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A panel of 12 jurors found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the criminal hush money trial Thursday. Live updates have ended.
May 30, 2024 at 06:25 PM EDT
Trump found guilty on all 34 counts
If you're just joining us, here's a recap from today's court proceedings.
The verdict: After two days of deliberations, a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the criminal hush money trial late Thursday.
The jury sent a note reading they had a reached a verdict at 4:20 p.m., just 10 minutes before court was due to adjourn. Trump looked over and watched as each juror confirmed their decisions.
Trump's team then moved for acquittal based on Michael Cohen's testimony, Judge Juan Merchan denied the motion. Any further motions from the defense need to be filed two weeks from today; prosecutors have until June 27 to respond.
This morning: The jury made three requests while deliberating. Jurors asked to rehear parts of Michael Cohen and David Pecker's testimonies, the instructions, and requested headphones/speakers to review evidence. Court started this morning with a reread of four pieces of testimony. Merchan also re-read about 30 pages of the jury instructions.
Trump's reaction: Trump delivered brief remarks outside of the courtroom following the verdict, saying it was a "rigged trial by a conflicted judge" and vowing this is "far from over."
Sentencing date: Merchan set a sentencing hearing for July 11.
May 30, 2024 at 05:55 PM EDT
Poll: Majority say conviction makes “no difference” in November
Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty in the criminal hush money trial, but will that matter come November? According to a new national poll, not really.
In a NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 67% of voters said a conviction in the hush money case would make "no difference" in whom they plan to vote for come November. This includes 74% of independents. The poll also found that 25% of Republicans would be even more likely to vote for Trump if he were found guilty. In the event of an acquittal, about 76% of respondents said that wouldn't change their voting preference either.
This poll was conducted May 21-23 among 1,100 registered U.S. voters with a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.
May 30, 2024 at 05:22 PM EDT
Trump: “This was a rigged decision right from day 1”
Former President Donald Trump has just addressed reporters for the first time since the jury delivered its guilty verdict.
"This was a disgrace," Trump said to reporters. "This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt," saying "they wouldn't give us a venue change."
"The real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people," Trump continued, blaming the Biden administration for trying to hurt a political opponent. "We will fight for our constitution, this is far from over!"
May 30, 2024 at 05:19 PM EDT
Sentencing set for July 11
A sentencing date has been set for July 11 at 10 a.m.
Trump attorney Todd Blanche requested a sentencing date in mid-late June, citing the former president's other legal issues in Florida. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked for mid-July, per court guidelines.
Any motions from Trump's team need to be filed two weeks from today. If they file, prosecutors have until June 27 to respond.
Note: The Republican National Convention is set for July 15.
May 30, 2024 at 05:16 PM EDT
Judge denies Trump’s motion for acquittal
Judge Juan Merchan has denied the Trump team's motion for an acquittal based on Michael Cohen's testimony.
May 30, 2024 at 05:10 PM EDT
Verdict: Trump found guilty
The jury has found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts. Jurors reached the verdict after two days of deliberations, making Trump the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
Trump is sitting at the defense table motionless. He looks over at the jury as each juror confirms that this is their verdict. Judge Juan Merchan is thanking the jury for their service.
May 30, 2024 at 05:01 PM EDT
Judge is on the bench
Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench and the jury is being called into the courtroom. Merchan is reading the note again, so it can be reflected on the record.
May 30, 2024 at 04:39 PM EDT
Verdict reached
The jury has reached a verdict. We are standing by for the decision.
Judge Juan Merchan returned to apologize for the delay. He says the jury sent another note at 4:20 p.m., informing the court there's been a decision and are requesting an additional 30 mins to sign all the necessary forms. Merchan reminds the court there are no outbursts allowed.
Trump is sitting at the defense table with his arms crossed; his facial expression has not changed.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is sitting in the front row of the courtroom.
May 30, 2024 at 04:34 PM EDT
Alina Habba: There was “obviously a disagreement” among jurors
Trump legal spokesperson Alina Habba said former President Donald Trump's spirits are "great" as jury deliberations wrap up for a second day. "He sees this for what it is, he knows he hasn't done anything wrong," Habba said during an interview Thursday on Newsmax.
So is the jury's request for further clarification on instructions and a reread on testimony a good or bad sign for the defense?
"You never really know," Habba said. "But to me, there's obviously a disagreement and that's a good thing for the defense. You never want a quick turnaround obviously, unless it's an acquittal. But here, I think they are really examining and have questions about what actually took place, what was actually said."
Habba explained the jury instructions are more than 50 pages long and in-depth.
"It's very difficult for them [jurors] to have to be able to remember it and apply the law, so I'm not surprised that they asked for a re-read on that," she said.
