Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/zbyiujsu/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-social-share/class.jnews-initial-counter.php on line 40
![In a landmark criminal trial, Donald Trump was found guilty on all counts In a landmark criminal trial, Donald Trump was found guilty on all counts](https://www.thepinkbrain.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/IMG_4022.jpeg)
Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year and is scheduled to be crowned at the party’s convention just days after his 11 July sentencing.
Polls have indicated that he’s in a statistical dead heat with President Joe Biden and maintains a slight edge in many key swing states that will decide the election.
But those surveys also provided evidence that this conviction might change all of that.
In exit polls conducted during the Republican primaries this winter, double-digit numbers of voters said that they would not vote for the former president if he were convicted of a felony.
Now those voters can make their judgement based on a real conviction. Even a slight drop in Trump’s support might be enough to matter in the kind of razor-thin race this presidential contest could become.
The New York trial was one of four criminal cases the ex-president is facing:
- Federal prosecutors in Washington DCaccuse Trump of conspiring to overturn his election loss in 2020, including by stoking the Capitol rioters on 6 January 2021. The trial is indefinitely postponed due to an appeal from Trump who says presidents cannot be prosecuted like other citizens
- In Georgia, Trump is charged with 18 other defendants with criminally conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat in the state in 2020. The trial’s been delayed after Trump launched an effort to disqualify the lead prosecutor
- Trump is also accused of mishandling classified documents and bringing them home after he left the White House in a federal case in Florida. Again, the trial has been delayed as the judge considers motions from Trump’s legal team
A travesty of justice or justice served?
The reaction to Trump’s convction has largely been along party lines – as an example, look at these comments from House Judiciary Committee colleagues Jim Jordan and Jerry Nadler.
Jordan, a Republican congressman, called the verdict “a travesty of justice”. Nadler, a Democrat, said “justice was served”.
Elsewhere, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the US “is a nation built upon the rule of law” and stressed that “responsible leadership requires the verdict to be respected”.
House Speaker Mike Johnson – a Republican – called it “a shameful day in American history”. His colleague Steve Scalise – the House Majority leader – called it a “devastating” blow to the idea “justice is blind”.
The Republicans’ retiring Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who has a frosty relationship with Trump, spoke in his defence.
“These charges never should have been brought in the first place. I expect the conviction to be overturned on appeal,” he wrote on X.
The US Constitution sets out relatively few eligibility requirements for presidential candidates: they must be at least 35, be a “natural born” US citizen and have lived in the US for at least 14 years.
There are no rules blocking candidates with criminal records.
But this guilty verdict still could still sway November’s presidential election. A poll from Bloomberg and Morning Consult earlier this year found that 53% of voters in key swing states would refuse to vote for the Republican if he were convicted.
Another poll from Quinnipiac University this month showed 6% of Trump voters would be less likely to vote for him – consequential in such a tight race.
A short time after the verdicts, Donald Trump emailed supporters with a statement. It largely reiterates what he told reporters outside the New York court.
“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” the email says.
“The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people,” it adds. “I’m a very innocent man.”
Could Trump go to prison?
It is possible, though highly unlikely, that Trump will serve time behind bars.
The 34 charges he faced are all class E felonies in New York, the lowest tier in the state. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of four years.
There are several reasons why Justice Merchan could choose a lesser punishment on 11 July – including Trump’s age, his lack of previous convictions, and the fact that the charges involve a non-violent crime.
He could consider Trump’s violations of the court’s gag orders during the trial.
It is also possible that the judge would weigh the unprecedented nature of the case, perhaps choosing to avoid putting a former president and current candidate behind bars.
There is also a question of practicality. Trump, like all former presidents, is entitled to lifelong protection from the Secret Service. This means that some agents would need to protect him in prison.
Even so, it would be extremely difficult to run a prison system with a former president as an inmate. It would be a huge security risk.
