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Donald Trump was furious about the verdict in his criminal hush money trial in New York.
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A jury has found Trump guilty of criminal charges related to a hush money payment to a porn star.
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Prosecutors said Trump forged 34 documents to cover up the $130,000 payment.
Former President Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, fumed over the verdict in his historic hush-money trial in New York on Thursday, insisting he is “a very innocent man.”
A jury in Manhattan on Thursday found the 77-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee guilty of criminal charges related to a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
“This was a shame. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” Trump told reporters in the Manhattan courtroom after a jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying company records.
“We have done nothing wrong. I am a very innocent man,” Trump said, adding that “the real judgment by the people will come on November 5.”
Trump continued: “This was a rigged decision from day one, with a conflicted judge who should never have tried this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is far from over.”
Moments after the landmark sentencing verdict was handed down, Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., said in a post on the social media site
“Guilty on all counts. The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a Third World shithole. November 5th is our last chance to save the country,” Trump Jr. said in another post.
Trump will appeal the verdict, Susan Necheles, a lawyer for the former president, told Business Insider.
Trump’s lead attorney, Todd Blanche, immediately tried to challenge the verdict after it was read into the trial file, telling New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan that the jury “couldn’t have reached this verdict in any way without to accept the testimony’. from Trump’s lawyer and arch-enemy Michael Cohen.
Blanche claimed that Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, had committed perjury on the stand, telling the judge, “There is no reason why the court should allow a verdict.”
Joshua Steinglass, an assistant district attorney, told Merchan, “We obviously disagree” and asked the judge to deny Trump’s lawyers’ motion, which Merchan quickly did.
Since Trump was indicted in the hush money case over a year ago, he has ruthlessly dismissed the prosecution as a political “witch hunt.”
Nearly every day of the five-week trial, Trump publicly criticized the Manhattan district attorney’s case against him and Merchan, the presiding judge.
Shortly before the hush money jury began its deliberations on Wednesday, Trump denounced in a post on his social media platform Truth Social: “KANGAROO COURT! A CORRUPT AND CONFLICTED JUDGE,” and reemphasized: “THERE WAS NO CRIME. “
In another post on Wednesday, Trump denounced prosecutors’ closing statements, saying: “The DA’s office was allowed to continue with five hours of bullshit…. YESTERDAY. I have no rights against this corrupt judge’s silence order!”
Moments after jurors began weighing a verdict, Trump told reporters in the courtroom hallway that the case against him was so “rigged” that not even “Mother Teresa” could be acquitted.
“These charges are falsified. The whole thing is rigged. The whole country is a mess between the borders and the fake elections. And we have a trial like this where the judge is so conflicted he can’t breathe,” Trump said.
The former president added: “Mother Teresa could not refute these allegations. But we’ll see. We’ll see how we do. It’s a very shameful situation.’
The verdict in the case follows the first-ever criminal trial of a former American president.
Jurors heard testimony from 20 prosecution witnesses, including Daniels and Cohen.
Prosecutors alleged Trump falsified 34 business documents in 2017, including in his first week in office, when they say he repaid Cohen for paying Daniels the hush money.
Prosecutors say Trump orchestrated the payment to Daniels as part of an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.
The payment was intended to buy Daniels’ silence about a sexual encounter the porn star said he had with Trump in a Lake Tahoe hotel suite during a 2006 celebrity golf tournament, prosecutors said. Trump has denied having sex with Daniels.
Read the original article on Business Insider
