‘Boom’: Democrats celebrate Trump guilty verdict as Biden weighs remaining threat
Congressional Democrats rejoiced on Thursday following a New York jury’s guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump on charges of falsifying business records. “In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” said Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler in a post-verdict statement. “Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. But today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president,” he explained, stressing the still-significant likelihood that Trump could win the November election. ‘ELECTION INTERFERENCE’ CLAIMS MUDDY BATTLEGROUND STATE POLITICS AMID COMPETITIVE RACES But, according to Tyler, “The threat Trump posed to our democracy has never been greater.” Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to cover up payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. The verdict marks the first time any U.S. president has ever been convicted of a crime. “Boom,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said in a brief post to X, formerly Twitter. SPEAKER JOHNSON PLANS TO INVITE ISRAEL’S NETANYAHU TO MEET WITH CONGRESS SOONER RATHER THAN LATER “Guilty. Today, 12 ordinary American citizens found a former president guilty of dozens of felonies. Despite his efforts to distract, delay, and deny – justice arrived for Donald Trump all the same. And the rule of law prevailed,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is currently running for a Senate seat. ANTISEMITISM AT YALE, UNIV. OF MICHIGAN TO FACE CONGRESSIONAL SCRUTINY Per Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., “It matters that the Republican nominee for president is a convicted criminal.” “And this won’t be his last conviction,” he claimed. “He’s committed multiple crimes and he’s going to be convicted multiple times. He can never be president again.” GOP SEN CALLS FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO TRUMP TRIAL JUDGE OVER GAG ORDERS Top Biden surrogate Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., wrote on X, “The jury has spoken. Justice has prevailed.” While the president’s campaign welcomed the verdict, the Biden White House counsel spokesperson Ian Sams was more apprehensive, stating only, “We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”
Stefanik slams ‘sham’ Trump trial verdict as ‘corrupt’ and based on ‘zombie’ case
Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik slammed the “weaponized justice system” following the verdict in the NY v. Trump trial that found former President Donald Trump guilty on all counts. “Today’s verdict shows how corrupt, rigged, and unAmerican the weaponized justice system has become under Joe Biden and Democrats. I fully support President Trump appealing this decision and look forward to a higher New York Court to deliver justice and overturn this verdict. The facts are clear: this was a zombie case illegally brought forward by a corrupt prosecutor doing Joe Biden’s political bidding in a desperate attempt to save Joe Biden’s failing campaign,” Stefanik said in comment provided to Fox News Digital on Thursday. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty. The jury found Trump guilty on all counts late Thursday afternoon. TRUMP VOWS TO ‘FIGHT TO THE END,’ PROMISING ‘THIS IS LONG FROM OVER’ AFTER GUILTY VERDICT Stefanik continued in her comment that the trial was “overseen by a corrupt and highly conflicted Judge who is a Biden donor and his own family has profited off this case.” TRUMP FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NY TRIAL “The case hinged on the testimony of a convicted felon who was disbarred for lying and perjured himself when he lied to Congress. This sham trial was overseen by a corrupt and highly unethical Judge who is a Biden donor and whose own family has directly profited from this case. This corrupt Democrat Judge imposed a clearly unconstitutional gag order on President Trump and his team,” Stefanik continued. TRUMP SAYS COSTLY TRIAL IS ‘PROVING MY POINT’ THAT COURTS ARE WEAPONIZED AGAINST HIM: ‘DISGRACE’ “This corrupt Democrat Judge routinely sided with the prosecution and prevented President Trump’s defense from calling a critical witness to the stand. The prosecution team that brought forward this case consisted of a Soros-funded Far Left Democrat District Attorney on a vendetta, Democrat political operatives, and Democrat donors. From the start, the weaponized scales of justice were stacked against President Trump. Joe Biden, Far Left Democrats, and their stenographers in the mainstream media have made it clear they will stop at nothing to prevent President Trump from returning to the White House. We must work around the clock to ensure President Trump is victorious this November to save America from Biden’s failed Far Left Democrat agenda and the illegal weaponization of the justice system against the American people.” Amid the trial, Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against Merchan for an alleged conflict of interest related to his daughter’s role representing Democrat politicians and political action committees. And sent another letter to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Office of the Inspector General of the New York State Unified Court System, warning of “potential misconduct” regarding Merchan’s repeated assignments to cases involving Trump or his allies. Trump will be sentenced on July 11, four days before the opening of the Republican National Convention.
