NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 crimes marks the end of the former president’s historic hush-money trial, but the battle over the case is far from over.
Now comes the sentencing and the possibility of prison time. A lengthy appeal procedure. And all the while, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is still dealing with three more criminal cases and a campaign that could return him to the White House.
After more than nine hours of deliberation over two days, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying corporate records in the case stemming from a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump angrily denounced the trial as a “disgrace” and told reporters he was an “innocent man.”
Some important conclusions from the jury’s decision:
PRISON TIME?
The big question now is whether Trump can go to prison. The answer is uncertain. Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before Republicans will officially nominate Trump for president.
The charge of falsifying corporate records is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest level of misdemeanor charges in the state. It carries a maximum prison sentence of four years, although the sentence will ultimately be up to the judge, and there is no guarantee he will give Trump time behind bars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.
It is unclear to what extent the judge can take into account the political and logistical complexities of jailing a former president who is running to win back the White House. Other penalties may include a fine or probation. And it’s possible the judge could allow Trump to avoid serving any sentence until he exhausts his appeal.
Trump faces the threat of harsher prison sentences in the three other cases he faces, but those cases have been stalled by appeals and other legal battles, so it remains unclear whether any of these cases will go to trial before the November election .
WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE ELECTION
The conviction will not prevent Trump from continuing his campaign or becoming president. And he can still vote for himself in his home state of Florida, as long as he stays out of jail in New York state.
Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who co-chairs the Republican National Committee, said in a Fox News Channel interview Thursday that Trump would host virtual rallies and campaign events if he is sentenced to house arrest.
In a deeply divided America, it is unclear whether Trump’s once-unimaginable criminal conviction will have any impact on the election at all.
Leading strategists from both parties believe Trump is still well positioned to defeat President Joe Biden, even though the Republican now faces the prospect of prison time and has three separate criminal cases pending.
In the short term, at least, there were immediate signs that the guilty verdict helped unite the Republican Party’s disparate factions, as GOP officials from across the political spectrum rallied behind their embattled presumptive presidential nominee and launched his campaign within hours. reported flood of fundraising dollars. of the verdict.
There has been some polling on the prospect of a guilty verdict, although such hypothetical scenarios are notoriously difficult to predict. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that only 4% of Trump supporters said they would withdraw their support if he were convicted of a crime, while another 16% said they would reconsider.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR APPEAL
After Trump is convicted, he could challenge his conviction in a New York appeals court and possibly in the state’s highest court. Trump’s lawyers have already laid the groundwork for appeals with objections to the charges and rulings during the trial.
The defense has accused the judge of bias, citing his daughter’s work as leader of a company whose clients include Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. The judge denied the defense’s request to remove himself from the case, saying he was confident in his “ability to be fair and impartial.”
Trump’s lawyers can also challenge on appeal the judge’s ruling that limits the testimony of a potential expert witness. The defense wanted to call Bradley Smith, who served on the Federal Election Commission, to refute the prosecutor’s claim that the hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations.
But the defense ultimately did not let him testify after the judge ruled that he could provide general background on the FEC but could not interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump’s case or make a judgment on the question whether Trump’s alleged actions violate those laws. There are often guardrails around expert testimony on legal issues, on the grounds that it is up to a judge – not an expert hired by one side or the other – to instruct jurors on applicable laws.
The defense could also argue that jurors were improperly allowed to hear sometimes explicit testimony from Daniels about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which he denies ever took place. The defense unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial because of the tawdry details prosecutors extracted from Daniels. Attorney Todd Blanche argued that Daniels’ description of a power imbalance against the older, taller Trump was a “dog whistle for rape,” irrelevant to the charges at hand, and “the kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from.” ”
A DEFENSE FOCUSED ON CREDIBILITY
The verdict shows that the jury was not convinced by Trump’s defense, which revolved around attacking the credibility of several key witnesses — especially Michael Cohen, the Trump lawyer-turned-adversary who directly implicated Trump in the hush money scheme.
As in many criminal cases, Trump’s lawyers tried to make many of their points while questioning prosecution witnesses. The defense itself called only two witnesses, including Robert Costello, a lawyer who had wanted to represent Cohen after the latter came under federal investigation for his work for Trump.
The move may have backfired because it opened the door for prosecutors to question Costello about an alleged pressure campaign aimed at keeping Cohen loyal to Trump after the FBI raided Cohen’s properties in April 2018.
Costello supported the defense by testifying that Cohen denied that Trump knew anything about the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.
But prosecutors portrayed Costello as a “double agent” whose agenda was really to stop Cohen from turning against Trump and confronted him with emails he sent to Cohen that repeatedly detailed his close ties to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani dangle. In one email, Costello told Cohen: “Sleep well tonight. you have friends in high places” and said there were “some very positive comments about you from the White House.”
The combative Costello irritated the judge – sometimes in full view of the jury – by continuing to speak and rolling his eyes after objections. At one point, after sending the jury out of the room, the judge became irate when he said Costello was staring at him. Merchan then briefly cleared the courtroom of reporters and berated Costello, warning that if he acted again he would be removed from the courtroom.
LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR A LOSS
While Trump and his campaign exuded confidence, they also spent weeks trying to undermine the case in anticipation of a possible conviction. He repeatedly called the entire system “rigged” — a term he also used in false descriptions of the 2020 election he lost to Biden.
“Mother Teresa could not refute this accusation,” Trump said Wednesday, invoking the Catholic nun and saint.
Trump has criticized the judge and complained about members of the prosecution team, while trying to portray the case as nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt brought on by Bragg, a Democrat.
He has also complained about a gag order that prevented him from speaking about some people involved in the case. Instead of testifying in the case — and subjecting himself to cross-examination — Trump has focused on the court of public opinion and the voters who will ultimately decide his fate.
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Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Steve Peoples and Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
