WashingtonThe 12 New Yorkers making up a jury in a Manhattan court on Thursday decided that Donald Trump is guilty of 34 crimes he was charged with in the Stormy Daniels trial, mainly falsifying a record of the payment he made to the porn actress in exchange for her silence. The verdict came after the jury began its deliberations yesterday afternoon, although the speed with which an agreement was reached was not the usual tone. Much less so in a case like this, since the person sitting in the dock is a former president of the United States and a candidate for the upcoming elections on November 5.
Upon leaving the court, Trump described the ruling as “shameful”: “The real ruling will be on November 5th by the vote of the people, and they know what happened here.”
Just five months before the election, the ruling is a real downgrade to the country’s political landscape and makes Trump the first former US president in the country’s history to be convicted in a criminal trial.
After jurors read the verdict to the courtroom, Judge Juan M. Merchan set July 11 as the day the verdict would be read, and Trump was released without bail until then. In this case, the Republican candidate faces up to four years in prison, although it is not yet clear what the judge will decide.
The key to the trial was proving that Trump acted with fraudulent intent when he recorded the payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels under the concept of “legal expenses.” By committing felony fraud, prosecutors say Trump was also violating campaign finance law because the payment to Daniels was made with the intent to influence the results of the 2016 election, with Michael Cohen, who was then the former president’s attorney, paying Daniels $130,000 (out of pocket). In exchange for not revealing it Affair With Trump just weeks before the election. Once in the Oval Office, Trump repaid Cohen $420,000 (which included $130,000 to Daniels, plus taxes and interest), and this repayment was later recorded in the Trump Organization’s accounts as “legal expenses.”
Cohen’s testimony was a key part of the prosecution’s case against Trump. During his testimony, Cohen explained that Trump told him he wanted to buy Daniels’ silence “to avoid campaign disaster,” not to avoid a marital crisis with his wife. However, during the final argument, the mogul’s defense devoted itself to discrediting the lawyer, stating that on other occasions he had actually lied under oath. To show there was no intent to defraud, Todd Blanche, the Trump team’s lead lawyer, told the jury that paying Cohen was determined that way because “it was the only option” found in the Trump Organization’s records. . As he said, any amount paid to a lawyer or law firm is always recorded under the concept of “legal fees”, and in this case, the same procedure is followed.
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