By Black Headline News
It’s an historic first in American history for a criminal case against a former or sitting U.S. president where, 12 New York State Supreme Court jurors unanimously agreed to convict former president, Dondald Trump today.
The jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election. The decided this verdict in roughly 10 hours.
“Donald 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,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “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 equal 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,” said District Attorney Bragg.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., former president, Donald, 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.
The genesis of the scheme was a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where an agreement was hatched between Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen, 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.
In one instance, American Media Inc. paid $30,000 to a former Trump Tower doorman, who claimed to have a story about a child Trump had out of wedlock.
In a second instance, AMI paid $150,000 to a woman who alleged she had a sexual relationship with TRUMP.
Before jury deliberations, New York Judge Juan Merchan reminded the jury of Trump’s peers in a one-hour instruction of their promise to be impartial and leave their biases at the door and that some evidence — such as former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea to violating federal campaign finance laws, or certain headlines that ran in newspapers — is used only to establish the credibility of other witnesses, and give context to the timing of events, and not to determine Trump’s guilt, according to NPR.
Merchan also explained how the jury should define the law at hand, which includes the intent to defraud and falsify business records.
The front-runner for the GOP nomination in the 2024 election will have sentencing July 11 at 10:00 AM EST. The GOP Convention begins four days after the sentencing date, Mon, Jul 15, 2024, to Jul 18, 2024; it should be noted that Trump violated the gag order over 10 times, twice held in contempt and was not jailed by the judge, although most likely, the average citizen would have been jailed.
In New York, a defendant has 30 days from when a sentence is handed down to file a notice of an appeal. If Trump fails to file, he’ll essentially waive his right to appeal.
Here’s what to know:
• These are state charges not federal
• This is a low-level felony (class E)
• Trump does not have any previous criminal history; he is considered a first-time, non-violent offender. Therefore, he could serve 4 years in prison per count, but it is not likely; it would probably be put on probation due to his status and age (77)
• The gag order will no longer apply now that Trump has been convicted.
• He can still run for president of the United States of America
What could happen next:
• He can file for an appeal in the state of New York after the July 11 sentencing within 30 days. If Trump fails to file, he’ll essentially waive his right to appeal. (In New York, a defendant has 30 days from when a sentence is handed down to file a notice of an appeal.)
• The appeals must be based solely on legal premises, not based on what a defendant disagrees with concerning the verdict on a personal level.
• Class E felony that is punishable by a fine, probation or up to four years in prison per count.
• If Judge Merchan imposes a prison term, Trump would surely ask for that sentence to be postponed during his appeal.