After almost 12 hours of deliberations between Wednesday and Thursday morning and afternoon, the 12 members of the jury: 7 men and 5 women, all residents of Manhattan reached a decision on the 34 counts of falsification of business records against the former president Donald Trump.
Before reaching the verdict, jurors asked to hear again portions of testimony from former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the former editor of The National Enquirer, who prosecutors say were part of a conspiracy to suppress unflattering stories on Trump’s behalf. during the 2016 campaign. They also asked that deliberation instructions be read to them.
The candidate for the Republican nomination in the November presidential election was found guilty of all charges against him. The jury foreman confirming that the verdict on each of the 34 counts was unanimous.
“The evidence they presented was overwhelming and the quick way the 12 jurors determined the verdict was surprising to me,” said Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat. “I thought they were going to take a little longer, but obviously, uh, they decided that he was guilty on each of the 34 charges and today he ends up being the only president who has been found guilty on charges of this magnitude.”
The former president’s son, Eric Trump, listened to the verdict sitting behind his father in the audience.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, sat in the audience behind the prosecutors.
Thus culminated a judicial process never seen before, in which 22 witnesses offered testimony swearing to speak only the truth over twenty days during which the prosecution presented more than 279 pieces of evidence. Among these, checks signed by the former president from the White House to repay Cohen for the $130,000 that he sent to adult film actress Stormy Daniels so that she would remain silent about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years ago days before the elections. of 2016.
“We cannot have a leader of this nation with that kind of personal character,” Espaillat added.
As he left the court, the former president and now convicted criminal repeated that the judicial process was a disgrace orchestrated by President Joe Biden, presided over by a conflicted and corrupt judge.
His sentence will be set just days after formally receiving the Republican nomination for July 11 and could be 4 years in prison or probation.
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