Trump found guilty: Seven things that helped convict ex-president in ‘hush-money’ fraud case

Published

12 months ago

May 31, 2024

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Donald Trump has become the first former US president to be criminally convicted.

A New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in order to commit election fraud.

Trump was at the centre of a “hush money” scheme to buy the silence of a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.

Here are seven factors that helped convict the man who – in six months – could be president again.

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1. The secret recording

“So, what do we got to pay for this? 150?” Donald Trump is heard to say in a conversation with his lawyer Michael Cohen, which he did not know was being recorded.

He was referring to the $150,000 (£117,000) hush money paid to Playboy model Karen McDougal, who claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump – which he denied.

The payment, and Trump’s discussion of it, helped establish the hush money scheme and Trump’s involvement.

2. The president and the porn star

Stormy Daniels‘ detailed evidence – at times excruciating – demonstrated to the jury why Donald Trump would have wanted to silence her story.

They met at a 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and had a photo taken together. He invited her to his hotel suite where they had sex, although Trump denies it.

She spanked him “on the butt” with a rolled-up magazine and they had sex after she came out of the bathroom to find him stripped to his boxer shorts and a T-shirt.

When they parted, he said to her: “It was great. Let’s get together again, honey bunch.”

3. David Pecker

The former publisher of the National Enquirer magazine spoke of the “catch and kill” scheme he operated to buy negative stories about Donald Trump and bury them.

He told Trump in a 2015 meeting that he would be his “eyes and ears” and he put his money where his mouth was, buying McDougal’s silence for $150,000.

Mr Pecker’s testimony spoke to Trump’s direct knowledge of, and involvement in, a hush money scheme.

4. ‘Just Do It’ and ‘Push it out past the election’

Michael Cohen testified that Donald Trump told him to “just do it” when it came to paying Stormy Daniels’ hush money.

In late October 2016, she had grown frustrated by a delay in the payment and threatened to take her story to a newspaper.

Cohen said that Trump told him: “There’s no reason to keep this thing out there. Just do it.” It reinforced evidence of Trump’s direction of the hush money scheme.

He said Trump told him of the Stormy Daniels story. “Push it out past the election, because if I win, it has no relevance and if I lose I don’t really care.”

It was a killer line that demonstrated the intent to commit election fraud and, so, elevated the crime to a felony.

5. The ‘smoking gun’ bank statement

Handwritten notes from Allen Weisselberg, Trump’s chief financial officer, show the sums adding up Michael Cohen’s reimbursement.

It was the $130,000 hush money plus add-ons, all multiplied by two to cover tax liability as Cohen was in the 50% tax bracket.

It showed $420,000 (£328,000) to be paid in multiple cheques of $35,000 each.

The figures are written on Cohen’s First Republic bank statement, the very one that showed his $130,000 wire transfer to Stormy Daniels’ attorney.

Cohen testified that he saw Mr Weisselberg write on the document and that Trump approved the reimbursement plan.

6. The ‘body man’ photo

The defence pounced on a phone call on 24 October 2016, in which Michael Cohen said he had discussed the Stormy Daniels hush money with Donald Trump.

They pointed out the call was to the phone of Trump’s aide, Keith Schiller, after Cohen had been texting him about harassment phone calls and that his claim to have spoken to Trump in a 96-second phone call was “a lie”.

However, the prosecution found a photograph of Schiller and Trump together, around the exact time of the call.

It undermined what the defence clearly saw as a ‘gotcha’ moment in their bid to discredit Cohen.

7. The trusted aide

Hope Hicks was campaign press secretary to Donald Trump in 2016.

She testified that he told her Michael Cohen had paid off Stormy Daniels to “protect him [Trump] from a false allegation” out of the “kindness of his own heart”.

Ms Hicks told the court she thought that would have been out of character for Cohen.

“I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,” she said.

From a trusted aide, her cutting assessment of Cohen challenged the word of her former boss and weakened Trump’s defence.

US

James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director’s seashells post ‘meant assassination’

Published

4 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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James Comey: Trump says ex-FBI director's seashells post 'meant assassination'

A former FBI director has been interviewed by the US Secret Service over a social media post that Republicans say was a call for violence against President Donald Trump.

James Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until he was fired in 2017 by Mr Trump during his first term in office, shared a photo of seashells appearing to form the numbers “86 47”.

He captioned the Instagram post: “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

Some have interpreted the post as a threat, alleging that 86 47 means to violently remove Mr Trump from office, including by assassination.

What does ’86 47′ mean?

The number 86 can be used as a verb in the US. It commonly means “to throw somebody out of a bar for being drunk or disorderly”.

One recent meaning of the term is “to kill”, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, which said it had not adopted this meaning of 86 “due to its relative recency and sparseness of use”.

