Akinwande Soji-Ojo
Former United States President, Donald Trump, has been found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the hush money trial he is facing.
The verdict was reached by a jury in Manhattan, New York, on Thursday.
This makes Trump the first former president in US history to be convicted of a felony.
The verdicts read in the courtroom showed that the 34 counts stemmed from 11 invoices, 12 vouchers, and 11 from his former personal lawyer, who fronted the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, an adult film star.
Trump was charged with falsifying business records to conceal the payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she claimed happened with the former president in 2006.
The former president had pleaded not guilty and denied having sex with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.
Prosecutors also accused Trump of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress “negative information” revolving around the adult film star.
Todd Blanche, the former president’s attorney, moved for an acquittal of the charges, but the presiding judge, Juan Merchan, denied the acquittal motion.
Trump called the hush money trial against him a “disgrace and rigged trial.”
“We’ll keep fighting; we’ll fight till the end, and we’ll win because our country’s gone to hell.
“This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.
“We don’t have the same country anymore; we have a divided mess. We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over,” he said.
Merchan fixed a sentencing hearing for July 11.