May 30, 2024 at 04:14 PM EDT
Trump returns to courtroom
Former President Donald Trump is filing back into the courtroom. Prosecutors are here too.
Judge Juan Merchan says the jury will be excused at normal time today, 4:30 p.m., meaning deliberations will end in 15 minutes.
Merchan has now stepped out. Trump attorney Todd Blanche is whispering something to prosecutor Joshua Steinglass at the prosecutor's table. Blanche has now returned to the defense table and is speaking with Trump. As the two continue speaking, Trump seems very animated, Blanche appears to chuckle at times.
Pool report: As Trump walked into the courtroom, a pool reporter asked, "Mr. Trump are you nervous about a verdict?" Trump briefly stopped, turned to the cameras and said, "I want to campaign."
May 30, 2024 at 04:10 PM EDT
Trump: Jury instructions are “misleading”
It's been almost 5 hours since the jury left the courtroom to deliberate. We have not heard from them since – no notes have been sent this afternoon.
For the past several hours, former President Donald Trump and his legal team have been waiting in another room. Trump criticized the jury's instructions, calling them "unfair and misleading."
"The Jury Instructions given by HIGHLY CONFLICTED Judge, Juan Merchan, were UNFAIR, MISLEADING, INACCURATE, AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL. They were also VERY CONFUSING (Just what the Judge wanted!), BECAUSE THERE WAS NO CRIME!" Trump just wrote on Truth Social.
It took Judge Juan Merchan more than one hour to read the instructions Wednesday. The jurors requested to rehear most of the instructions today. Merchan told jurors they could continue working until 6 p.m. today, it's unclear if they will do so.
May 30, 2024 at 01:30 PM EDT
Day 2: Jury deliberations enter third hour
Good afternoon, it's 1:30 p.m. in New York City.
Here's a quick recap of the day: The jury has been deliberating today for about two hours. At their request, the jury spent the morning in the courtroom re-listening to the judge's instructions and testimony from David Pecker and Michael Cohen. The jury also sent a third note today, requesting speakers and headphones to review evidence.
Total deliberation time: About 6.5 hours.
While the jury deliberates, former President Donald Trump and his legal team are waiting in a nearby room. They requested a TV and have been watching coverage of the trial, according to multiple outlets.
Eric Trump is at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse with his father today. It appears the Trump team is eating pizza for lunch.
May 30, 2024 at 12:36 PM EDT
Trump attorney: Early signs are “quite positive for us”
Trump attorney Will Scharf said early signs from the jury are "quite positive for us" and the Trump team is still hopeful for an acquittal.
During an interview Wednesday on Fox Business, Scharf pointed to the jury's requests to rehear testimony and instructions. It shows the jury wanted to understand what David Pecker did and did not say, Scharf explains. Pecker is the former National Enquirer publisher, and was the first witness called to testify.
Today, Judge Juan Merchan also re-read about 30 pages of instructions to jurors. "They want to really understand what the law is, and what the law isn't, and what they were actually instructed to do," Scharf said.
"There are many grounds for appeal," he continued. "I'd also note, there are many, many grounds for acquittal. There are giant holes in the prosecution's case which I think [Trump attorney] Todd Blanche did a masterful job of really revealing during his summation the other day."
"If there were to be a conviction, we would appeal as quickly as possible."
May 30, 2024 at 12:06 PM EDT
What are polls saying about Trump?
The criminal hush money trial against former President Donald Trump has been ongoing for several weeks. So what are voters saying?
The indepedent vote: Trump holds a substantial lead over Biden among independent voters, according to a new poll.
In a head-to-head race, the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist National survey found Trump with 54% of the vote among independent voters, compared to Biden's 42%. Read more here.
Approval rating: Trump's net approval rating is currently the best it has been since December 2021, according to leading pollster Civiqs.
Civiqs' data from Monday shows 41% of U.S. registered voters had a favorable view of the former president. Trump is currently polling an average of 1.8 percentage points ahead of Biden according to an analysis of eight recent polls by election forecasters 270 to Win, which put him on 45.8% of the vote versus 44% for Biden. Read more here.
Read more: Black Celebrities Endorsing Donald Trump
May 30, 2024 at 11:42 AM EDT
Trump: The testimony was “amazing for the defense!”
Former President Donald Trump, his legal team and prosecutors have all left the courtroom.
The jury was just re-read testimony from David Pecker and Michael Cohen. Trump said it was "amazing" for the defense.
"Can anybody believe that our Government would be spending Tens of Millions of Taxpayer Dollars on prosecuting this RIDICULOUS Case? I DID NOTHING WRONG! IN FACT, I DID EVERYTHING RIGHT. The testimony in Court was amazing for the Defense!" the former president wrote on Truth Social.
