Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday, May 30 at his criminal trial in New York for hidden payments to an X-rated movie star, an earthquake for the former American president in the midst of his race for the White House. This verdict does not prevent the 77-year-old Republican billionaire from being a candidate in the presidential election in November, against Democrat Joe Biden, even in the event of a prison sentence.
After two days of deliberations, the 12 jurors unanimously declared Donald Trump guilty of all 34 crimes of falsifying accounting documents, intended to hide a payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels for avoid a sex scandal at the very end of his 2016 presidential campaign. His sentence will be set on July 11 by Judge Juan Merchan, whom Donald Trump called “corrupt” outside of court throughout the trial. In theory, he faces up to four years in prison, possibly accompanied by a fine. But the magistrate can also impose a suspended prison sentence, or even community service.
The verdict falls in the middle of the presidential campaign, as the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden looms on June 27 and the Republican convention in Milwaukee (July 15-18), where the billionaire will officially receive his party’s nomination. Five months before the election, the consequences of this decision on the ballot are difficult to predict, especially since the Republican magnate is expected to appeal. According to several polls, some of the voters favorable to Donald Trump could now give up voting for him. This is the first time that a former president of the United States has been convicted by the criminal justice system. But since 2023, his indictments in four separate criminal cases and his three civil convictions, legal troubles that he describes as a “witch hunt” orchestrated by the Democratic establishment, have not prevented him from handily winning the primary of his party.
Sex scandal
Deprived of a campaign on the ground, Donald Trump still used his trial to capture media attention, speaking several times a day outside the courtroom, flanked by his children or elected Republican officials. came to support him. But he refused to testify during his trial. For six weeks, the jurors delved behind the scenes of the 2016 presidential campaign, ultimately victorious but where the fear of a sex scandal seemed omnipresent in the Trump camp. Stormy Daniels received, a few days before the election, $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she claims to have had with Donald Trump in 2006, when he was still a real estate and entertainment mogul and he was already married to his wife Melania.
The testimony of the ex-actress was one of the high points of the debates. She notably recounted in detail this sexual relationship, according to her consensual but where the “balance of power” was “unbalanced”. Donald Trump denies that this episode took place. The $130,000 was paid to the actress by the billionaire’s former confidant, Michael Cohen, who has since become his sworn enemy. When the latter was reimbursed in 2017, by several checks signed by Donald Trump, then in the White House, the expenses were disguised as “legal expenses” in the accounts of the Trump Organization.
For prosecutors, behind these accounting falsifications, “the heart of (the) affair, (was) a conspiracy and a cover-up” to win the election against Hillary Clinton in 2016. The defense had brushed aside this thesis, assuring that Donald Trump , who became president, did not know the details of the paperwork when he paid Michael Cohen.