By Miles Anderson
A somber Donald Trump emerged from the Manhattan courtroom where he has been on trial since April 15thin his historic hush money trial.
At roughly 5pm Eastern time, the 12-member jury announced that they found Trump guilty on all thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records in a plot to influence the 2016 election by making clandestine payments to porn star Stormy Daniels who alleges that the two had sex.
Trump is the first President to be convicted of a crime in the history of the U.S. and is also the first presumptive presidential nominee from a major political party that is a convicted felon.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 11th, four days before the Republican National Convention where he is expected to be named the GOP nominee for the upcoming presidential race.
Outside the courtroom Trump continued to call the proceeding a “disgrace” and “rigged trial” while railing on Judge Juan Merchan and promising to keep fighting to regain the presidency in November.
Trump could face a sentence of up to four years, but more likely will endure a lesser punishment of probation, a conditional release or nothing at all. Trump will almost certainly appeal the verdict, a process that could take months to resolve, and could ultimately end up at the Supreme Court.
Trump still faces pending criminal trials in Washington D.C. and Georgia for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as well as the Florida case over his failure to turn over classified documents that he removed from the White House.
Reaction to the verdict has been immediate and widespread in the political community, generally falling along party lines with outrage on the right and jubilation on the left.
Despite his conviction, there is nothing legally restricting Trump from becoming President again if he wins the election, even if he is incarcerated during all of part of his term.