"Testimony conclusively showed that I clearly stated, "I DON'T BUY STORIES!" — Not that there would be anything wrong with doing that — NDA's are PERFECTLY LEGAL AND COMMON!"
May 30, 2024 at 11:19 AM EDT
Jury resumes deliberations
The jury has left the courtroom to resume deliberations. They ask for both speakers and headphones to review evidence.
Legal take: Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance says it's "deeply disconcerting" to most federal prosecutors that the jury does not get a written copy of the judge's detailed instructions.
Read the full story from Newsweek's Sean O'Driscoll here.
May 30, 2024 at 10:48 AM EDT
Pecker’s testimony of Tower Tower meeting
We are now on the jury's next request to rehear David Pecker's testimony about the Trump Tower meeting in August of 2015.
Pecker testified that when he received the call, he figured Michael Cohen wanted something. When he arrived, Cohen and Trump asked what Pecker and his magazines could do for the campaign.
Pecker said he would run positive stories about Trump and negative stories about his opponents. He also offered to be the "eyes and ears" of the campaign – if he heard there were negative Trump stories going around, including women selling stories, he'd notify Cohen. The former National Enquirer publisher said the agreement was mutually beneficial, but noted some parts of it only benefitted Trump's campaign. He said prior to this meeting, AMI had never purchased a story about Trump before.
We are now on the jury's fourth request, to rehear Michael Cohen's testimony on the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting.
Context: Prosecutors called this meeting the "prism" for jurors to analyze evidence. In his closing argument, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass described it as "three rich, powerful men high up in Trump Tower trying to become even more powerful by controlling the information that might reach the voters."
May 30, 2024 at 10:43 AM EDT
Jury listens to testimony on Karen McDougal’s life rights
We move on to the jury's second request.
Court reporters are re-reading David Pecker's testimony about assigning the life rights of Karen McDougal's story over to Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.
In that testimony, Pecker confirmed the agreement was never executed and he was never reimbursed for the McDougal payment. After speaking with National Enquirer's parent company American Media Inc.'s general counsel, he called it off and told Cohen to "rip up the agreement." Cohen said "the boss is going to be very angry with you."
May 30, 2024 at 10:31 AM EDT
Parts of David Pecker’s testimony re-read to jury
After about 30 minutes, Judge Juan Merchan has finished re-reading a portion of the jury instructions.
Two stenographers will now read back the requested testimony. First up, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker's testimony regarding the call with Donald Trump during an investor meeting.
In his testimony, Pecker said he was at an investor meeting in New Jersey when an assistant interrupted to inform him that he received a call from Trump. He testified that Trump called former Playboy model Karen McDougal "a nice girl" on the call, and asked if it was true a Mexican group was looking to buy her story.
Pecker said he told Trump he did not believe that was true, but advised him to buy it. Trump said he did not buy stories because they always come out anyway. Pecker said he should still take it off the market. Trump said he'd think about it and have Michael Cohen call Pecker in a few days. Pecker said he believed McDougal's story was true and that Trump knew her because he referred to her as "a nice girl."
May 30, 2024 at 10:17 AM EDT
Trump paying little attention as jury instructions re-read
Judge Juan Merchan continues re-reading the jury instructions, he has about 10 pages left.
While Merchan goes through the process of reading almost 30 pages to the jurors, Trump is slumped in his chair, resting his head on his chest, giving the proceedings little attention. His eyes appear closed. Eric Trump, on the other hand, sits upright and strains to get a view of the judge as he re-reads instructions.
Legal take: The jury instructions are very favorable to the prosecution, Syracuse University College of Law professor Greg Germain said.
"The judge let the prosecution have multiple theories: tax fraud, campaign finance violation, or another document falsified, and didn't make it clear how the fraud and separate crime must relate to the documents charge," Germain told Newsweek.
Read more from Newsweek's Sean O'Driscoll here.
May 30, 2024 at 10:08 AM EDT
Photos: From Manhattan Criminal Court
May 30, 2024 at 10:02 AM EDT
Greene: We will vote for Trump “even if he’s in jail”
As jury deliberations enter the second day, what are some supporters of former President Donald Trump saying about the trial?
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said supporters will vote for Trump "even if he's in jail."
The Georgia Republican wrote on X: "I've been saying from the beginning. We will vote for President Donald J Trump even if he's in jail. A wrongful conviction will bring a landslide for Trump, and prove to America, Democrats are the party of corruption, communism, and tyrants. Go ahead, pull the curtain back."
Rep. Lauren Boebert on X: "I don't care what the radical Left NYC jury decides. I'M VOTING TRUMP."
