Jury Finds Donald J. Trump Guilty on all 34 Criminal Counts
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2024
A Manhattan, New York jury composed of seven men and five women returned a verdict of guilty on all 34 counts of the criminal indictment in the case styled State of New York v. Donald J. Trump on Thursday, May 30, 2024 against former United States President Donald J. Trump, becoming the first President to be tried and found guilty of a felony criminal offense, after deliberating for less than 10 hours over two days of a seven weeks long trial.
The jury found Trump guilty of election interference in his 2016 Presidential campaign for paying hush money to porn star, Stormy Daniels, through his legal counsel, Michael Cohen, together with National Enquirer Publisher, David Pecker, in a “catch and kill” scheme to purchase the rights of a story involving an extramarital affair he had with Daniels in July of 2006 at a golf tournament in Nevada from being published during his campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg announced on May 30, 2024 the 34 count trial conviction of former President Donald J. Trump, age 77, for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal his illegal scheme to corrupt the 2016 Presidential election. Trump was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury of all 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan scheduled Trump to be sentenced on July 11, 2024.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg stated “Donald J. Trump is guilty of repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying business records in a scheme to conceal damaging information from American voters during the 2016 Presidential election. Over the course of the past several weeks, a jury of 12 every day New Yorkers was presented with overwhelming evidence—including invoices, checks, bank statements, audio recordings, phone logs, text messages, and direct testimony from 22 witnesses—that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Trump illegally falsified 34 New York business records. Mr. Trump went to illegal lengths to lie repeatedly in order to protect himself and his campaign. In Manhattan, we follow the facts without fear or favor and have a solemn responsibility to ensure that justice under the law regardless of the background, wealth or power of the accused. The integrity of our judicial system depends on upholding that principle.”
District Attorney Bragg added that “as proven at trial, Trump engaged in a scheme to corrupt the 2016 Presidential election and went to extraordinary and illegal lengths to hide this conduct from the American voters and public, illegally causing dozens of false entries to be made in New York business records of his Manhattan-based company to conceal attempts to violate state election law.”
Bragg further elaborated that “the genesis of the scheme was a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where an agreement was hatched between Trump, his former attorney Michael Cole, and David Pecker, the CEO of American Media, Inc. (“AMI”). Trump, David Pecker and Michael Cohen agreed that AMI would prevent damaging information about Trump from becoming public. AMI, which owned the National Enquirer, purchased stories as part of a “catch and kill” strategy in order to protect Trump.”
Bragg further added that “Cohen and Trump, knowing how devastating Daniels” story would be to the campaign, agreed to buy her story to defraud the voting public and prevent them from learning the information before Election Day. Cohen, with the approval of Trump, set up a shell company called Essential Consultants, LLC and wired $130,000 to Keith Davidson, the attorney for Stormy Daniels. Cohen used false information and records to disguise the true nature of the shell company. Phone records shown at trial and testimony from witnesses proved that Trump was in the loop every step of the way.”
“After winning the election, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust—created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during Trump’s presidency—and later from Trump’s bank account. In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement. In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment, which was being disguised as income and therefore would be taxed,” said Bragg.
Donald J. Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2024 election.
