Donald Trump found guilty in hush money case – becoming first ex-president to be criminally convicted
Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be criminally convicted.
In a historic decision, a New York jury has found him guilty of falsifying business records to commit election fraud.
He was found guilty of all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
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Trump found guilty on all counts
The former president is set to be sentenced on 11 July – days before the start of the Republican National Convention on 15 July where Trump is expected to be formally nominated for president.
The verdicts plunge the country into unexplored territory ahead of the election on 5 November as opinion polls show Trump and Joe Biden locked in a tight race for the White House.
Trump faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of the same crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation.
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Trump pumps a fist outside Trump Tower after the verdicts. Pic: Reuters
Speaking outside the court, Trump said the conviction was a “disgrace” and that he is “a very innocent man”.
He said the trial was “rigged” and that the judge was “conflicted” and “should never have been allowed to try this case”.
“This is long from over,” Trump added.
After the conviction he travelled in a convoy of black jeeps to dinner in New York City.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Joe Biden said in a statement: “No one is above the law.”
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden-Harris campaign’s communications director.
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power,” he added.
“A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts against him
Alvin Bragg, the New York district attorney who brought the case against Trump, said in a press conference after the verdicts that his team “followed the facts and the law without fear or favour”.
He thanked the NYPD, court staff and the jury, saying the latter was “careful and attentive”.
“I feel a deep gratitude to work alongside them to be a part of this system,” he said.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case,” Mr Bragg added.
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Trump calls guilty verdicts ‘a disgrace’
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and a key witness in the trial, said: “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 also posted on X celebrating the verdicts.
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How hush money trial unfolded
The case against Trump
Trump was at the centre of a scheme to cover up “hush money” payments to buy the silence of a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.
When revelations by Stormy Daniels of a sexual liaison with Trump threatened to upend his presidential campaign, he directed his lawyer to pay her $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.
The payment buried the story, and Trump was later elected to be the 45th president of the United States.
Trump watched the jurors dispassionately as they were polled to confirm the guilty verdict. They had deliberated for nine-and-a-half hours.
Judge Juan Merchan thanked the jurors for their service, saying: “Nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do. The choice is yours.” Jurors are now free to speak about the trial.
Both supporters and protesters gathered outside and could be heard in the hallway on the 15th floor of the courthouse, where the case had been heard.
Anti-Trump demonstrators hold placards outside the court. Pic: Reuters
Trump supporters outside court. Pic: Reuters
Pic: Reuters
The five-week trial in the Manhattan Criminal Court heard how the backdrop to the crime was a scandal in the Trump campaign a month before the 2016 election.
A video tape from the TV show Access Hollywood was made public, in which Trump was caught on a microphone talking in lewd terms about groping women (“When you’re a star they let you do it, grab them by the p***y. You can do anything.”)
The trial heard how it was viewed as a “crisis” within Team Trump and that the campaign was soon facing another.
Ms Daniels, an adult film actor, claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006.
Fast-forward 10 years and, as he ran for office, she was hawking her story.
The details, as heard in this trial, were that she had met Trump at a golf tournament, and he had invited her to dinner.
Stormy Daniels in Manhattan in 2018. Pic: AP
She arrived at his hotel suite to find him dressed in satin pyjamas, until she asked him to change.
At one point, he produced a magazine, and she told the court she spanked him “right on the butt”.
Later, she emerged from the bathroom to find him lying on the bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, and they ended up having sex.
Trump denies the liaison took place.
‘Catch and kill’
Her plan to sell her story was communicated to Trump by David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer magazine.
He was a friend of Trump and operated a “catch and kill” scheme on his behalf, to catch negative stories and kill them before they could be published.
He’d already paid $150,000 (£117,000) to silence Karen McDougal, a Playboy model with a story of a 10-month affair with Trump.
David Pecker promised to stop negative stories about Trump being published. Pic: Reuters
Trump also denies that affair ever took place.
Mr Pecker told the court he’d attended a meeting at Trump Tower, New York, in August 2015 with Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and fixer.
At the meeting, Mr Pecker told Trump he’d be his “eyes and ears”.
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Michael Cohen testified that, upon learning that Ms Daniels planned to sell her story, Trump told him: “This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me.
“This is really a disaster. Women will hate me. Guys, they think it’s cool. But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.”
Michael Cohen said he paid the hush money at Trump’s direction. Pic: Reuters
Subsequently, Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£102,000) to buy and bury the story.
Critically, he testified that he did so at Trump’s direction, placing the former president at the heart of the conspiracy.
Paying hush money isn’t illegal – the crime was the way in which Trump reimbursed his ‘Mr Fix-It’ and the reason the money was paid.
After Trump was elected president, he repaid Cohen $420,000 (£329,000) which accounted for the $130,000 (£102,000) and other payments and bonuses, “grossed up” to account for tax liability.
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What happens next for Donald Trump?
