Former President Trump is convicted on 34 counts

Former President Donald Trump is found guilty of all charges in his criminal trial in New York, according to The Associated Press.

He now becomes the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes.

A New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election.

This was done through hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had sexual relations with him.

Trump is found guilty on all 34 counts

Trump is found guilty / PHOTO: The Associated Press

Jurors convicted Trump on all 34 counts after deliberating for 9.5 hours.

As the verdict was read, Trump remained impassive in court, looking down.

The verdict is a stunning legal reckoning for Trump and exposes him to a possible prison sentence.

It takes place in the city where his manipulations of the tabloid press helped catapult him from real estate tycoon to reality television star and, ultimately, president.

As he seeks to return to the White House in this year’s election, the trial presents voters with another test of their willingness to accept Trump’s boundary-breaking behavior.

Trump is expected to quickly appeal the verdict and will face an awkward dynamic as he seeks to return to the campaign trail as a convicted felon.

There are no campaign rallies on the calendar for now, though he’s expected to hold fundraisers next week.

Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the case, has scheduled sentencing for July.

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial reached a verdict on Thursday, marking the long-awaited culmination of the first criminal case against a former U.S. president.

The 12-person jury’s verdict was delivered a few minutes after announcing they had reached it in the Manhattan courtroom.

Prosecutors spent weeks arguing that Trump was involved in a hush money scheme aimed at suppressing stories he feared could be damaging to his 2016 presidential campaign.

The pace of «hurry up and wait» deliberations has given way to anticipatory tension and some surprise.

The jury conveyed the news that they had reached a verdict through a note to Judge Juan M. Merchan at 4:20 p.m.

This came just minutes after he announced in the courtroom, without the jury present, that the session would be adjourned at 4:30 p.m. if there was no verdict.

Merchan said his plan was to allow the jurors to continue working until that time and then send them home to start again on Friday.

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