Stormy Daniels feels vindicated, says husband
The adult film star at the centre of this case, Stormy Daniels, has not commented on the verdicts – but her husband Barrett Blade has spoken to CNN.
“It’s a big weight off her shoulders at this point,” he said, adding that she “feels a little vindicated that, you know, she was telling the truth”.
The couple are worried about the reaction to the verdict, Blade said, but Daniels is still “stoic”.
Her stint in the witness box was one of the most dramatic – and tense – moments of the trial.
In often explicit detail, she recounted the alleged affair with Trump – which the jury found he then tried to cover up.
Lifelong Republican Jim Sullivan, 54, twice hesitantly backed Donald Trump – but the court’s verdict has changed his mind, he says:
I’m not a big Trump fan and I’m not a lawyer, but – based on what I was reading – this seemed like a very clumsy case. It basically ensures that Trump, unless he goes to jail, is going to win re-election now.
I feel like the jury was led to a foregone conclusion. And I do think this judge has a bias. This was politically motivated. What stood out to me was how they really hemmed in Donald Trump, keeping him under wraps with gag orders. They wanted to keep him in a box and they kept him silent as much as they could.
I was leaning toward Trump and I’m probably going to end up supporting him once again. Seeing Joe Biden’s policies and the way he’s conducting himself, I don’t think he’s got the stamina or the ability to do the job for very much longer. The border has been blown wide open. The economy just stinks…
I don’t want to jump down the rabbit hole and say I’m not voting for [Trump]. But I do think he’s going to be vindictive. This is a bad day for America. We’ve crossed the Rubicon. If he wins, I think he’s going to go out and start punishing folks.
[Jim calls back 10 minutes later]
There’s no way I can support a convicted felon as president. He’ll have to appeal and win for that to change. But I’m definitely not voting for Biden.
Trump addressing gathered media after his guilty verdict
- Donald Trump has become the first US president – former or current – to be convicted of a crime
- A New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business documents to conceal hush money paid to a porn star before the 2016 election
- He will be sentenced on 11 July – he could face jail but will more likely receive a fine
- Despite his now criminal record, he can still run for president and assume office
- Trump says the case was “rigged” and calls himself a “very innocent man”
- His lawyers say they plan to appeal
- President Biden’s campaign tells voters the only way to defeat Trump is at the ballot box
NY prosecutor: ‘I did my job’
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought these charges against Trump, had earlier on Thursday spoke at a press conference following the court hearing.
In his remarks, he said this case was about 34 false statements made to cover up other crimes.
“These are felony crimes in New York State no matter who you are. We can not and will not normalise serious criminal conduct,” Bragg said.
Marietta City in Cobb County couldn’t get more swingy if it tried. In a short walk around the city square here you meet a whole array of voters: and perhaps it is them who will be Donald Trump’s most important jury.
“I don’t think it’s over yet,’ said Mickey, a former Donald Trump supporter. “He’ll keep fighting and fighting and fighting until he runs it into the ground.”
She said she voted for him the first time over his business background but said he was disappointing, calling him “a narcissist”.
But her dislike for Donald Trump and the conviction doesn’t translate into victory for Mr Biden. “I won’t be voting for either of them.”
President Biden narrowly won Georgia in 2020, and polls suggest Donald Trump was ahead by three points before the verdict. 8% are undecided, and so any shift in opinion resulting from the guilty verdict could have an outsize effect.
Rachel Rice an army veteran is one of those undecideds. Her jaw dropped at the guilty verdicts: “He’s got away with everything else so far!” But she admitted she’s uncertain which way she’ll vote.
Another man Bob, playing with his bluegrass band outside a café, was more sure. He wanted a positive outcome for Donald Trump and said a conviction would not change his mind. What would?
“If he was convicted of murder, I’d be like that’s not a guy I want to go for!”
Another resident here, Petro, said this will hugely matter for the election. While he wouldn’t say which way he’d vote, he said the character of the person in the White House matters. “I believe in the justice system. I believe that my fellow Americans would choose the right verdict.”
Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group fell by more than 6% to $48.66 each in extended trading following the events in court.
They had closed at $51.12 during regular hours on Thursday, which gave the firm a stock market valuation of more than $9bn (£7bn).
Trump owns the majority of the company behind the social media platform Truth Social.
Ian, 59, is a dual UK-US citizen who voted for Trump in 2016 to “shake things up a bit” but had turned against him by 2020.
I’m pretty stunned that it’s happened. My wife’s in New York, she said she went outside and everyone was cheering like it’s the World Cup.
I was surprised because, when Cohen was on the stand, it looked like he was getting torn apart. I thought that there wasn’t enough evidence based on the fact your key witness is a convicted liar, and so I thought if it’s beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would not get convicted.
It’s difficult to say [if this is a fair verdict]. I’m not saying he didn’t get a fair trial, but where it was done massively impacted it. In other parts of the US, this wouldn’t have come to trial.
Honestly I still think Trump is going to win in November. I probably wouldn’t have voted for him and it’s probably made me more likely not to vote for him. But you’re caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. What a choice – between a president who is clearly too old to be in the most powerful job in the world, and a guy who’s a convicted felon.
I find it kind of ironic that this whole thing was about him trying to hush up a payment to a porn actress. If it happened now, he wouldn’t bother that it could come out. I don’t think it makes any difference to either the Democrats or especially to his own supporters. The only people this will maybe influence is a few key independent voters who are truly on the fence. For me, I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll vote.
Lawyer ‘felt in my soul… that Trump should have been found not guilty’
Trump’s lead attorney, former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche, said he “very much believed that the jury should have found President Trump not guilty I mean very…in my soul”.
In an interview with CNN’s The Source, he said the jury had relied too heavily on the testimony of Michael Cohen, whom the defence team had tried to make out as not credible.
“At the end of the day, it remains true that that if the word of Michael Cohen was not accepted at all, then you could not have convicted President Trump,” Blanche said.
He argued that Trump had been tried in a tough jurisdiction – New York – but the interviewers pointed out that Trump had based his businesses and spent decades of his life there.
‘So worth it to watch Trump’s trial in person’
The trial has drawn global attention but some of the interest has been strongest among New Yorkers themselves.
The BBC spoke to one man, a teacher, who had gone to great lengths to watch the trial – including sleeping outside the courthouse line for several days so he could watch the closing arguments on Tuesday.
He told us it had been an invaluable experience – and there were insights you got in person that you just didn’t get from a court report.
Ivanka shares heartfelt message after conviction
Donald Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump has shared a heartfelt message on Instagram, a few hours after her father’s guilty conviction.
“I love you dad” she wrote, sharing a picture from her childhood showing the two of them.
Among the hard core of Trump’s extremely online supporters, there are howls of outrage and even talk of violence.
Far-right podcaster Stew Peters told his hundreds of thousands of Telegram followers: “Our judicial system has been weaponized… we are left with NO other option but to take matters into our own hands”. He used a crossed swords emoji to hammer home his point, and followers responded with talk of burning down courthouses and rioting.
More mainstream Maga influencers were less direct but equally enraged. On X, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk called Trump’s opponents “savages” while broadcaster and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec preferred the term “unhumans”. Podcaster Tim Pool tweeted: “war.” Similar language was all over Telegram channels run by far-right Proud Boys.
Former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson revived a bizarre theory about a “deep state” assassination plot against the former president and predicted: “He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first.”
The overheated rhetoric included tens of thousands of posts about “Civil War”. But others, including many Trump opponents, were quick to pour scorn. It’s worth noting that Trump’s arrests and numerous court dates did not lead to widespread violence, or even very large protests.
Paranoia is rife on the Maga fringes, with many fearing that law enforcement is watching them. Among the “civil war” posts were ones mocking some of the angrier posters – for lacking the will to leave their houses.