DONALD Trump proclaimed his innocence and slammed his guilty verdict in a historic hush-money trial making him the first former US president convicted of a crime.
The former commander-in-chief blasted the "disgraceful" verdict and insisted he is a "very innocent man" after being convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
"This was a disgrace," Trump, who is now a felon, told reporters after the verdict.
"This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt. It's a rigged trial, a disgrace.
"They wouldn't give us a venue change. We were at 5% or 6% in this district, in this area.
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"This was a rigged, disgraceful trial, but the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people, and they know what happened here; everybody knows what happened here," he added, looking ahead to the presidential election.
"We didn't do a thing wrong. I'm a very innocent man and it's okay, I'm fighting for our country, I'm fighting for our constitution.
"Our whole country is being rigged right now. This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound and hurt a political opponent."
Trump seethed that Judge Juan Merchan should've never been allowed to oversee the trial.
"We have a country that's in big trouble, but this was a rigged decision from day one with a conflicted judge who should've never been allowed to try this case," the former president said.
Trump did not take any questions after his statements.
Within minutes of the guilty verdict, the Trump campaign’s official website redirected to a fundraising page claiming he was a "political prisoner".
The page said: "I was just convicted in a RIGGED political Witch Hunt trial: I DID NOTHING WRONG!
"They’ve raided my home, arrested me, took my mugshot, AND NOW THEY’VE JUST CONVICTED ME!"
The former president sat at the defense table with a glum look on his face, motionless as the jurors read the guilty verdict, The New York Times reported.
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Trump will be sentenced on July 11 at 10 am EST.
President Joe Biden's campaign released a statement saying the verdict showed no one is above the law.
"Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain," Biden's campaign said.
"But today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality.
"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box.
"Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.
"The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater.
"A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans' freedoms and fomenting political violence - and the American people will reject it this November."
Eric Trump, who was in the courtroom during the verdict, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "May 30th, 2024 might be remembered as the day Donald J. Trump won the 2024 Presidential Election."
Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. blasted the verdict as "bulls**t," saying the United States has turned into a third-world country.
"Such bulls**t. I'm not sure that there's any way to get a fair trial in New York," he wrote on X.
"This case was rigged from the start. Remember, the same hacks in the media demanding Justice Alito recused himself because of a flag, have zero problems with the corrupt judge in this case being a donor to Joe Biden or his daughter making millions from Democrats!
"Guilty on all counts. The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world s**thole. November 5 is our last chance to save it."
In a separate tweet from Don. Jr. he underscored how his father's sentencing is scheduled days before the Republican National Convention.
It's a rigged trial, a disgrace.
Donald Trump.
"Sentencing is 4 days before the GOP Convention... They're not even trying to hide the ELECTION INTERFERENCE," he added.
In a live broadcast on social media, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is running for president as an Independent, called Trump's conviction "bad for our country and bad for our democracy."
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges against Trump in April 2023, addressed the media about an hour after the verdict was read.
"The 12 jurors vowed to make a decision based on the law and the evidence and the law alone," Bragg said.
"The evidence led them to find beyond doubt that Donald Trump is guilty on 34 counts.
"While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial in the same manner as any other case. By following the facts without fear or favor."
Bragg also seemed to address the disapproval from Trump's supporters, stating that "the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury."
TRUMP CAN STILL RUN FOR OFFICE
Despite being convicted of a crime, Donald Trump can still be president.
"There's nothing prohibiting a convicted felon from being president of the United States," former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told The U.S. Sun.
Rahmani added that even if Trump is jailed, which is unlikely, it would not affect his presidency.
"Theoretically, Trump could be in prison and still be president of the United States, earning the Constitution," he told The U.S. Sun.
"The only requirements are that he be 35 and be born in the United States and not have engaged in an insurrection."