The number has previously been used in a political context by Matt Gaetz, who was President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general but withdrew from consideration following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Mr Gaetz wrote: “We’ve now 86’d…” and listed political opponents he had sparred with who ended up stepping down.

Meanwhile, 47 is supposedly representing Mr Trump, who is the 47th US president.

Mr Comey later removed the post, saying he thought the numbers “were a political message” and that he was not aware that the numeric arrangement could be associated with violence.

“I didn’t realise some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down,” Mr Comey said.

Mr Trump rejected the former FBI director’s explanation, telling Fox News: “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant… that meant assassination.”

Donald Trump Jr accused Mr Comey of “casually calling for my dad to be murdered”.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X that Mr Comey had been interviewed as part of “an ongoing investigation” but gave no indication of whether he might face further action.

The Secret Service is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said Mr Comey had put out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States”.

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Mr Budowich wrote on X.

Another White House official James Blair said the post was a “Clarion Call (…) to terrorists & hostile regimes to kill the President of the United States as he travels in the Middle East”.

Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017 for botching an investigation into 2016 democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the White House said at the time.

While Mr Comey was the director of the FBI, the agency opened an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to help get Mr Trump elected.

US

Trump officials considerTV show where immigrants compete for US citizenship

Published

4 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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Trump officials considerTV show where immigrants compete for US citizenship

The Trump administration is considering a TV show whereby immigrants compete for the prize of US citizenship, the Department for Homeland Security has confirmed.

It would see contestants compete in tasks across different states and include trivia and “civic” challenges, according to the producer who pitched the idea.

Participants could battle it out to build a rocket at NASA headquarters, Rob Worsoff suggested.

Confirming the administration was considering the idea, Department for Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said: “We need to revive patriotism and civic duty in this country, and we’re happy to review out-of-the-box pitches. This pitch has not received approval or rejection by staff.”

It comes amid hardline immigration measures implemented by President Donald Trump on his return to office in January.

Since being back in the White House he has ordered “mass deportations” and used the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged gang members to countries in Central and South America.

Mr Worsoff, who is a Canadian-American citizen, said his pitch was inspired by his own naturalisation process.

He cautioned that those who “lost” the gameshow would not be punished or deported but said the details of how it would work would be down to TV networks and federal officials.

The producer said the US was in need of “a national conversation about what it means to be American”.

He said the show, if accepted by a network, would “get to know” contestants and “their stories and their journeys”, while “celebrating them as humans”.

Meanwhile, the Department for Homeland Security has asked for 20,000 National Guard troops from various states to assist with its efforts rounding up illegal immigrants.

Currently, the federal Enforcement and Removals Operations agency only has around 7,700 staff – but the boost would help fulfil Mr Trump’s inauguration promises.

The Trump administration has already recruited 10,000 troops under state and federal orders to bolster the US-Mexico border.

Some have now been given the power to detain migrants within a newly militarised strip of land just adjacent to it.

US

‘Mass casualty event’ declared as tornadoes hit Kentucky and Missouri

Published

6 hours ago

May 17, 2025

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'Mass casualty event' declared as tornadoes hit Kentucky and Missouri

At least 21 people have died after tornadoes hit two US states, according to local officials.

Fourteen people have died in Kentucky, its governor Andy Beshear said, while seven have died in Missouri.

The weather system also saw tornadoes tear through Wisconsin, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power.

In the city of St Louis, five people were confirmed dead and more than 5,000 homes were damaged, mayor Cara Spencer said on Saturday.

The storm system originally hit Scott County, 130 miles south of St Louis, on Friday, killing two people, Sheriff Derick Wheetley said.

The devastation that ensued saw roofs torn off buildings, blown-out windows, toppled trees, and power lines.

St Louis mayor Cara Spencer said: “Our city is grieving tonight. The loss of life and the destruction is truly, truly horrendous.”

Dozens of people are believed to have been injured and in hospital, but the exact numbers in Missouri have not been confirmed.

Kentucky officials described the situation there as a “mass casualty event” after the weather system tore across Laurel County late on Friday.

Several people were taken to hospital, buildings were damaged, and a car flipped over on a busy highway, local officials reported.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Gilbert Acciardo said rescuers had “been on the ground all night looking for possible survivors”.

Kentucky governor Mr Beshear wrote on X that the number of dead in the state was likely to increase from 14 “as we receive more information”.

Further devastation expected in other states

The National Weather Service warned of further devastation hitting Texas, Kansas, and Oklahoma on Saturday.

“Severe thunderstorms producing large to very large hail, damaging gusts, and a couple of tornadoes are expected across the southern Plains,” it said on its website.

The Midwest tornadoes were also expected to hit Illinois, eventually stretching to New Jersey and the Atlantic coast.