- Jury Convicts Former President of All Counts in Historic Hush Money Trial
- The conviction, which legal experts say is unlikely to lead to jail time, does not disqualify Trump from running for president. An appeal is likely.
New York, May 30 (DP.net).– After roughly nine hours of fast-paced deliberation, the New York jury found former President Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business documents to conceal payments intended to silence stories of an extramarital sexual encounter. “You gave this matter the attention it deserved and I thank you for that,” Judge Juan Merhcan said, thanking the 12 jurors for their civic duty before excusing them.
The trial evolved around an intricate "catch and kill" scheme carried out during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign in an effort to improve his chances of winning the election. The former President was found guilty by the jury in his hush money trial on Thursday, turning him into a convicted felon, casting a permanent stain on American history, and upending the dynamics surrounding the likely Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential contest.
Manhattan criminal court Judge Juan Merchan is set to deliver Trump’s sentence—which ranges from a fine of up to $5,000 to four years in prison for each of the 34 felony counts—on July 11, though Trump will almost certainly appeal a conviction, which could draw out the case for months. Given Trump’s status as a first-time offender and the nature of the charges, legal experts generally say jail time is unlikely. The sentencing is set for July 11 at 10 a.m. Eastern.
Trump faces three other felony indictments, but the New York case may be the only one to reach a conclusion before the November election, adding to the significance of the outcome.
Trump can still run for president—even if imprisoned—as the Constitution only requires presidential candidates to be at least 35 years old and natural-born citizens who have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years. If Trump could not fulfill his Constitutional duties due to imprisonment, the majority of his cabinet and the vice president could remove him from office and transfer his authority to the vice president, The New York Times noted previously. 
However, the verdict is likely to give President Joe Biden and fellow Democrats space to sharpen arguments that Trump is unfit for office, even as it provides fodder for the presumptive Republican nominee to advance his unsupported claims that he is victimized by a criminal justice system he insists is politically motivated against him.