The repayment was made in a series of cheques, which were recorded as legal expenses.
That was the crime – the falsification of business records, aggravated by the reason for it – the effort to conceal from voters a negative story that could have harmed Trump’s election chances.
In the words of the prosecution, it was “a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election”.
Donald Trump has agreed to send “top of the line weapons” to NATO to support Ukraine – and threatened Russia with “severe” tariffs if it doesn’t agree to end the war.
Speaking with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte during a meeting at the White House, the US president said: “We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons, and they’re going to be paying for them.
“This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment which is going to be purchased from the United States,” he added, “going to NATO, and that’s going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.”
Weapons being sent include surface-to-air Patriot missile systems and batteries, which Ukraine has asked for to defend itself from Russian air strikes.
Pic: Reuters
Mr Trump also said he was “very unhappy” with Russia, and threatened “severe tariffs” of “about 100%” if there isn’t a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days.
The White House added that the US would put “secondary sanctions” on countries that buy oil from Russia if an agreement was not reached.
It comes after weeks of frustration from Mr Trump against Vladimir Putin’s refusal to agree to an end to the conflict, with the Russian leader telling the US president he would “not back down” from Moscow’s goals in Ukraine at the start of the month.
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Trump says Putin ‘talks nice and then bombs everybody’
During the briefing on Monday, Mr Trump said he had held calls with Mr Putin where he would think “that was a nice phone call,” but then “missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and that happens three or four times”.
“I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy,” he added.
Earlier this year, Mr Trump told Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you’re gambling with World War Three” in a fiery White House meeting, and suggested Ukraine started the war against Russia as he sought to negotiate an end to the conflict.
After Mr Trump’s briefing, Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev said on Telegram: “If this is all that Trump had in mind to say about Ukraine today, then all the steam has gone out.”
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Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy met with US special envoy Keith Kellogg in Kyiv, where they “discussed the path to peace” by “strengthening Ukraine’s air defence, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe”.
He thanked both the envoy for the visit and Mr Trump “for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries”.
At least 30 people have been killed in the Syrian city of Sweida in clashes between local military groups and tribes, according to Syria’s interior ministry.
Officials say initial figures suggest around 100 people have also been injured in the city, where the Druze faith is one of the major religious groups.
The interior ministry said its forces will directly intervene to resolve the conflict, which the Reuters news agency said involved fighting between Druze gunmen and Bedouin Sunni tribes.
It marks the latest episode of sectarian violence in Syria, where fears among minority groups have increased since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar al Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
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In March, Sky’s Stuart Ramsay described escalating violence within Syria
The violence reportedly erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida.
Last April, Sunni militia clashed with armed Druze residents of Jaramana, southeast of Damascus, and fighting later spread to another district near the capital.
But this is the first time the fighting has been reported inside the city of Sweida itself, the provincial capital of the mostly Druze province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports the fighting was centred in the Maqwas neighbourhood east of Sweida and villages on the western and northern outskirts of the city.
It adds that Syria’s Ministry of Defence has deployed military convoys to the area.
Western nations, including the US and UK, have been increasingly moving towards normalising relations with Syria.
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Concerns among minority groups have intensified following the killing of hundreds of Alawites in March, in apparent retaliation for an earlier attack carried out by Assad loyalists.
That was the deadliest sectarian flare-up in years in Syria, where a 14-year civil war ended with Assad fleeing to Russia after his government was overthrown by rebel forces.
The city of Sweida is in southern Syria, about 24 miles (38km) north of the border with Jordan.
The man convicted of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has been charged with sexual assault against an ex-girlfriend.
Rudy Guede, 38, was the only person who was definitively convicted of the murder of 21-year-old Ms Kercher in Perugia, Italy, back in 2007.
He will be standing trial again in November after an ex-girlfriend filed a police report in the summer of 2023 accusing Guede of mistreatment, personal injury and sexual violence.
Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was released from prison for the murder of Leeds University student Ms Kercher in 2021, after having served about 13 years of a 16-year sentence.
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Since last year – when this investigation was still ongoing – Guede has been under a “special surveillance” regime, Sky News understands, meaning he was banned from having any contact with the woman behind the sexual assault allegations, including via social media, and had to inform police any time he left his city of residence, Viterbo, as ruled by a Rome court.
Guede has been serving a restraining order and fitted with an electronic ankle tag.
The Kercher murder case, in the university city of Perugia, was the subject of international attention.
Ms Kercher, a 21-year-old British exchange student, was found murdered in the flat she shared with her American roommate, Amanda Knox.
The Briton’s throat had been cut and she had been stabbed 47 times.
(L-R) Raffaele Sollecito, Meredith Kercher and Amanda Knox. File pic: AP
Ms Knox and her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were placed under suspicion.
Both were initially convicted of murder, but Italy’s highest court overturned their convictions, acquitting them in 2015.
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