The constitution lays out three requirements a candidate must have to be considered a presidential candidate:
- Be a natural-born US citizen
- Be at least 35 years old
- Have been a US resident for at least 14 years
'CORRUPT TRIAL'
A deflated Trump seemed to have come to terms with the fact that a conviction was inevitable, telling reporters outside the courtroom on Wednesday, "Mother Teresa could not beat these charges."'
"I would say in listening to the charges from the judge, who, as you know, is very conflicted and corrupt because of the conflicting, very, very corrupt," he added.
Despite making previous statements about taking the stand and being threatened by Judge Merchan with being put behind bars for repeatedly violating a gag order, Trump chose not to testify in his defense.
The presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, 77, repeatedly denounced the proceedings, quoting GOP supporters, legal scrollers, and right-wing media news outlets outside the courtroom.
The grueling six-week trial saw prosecutors call forth 20 witnesses, including Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, former publisher of the National Enquirer David Pecker, and adult film star, Stormy Daniels.
Prosecutors argued Trump orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election.
In August 2015, two months after announcing his presidential campaign, prosecutors said Trump met with Cohen and Pecker at Trump Tower to hatch a plan to bury negative stories about the candidate to help get him elected.
Pecker testified how he bought and buried two stories about Trump, including one involving an alleged affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal.
McDougal claims she had an affair with Trump between 2006 and 2007, at a time when Melania Trump was pregnant with their son Barron.
"We didn't want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign," Pecker said on the stand.
Then, in October 2016, a month before the presidential election, Trump instructed Cohen to pay porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to silence her about an alleged affair in 2006, prosecutors said.
Trump has repeatedly denied having an affair with Daniels or McDougal.
Cohen used $130,000 of his own funds to keep Daniels quiet.
Throughout the testimonies and evidence presented by the state, the prosecution argued that Trump disguised the reimbursement payments he made to Cohen as legal retainers.
The disbarred attorney, 57, testified how, in early 2017, he met with Trump at the White House and began discussing repayment.
Cohen told jurors that he submitted several false invoices for legal service to the Trump Organization and that the then-president had signed off on monthly checks of $35,000.
Trump, who was present throughout the duration of the trial, sat nearby at the defense table, often grumbling at witness testimony and, at times, closing his eyes.
Daniels, who was born Stephanie Clifford, testified for roughly seven hours during the third week of the trial.
EYE OF THE STORM
The porn star, 45, shared with the jury about her upbringing in Louisiana, how she started in the adult industry, and her first encounter with Trump at a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, in 2006.
Daniels testified that she was 27 when she met the then-60-year-old Trump.
She said Trump's bodyguard, Keith Schiller, told her that the real estate mogul was interested in having dinner.
Schiller gave her his contact information, and after she initially rejected the invite, her publicist encouraged her to attend.
The pair had dinner at Trump's hotel room as Daniels disclosed to the courtroom how she spanked the former president "on the right butt" with a magazine.
Daniels testified how Trump's intentions were clear, and the two eventually had sex.
"The intention was pretty clear, somebody stripped down to their underwear and is posing for you," she said on the stand.
"Next thing I know, I was on the bed," Daniels added, saying she could not remember how her clothes came off.
"I had my clothes and my shoes off. I removed my bra. We were in missionary position."
During cross-examination, defense attorney Susan Necheles drilled on Daniels' career as a porn star and attempted to discredit her as a liar.
The defense argued that Daniels fabricated the affair with Trump as a money grab after she secured a $800,000 book contract to sell her story.
TRUMP GLARES AT COHEN
The prosecution's star witness, Michael Cohen, told the jury that his job at the Trump organization was to do "whatever" the former president wanted.
"The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy," he said.
Cohen served as the former president's attorney from 2006 to 2018 and was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization.
The disgraced attorney testified how he went to great lengths to protect Trump's image after he accepted the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2016.
Cohen went into detail about Trump's reported affair with model Karen McDougal and how he paid ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker $150,000 to squash the story of the fling on the orders of the former president.
Trump's defense team tore into Cohen, calling him a convicted felon, liar, and a man out for revenge and money.
