information about what happened in this case, and the truth is he was in the best position to know.”