Former President Donald Trump was found guilty in a hush money trial that's been ongoing since mid-April. The decision makes Trump the first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes. Jurors convicted Trump on all 34 counts after deliberating for over 9 hours, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The trial involved business fraud charges related to the $130,000 in payments from the former president to Trump's former lawyer Micheal Cohen. The payments were used as "hush money" to be given to porn actor Stephanie Clifford — known by the name Stormy Daniels — in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump.
Prosecutors say the reimbursements were recorded as "legal expenses." Cohen pleased guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to those payments, according to AP.
Trump's sentencing will take place July 11, just days before Republicans are set to pick him as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
This trial marks the first of Trump's four separate indictments. The other three — local and federal cases in Atlanta and Washington D.C. alleging that he conspired to overturn the 2020 election, as well as a federal indictment in Florida charging him with illegally hoarding top-secret records — have yet to reach trial.
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