Sen. Ted Cruz on X: "President Trump's trial is not about the law or criminal justice. It's about politics for the Democrats. I can imagine Joe Biden's press conference from the White House where he gloats about convicting Donald Trump. This is the most brazen case of election interference in American history."
Former 2024 Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on X: "In 2016 they put our nation through two years of the Russia hoax & an impeachment crusade. Now it's unjust prosecution by corrupt political actors. We need to move forward as a nation by letting the *voters* decide who leads America. That's why the REAL verdict is in November."
Sen. J.D. Vance on Fox News: "It's unfortunately not illegal to be a biased judge, which is what Merchan has been. It is illegal to be a biased judge in the service of your family's financial interests... his family is getting rich off of this particular trial."
Sen. Lindsey Graham on X: "The world is on fire. The border is broken. Israel is under siege. The bad guys are on the move. But if you watch television, the only problem in the world is Donald Trump's business records. This trial is exploiting the law for political purposes... the Republican nominee has been locked in a courtroom for weeks based on the out-of-control behavior of a liberal prosecutor and biased judge."
May 30, 2024 at 09:53 AM EDT
Judge re-reads instructions to jury
The jury is now in the courtroom.
Judge Juan Merchan is re-reading the three jury notes back to the jurors. They will let him know if they want both speakers and headphones.
Per jurors' request, Merchan begins re-reading the jury instructions from page 6 to 35.
May 30, 2024 at 09:44 AM EDT
Jury requests more refined instructions, headphones
The jury has two more requests:
1) More refined instructions. They want readback to include how they should consider the evidence, including what can be inferred, as well as instructions on Count 1.
2) Headphones.
On the first, Merchan interprets this as a readback of pages 7 to 35 of the instructions. On the second, Merchan says they can also supply the jury with speakers so they can all listen to the audio evidence. It's agreed both will be provided.
May 30, 2024 at 09:42 AM EDT
Jury sends third note
Court is now in session.
Former President Donald Trump seems to jilt his head as Judge Juan Merchan addresses him, "Good morning Mr. Trump."
Merchan announces that another jury note was submitted to the court this morning at 9:32 a.m., this would be the third so far.
In court today: Former President Donald Trump's son Eric Trump, legal spokesperson Alina Habba and a secret service agent are seated in the front row. Several members of Trump's team are here as usual too, including Boris Epshteyn, Jason Miller and Karoline Leavitt.
...
May 30, 2024 at 09:38 AM EDT
Trump: “This is a very sad day for America”
Former President Donald Trump delivered remarks before walking into the courtroom for the second day of jury deliberations, calling this a "very sad day for America."
"Here we go again," Trump said to reporters, standing alongside attorney Todd Blanche. "I would like to answer all of your questions, they're very easy questions to answer, but I'm gagged so I can't talk as much as I would like to about this ridiculous case."
The former president questioned why this case wasn't brought forward years ago.
"This is a very sad day for America, the whole world is watching," he continued. "And it's a very sad day for New York."
May 30, 2024 at 09:00 AM EDT
Soon: Jury to begin day 2 of deliberations
Good morning, it's 9 a.m. in New York City. The jury will reconvene inside of the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in about 30 minutes to begin the second day of deliberations in the hush money trial against former President Donald Trump.
Per their request, today the jury is set to rehear parts of Michael Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker's testimony as well as the judge's instructions.
Deliberation time: So far, the jury has deliberated for 4.5 hours.
Here's a quick recap from yesterday: During day 1 of deliberations, the jury sent two notes.
Note 1: Contains four requests to rehear parts of testimony from former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Michael Cohen. They include:
- David Pecker's testimony about the phone call from Trump during his meeting in NJ
- David Pecker's testimony about the Karen McDougal agreement
- David Pecker's testimony about the Trump Tower meeting
- Michael Cohen's testimony about the Trump Tower meeting
Prosecutors and Trump's legal team stayed late yesterday to agree on a transcript from the requested testimony. An agreement was reached on all but the third, David Pecker's testimony about the Trump Tower meeting. Prosecutors called it the "tough one;" Merchan said he would rule on this today.
Note 2: The jury asked to rehear the judge's instructions. Merchan's instructions took over one hour to go through Wednesday.
Schedule: The jury will decide today if they want to work late, but they would not have to go past 6 p.m.
What are the charges? Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to the hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty and denied Daniels' allegations. The prosecution argues that the payment was part of a larger effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and that Trump paid Cohen back through reimbursements misrepresented as legal fees.
Get caught up: Newsweek's live blog from day 1 of jury deliberations.
Newsweek senior reporter Katherine Fung is inside the courtroom.
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