On May 30, Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents, becoming the first former president in history to be convicted of a crime. This comes as a result of a six-week criminal trial brought to court by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney, who argued that by concealing payments to adult entertainment actress Stormy Daniels, Trump violated New York law.
In 2018, “The Wall Street Journal” published that Trump arranged a hush money payment to Daniels, who claimed that she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament. Micheal Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, claimed that in 2016 he paid $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from speaking out during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. In the trial, Cohen served as the prosecution’s star witness, testifying that Trump directed him to make the payments to Daniels and then was paid back by Trump in installments written off as legitimate business expenses. However, Cohen’s testimony was not bulletproof, as he had previously admitted to lying in court and to Congress on two separate occasions. Despite this, the prosecution built on Cohen’s testimony with additional testimony from David Pecker, the former publisher of the tabloid “National Enquirer.” Pecker said that he had carried out at least one other hush money arrangement on behalf of Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016, as well as stories that may have harmed Trump’s presidential chances. This tied Trump to a larger effort of election interference, causing the misdemeanors to become felonies under New York election law.
Trump’s defense claimed that the payments to Daniels were for purely personal and business purposes as opposed to a wider election conspiracy. They also highlighted Cohen’s unreliability as a witness over the course of the trial. The judge presiding over the case will deliver his sentencing decision on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. Trump is expected to appeal the decision, but even if his appeal were rejected or the current decision upheld, it would not change the trajectory of the November election. There is no law restricting a convicted felon from running for president. Voters can still expect to see Donald Trump on the ballot this November.
