Donald Trump became the first US president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced it had found Mr Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
The judge has set Donald Trump’s sentencing for July 11th, just days before Republicans are set to select him as their 2024 nominee.
Mr Trump watched the jurors dispassionately as they were polled to confirm the guilty verdict. Speaking after the verdict, Donald Trump said he is “a very innocent man” and that "the real verdict will be on November 5th".
The verdict plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the November 5th presidential election, when Mr Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic president Joe Biden.
Mr Trump, 77, has denied wrongdoing and was expected to appeal.
He faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of that crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation. Incarceration would not prevent him from campaigning, or taking office if he were to win.
Opinion polls show Mr Trump and Mr Biden, 81, locked in a tight race, and Reuters/Ipsos polling has found that a guilty verdict could cost Mr Trump some support from independent and Republican voters.
The jury notified the court they had reached a verdict at 4.20pm (2020 GMT) and read out all 34 guilty counts shortly after 5pm.
The jury found Mr Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week trial that featured explicit testimony from porn star Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Mr Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania. Mr Trump denies ever having sex with Ms Daniels.
Mr Trump's then-fixer Michael Cohen testified that Mr Trump approved a $130,000 (€121,000) hush money payment to Ms Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehaviour.
Mr Cohen testified he handled the payment, and that Mr Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work. Mr Trump's lawyers hammered Mr Cohen's credibility, highlighting his criminal record and imprisonment and his history of lying.
Falsifying business documents is normally a misdemeanour in New York, but prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office elevated it to a felony on grounds that Mr Trump was concealing an illegal campaign contribution.
Mr Trump complained that he could not get a fair trial in his heavily Democratic hometown.
The case was widely regarded as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Mr Trump faces. Jurors heard testimony of sex and lies that have been public since 2018, although the charges themselves rested on ledger accounts and other records of Mr Cohen's reimbursement.
It was known as the "zombie case" because Bragg brought it back to life after his predecessor opted not to bring charges.
This case was also likely to be the only one to go to trial before the election, as the others are delayed by procedural challenges.
If elected, Mr Trump could shut down the two federal cases that accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021. He would not have the power to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in Georgia.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and has portrayed his various legal troubles as an effort by Mr Biden's Democratic allies to hurt him politically.
President Biden's re-election campaign called Republican Donald Trump a "convicted felon" in the wake of his hush-money guilty verdict on Thursday, and said it proved "no one is above the law."
Communications director Michael Tyler said Mr Trump remains the Republican candidate and said: "There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box." - Reuters/PA
