Donald Trump became the first former US president ever convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty on all charges in his hush money case, months before an election that could see him yet return to the White House.
Trump, however, is not barred from continuing his battle to unseat President Joe Biden in November — even in the unlikely event he goes to prison. And he voiced immediate defiance. Judge Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11 — four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is due to receive the party’s formal nomination.
However, those trials — on far weightier alleged crimes — are unlikely to get underway before the presidential election.Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to reimburse his lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election, when her claim to have had sex with him could have proved fatal to his campaign against Hillary Clinton.
Cohen, who was the key witness as a tainted former aide who had turned on his old boss, called the verdict “an important day for accountability and the rule of law.”