New York. Donald Trump was found guilty on Thursday on 34 counts of tampering with records in connection with the secret payment of money to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election in the US. With this, he became the first former US president to be convicted of a serious crime. In such a situation, legal challenges seem to be increasing in the way of his hopes of reaching the White House once again by participating in the presidential elections to be held in November.
In a landmark verdict on Thursday, a group of 12 Manhattan jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump, 77, falsified business records to hide a $130,000 payment to adult film star Daniels after nearly a day and a half of deliberations. The verdict does not bar Trump from running in November, but he is almost certain to appeal it. During the six-week trial, the court heard testimony from 22 witnesses, including Daniels, whose alleged sexual affair with the former president was at the centre of the case.
Trump remained silent and stoic when the verdict was announced. Outside the courtroom, Trump told reporters that the verdict was the result of a flawed political system. “This is shameful. This was a flawed, corrupt trial conducted by a controversial judge,” Trump said as the verdict was announced against him. “The real verdict will be given by the people on November 5. They know what happened here and everyone knows what happened here,” he said. Prosecutors had argued that Trump had broken election laws by approving a plan to hide money as legal expenses.
The date for sentencing Trump has been set for July 11. Four days later, he is to be formally nominated as the party candidate for the presidential elections to be held on November 5 at the ‘Republican National Convention’ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At present, Trump has been released without bail. Trump said, “I am innocent. I am fighting for my country. I am fighting for my Constitution. Our entire country is being rigged right now.” Trump alleged that the Biden administration has done this to harm its political rival.
He said, “I think it’s shameful and we will continue to fight against it. We will fight till the end and we will win because our country has gone to hell.” Biden’s election campaign welcomed the jury’s decision. Michael Taylor, director of ‘Biden-Harris 2024 Communications’, said, “We saw in New York today that no one is above the law.”
This case of Trump giving money to porn star Stormy Daniels is from 2016. At that time, there were reports of Trump having an affair with the porn star and it is alleged that he paid Stormy about 130,000 dollars to hide this. The former president’s company gave this money to his lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid this to the porn star on behalf of Trump.
Disclaimer: CricketInFocus has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
