Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty of all 34 charges in his hush money trail, seeing him become the first current or former US president to be convicted of felony crimes.
The 34 counts cover falsifying documents including invoices and checks made in reimbursement payments to Michael Cohen, who issued the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to silence claims that she and Trump had sex in 2006.
For weeks, prosecutors alleged the former president participated in the payment to Daniels, with the goal of covering up stories that he believed could harm his bid to win the 2016 presidential election.
During the trial, Daniels had given days of bombshell evidence regarding her encounters with Trump. During one tense exchange, Daniels hit back to claims from Trump’s defence lawyer that she had made up the story, like the screenplays she wrote for adult films.
“The sex in those films was very much real, just like what happened to me in that [hotel] room,” Daniels had responded.
Cohen had testified that Trump was aware of the payment and the cover up.
David Pecker, the former National Enquirer tabloid publisher, testified that he had also sought to bury stories that might have harmed Trump’s election chances.
The jury was unanimous in its verdict. Trump claims “the whole things is rigged.”