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By Jason Lemon and Rachel Dobkin
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Michael Cohen issued a statement following the guilty verdict in former President Donald Trump's New York trial on Thursday.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, faced trial in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment allegedly made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged the payment was meant to prevent her from speaking publicly about her claims of having an affair with the former president.
On Thursday, a jury handed down a guilty verdict on all 34 felony counts following the trial, which lasted more than a month throughout April and May, while several states held their primary nominating contests.
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"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt," Trump said outside the courtroom following the verdict. Trump, who has long denounced the prosecution as a "witch hunt," has said he is innocent of all charges in this case and other criminal and civil cases he is facing.
"Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law. While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters. I want to thank my attorneys Danya Perry and Joshua Kolb for their invaluable guidance and support throughout this process," the former Trump lawyer, who served a key witness for the prosecution in the case, told Newsweek in a text message.
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Throughout the trial, Trump's defense attorneys sought to undermine Cohen's credibility, as he was a key witness for the prosecution. They highlighted previous lies he had admitted to and accused him of perjuring himself in the trial.
The charges stem from payments made by Cohen to adult performer Stephanie Clifford, better known by her stage name Stormy Daniels, in an attempt to silence her allegations of an affair with the former president.
Prosecutors argued that Trump orchestrated the payments and subsequent reimbursements to Cohen, disguising them as legal expenses to protect his 2016 campaign. Trump has maintained his innocence throughout the trial, calling the case a politically motivated "witch hunt," and that not even Mother Teresa couldn't beat the charges against him.
Following the verdict on Thursday, Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social: "VICTORY ON NOVEMBER 5TH. SAVE AMERICA!!!"
"I'm a very innocent man, and it's okay, I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now," the former president said in a statement emailed to Newsweek.
"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 has gone to hell."
President Joe Biden maintains that he does not get involved with the legal case his Justice Department is pursuing. The Manhattan prosecution was brought at the local level, and not under supervision of the Justice Department.
Many of Trump's Republican supporters took to social media to slam the prosecution and the verdict.
"Radical leftists & Deepstate Operatives have been orchestrating this SHAM trial from the beginning," Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote on X. "What do they do now that President Trump is leading in the polls, and their stunt is failing? You don't see this level of corruption in a banana republic, but it's happening in our own backyard."
"This verdict is the corrupt result of a corrupt trial, a corrupt judge, and a corrupt DA," Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, wrote on X. "We will stand with President Trump now more than ever to save the country."
Update 05/30/24 6:49 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Donald Trump.
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