We begin with the breaking news,
a history making verdict. For the first time ever,
a former president has been tried for felonies and found
guilty.
Donald John Trump guilty on all 34 counts.
Cheers went up outside the New York courtroom as word
of the guilty verdicts came out.
Minutes later, the former president railed against the entire trial.
This was a disgraceful trial.
Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon.
Good evening. I'm Josh Spence.
I'm Courtney Bryant. The verdict came in just about an
hour ago.
That New York jury found the former president guilty on
all 34 charges he faced in his hush money trial.
FOX 5 anchor Christine Spiro is here with all the
details on this breaking story tonight.
And truly a historic day,
Courtney and Russ. Donald Trump became the first former president
ever to be convicted of felony crimes.
A New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business
records and a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election
through hush money payments to a porn actor who said
the two had sex. Jurors deliberated for
9 1/2 hours over the course of two days before
convicting him of all 34 counts.
The former president sat that stone faced as the verdict
was being read,
but he had a lot to say to reporters as
he walked out of the courtroom.
This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by
a conflicted judge who was corrupt.
There's a rigged trial, a disgrace.
They wouldn't give us a venue change.
We were at 5% or 6%
in this district, in this area.
This was a rigged, disgraceful trial
that the real verdict is going to be
November 5th by the people
and they know what happened here and everybody knows what
happened here.
You have a Soros fact
DA
and the whole thing. We didn't do a thing wrong.
I'm a very innocent man,
and it's OK. I'm fighting for our country.
I'm fighting for our Constitution.
Our whole country is being rigged right now.
This was done by the Biden administration
in order to wound or hurt
an opponent, a political opponent.
And I think it's just a disgrace.
And we'll keep fighting. We'll fight till the end and
we'll win because our country's gone to hell.
We don't have the same country anymore.
We have a divided mess.
We're nation in decline, serious decline.
We have a country that's in big trouble.
But this was a rigged decision right from day one
with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed
to try this case.
Never. And we will fight for our Constitution.
This is long from over.
Thank you very much.
Now, the former president is expected to quickly appeal this
verdict and will face an awkward dynamic as he seeks
to return to the campaign trail as a convicted felon.
There are no campaign rallies on the calendar for now.
Now, the Biden Harris campaign has since issued a statement
saying in part
in New York today, we saw that no one is
above the law.
Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face
consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain.
But today's verdict does not change the fact that the
American people face a simple reality.
There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump
out of the Oval Office at the ballot box.
Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee
for president again.
That from the Biden Harris campaign.
Now, Judge Juan Rashawn, who oversaw the case,
set sentencing for July 11th,
which is days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The falsifying business records charges carry up to four years
behind bars,
but prosecutors have not said whether they intend to seek
prison time before these charges.
As you say, history made today.
But the former president made it clear that in his
estimation,
the final verdict is in the hands of the American
people on November 5th.
And then, you know, he had been,
he has been saying, you heard him say,
well, this is rigged. This is a disgrace.
He said that even before the case went to trial.
So, you know, yes, like you said,
he's saying the the real verdict in his eyes is,
is the general election. And it'll be interesting to see
how people react.
I'm sure that's going to show in the poll numbers
that start to come out maybe next week.
It will be interesting to see what those numbers will
be now.
And there will be an appeal,
but that won't be settled for months or perhaps longer
than that,
right? We'll see what happens.
Christine, thanks so much. A former President Trump,
of course, faces three other felony indictments,
but this New York case may be the only one
to reach a conclusion before the November election in Florida.
The former president is charged with 40 counts stemming from
his alleged mishandling of sensitive government records after leaving the
White House.
The two other cases are local charges here in Atlanta
and federal charges in Washington,
DC, that he conspired to undo the 2020 election results.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Mr.
Trump and 18 allies last August in a sprawling racketeering
case stemming from an alleged scheme to overturn the results
of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.