Trump can run for president from jail, but he’s not likely to go there
Former President Trump can still run for the White House despite facing a potential – albeit unlikely – prison sentence after he was found guilty in the NY v. Trump case. The jury found Trump guilty on all counts late Thursday afternoon. The sentencing hearing is set for July 11, four days before the beginning of the Republican National Convention. “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump said outside the court Thursday. “This was a rigged decision right from day one. With a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over.” NY V TRUMP: JURY REACHES A VERDICT IN FORMER PRESIDENT’S HISTORIC CRIMINAL TRIAL Trump can still run for the White House, as the Constitution does not place restrictions on presidential candidates based on criminal record. It stipulates that those pursuing the White House be natural-born citizens who are at least 35 years old. Trump has not yet been sentenced in the case, and prison time remains a potential, though unlikely, option. Trump’s age of 77, the fact that he is a first-time offender, and that the counts are the lowest felonies in New York make it unlikely the 45th president would face jail time. If Trump is sentenced to prison, however, he would not be the first presidential candidate to pitch the nation for his vote from behind bars. Socialist Party presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs campaigned for the White House in 1920 from inside a federal prison after he was convicted of sedition for opposing U.S. entry into World War I. President Warren G. Harding commuted Debs’ sentence in December 1921. TRUMP SAYS COSTLY TRIAL IS ‘PROVING MY POINT’ THAT COURTS ARE WEAPONIZED AGAINST HIM: ‘DISGRACE’ Trump could also be sentenced to home confinement amid his re-election campaign, which would keep him from the campaign trail, but could involve holding fundraisers from his Mar-a-Lago home or one of his other residences. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said earlier this month that New York City’s Rikers Island is prepared if Trump was ordered to jail. “Our amazing commissioner… is prepared for whatever comes on Rikers Island,” Adams told the media earlier this month, when presiding Judge Juan Merchan threatened jailing Trump if he continued violating a gag order. TRUMP URGES JUDGE MERCHAN TO ‘SAVE HIS REPUTATION’ BY DISMISSING TRIAL Trump is still entitled to Secret Service protection regardless of a potential prison sentence, meaning the federal law enforcement agency would have to coordinate with the department of corrections. “I don’t think anybody knows what that would look like, God forbid that happens,” Louis Gelormino, a Staten Island defense attorney, previously told Fox News Digital of what a prison sentence could look like. NY V. TRUMP: DEFENSE SAYS PROSECUTORS ‘DID NOT MEET THE BURDEN OF PROOF,’ FORMER PRESIDENT IS ‘INNOCENT’ Gelormino added that before Trump is sentenced, a probation officer will have to interview him for a pre-sentencing report for presiding Judge Juan Merchan. The report, which can take weeks to create, would provide a bio of Trump, as well as recommend a sentence for the 45th president. The report will be shared with the judge, prosecutors and the defense team. Merchan is not required to abide by the recommended sentence. Trump’s support among voters has not been swayed by the trial, according to recent polls. A recent New York Times poll found Trump is leading President Biden in a majority of key battleground states, including Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Trump also held a massive rally in historically blue New Jersey over Mother’s Day weekend that drew an estimated 100,000 people, as well as another campaign event in the Bronx that drew thousands of supporters. Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
Trump NY sentencing to be 4 days before Republican convention
Former President Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, will be due back in Manhattan court in July for a sentencing hearing days before he is scheduled to be nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. A New York jury on Thursday found the 77-year-old former president guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Trump’s sentencing hearing is set for July 11, which will come just four days before the Republican National Convention, which will take place from July 15 to 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s son, called out the timing as conspicuous on social media. “Sentencing is 4 days before the GOP Convention…They’re not even trying to hide the ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!!” he posted on X. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Biden campaign pounces on Trump’s guilty criminal trial verdict: ‘No one is above the law’
President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign says the unanimous guilty verdicts Thursday in former President Trump’s criminal trial show that “no one is above the law.” Trump was found guilty by a jury in New York City on all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in his history-making case in which a former or current president for the first time was tried in court. “Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement minutes after the verdict was read in court. But Tyler emphasized that “today’s verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box. Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.” TRUMP FOUND GUILTY OF ALL 34 COUNTS IN HIS CRIMINAL CASE Tyler charged that “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power.” And he argued that “a second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.” Trump, speaking to cameras following the verdict, called it “disgraceful,” charged that the trial was “rigged.” and said the “real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” as he pointed to his presidential election rematch with Biden. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TRUMP CRIMINAL TRAIL Trump was charged with falsifying business records in relation to payments during the 2016 election that he made to Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about his alleged affair with the adult film actress. Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, $130,000 in return for her silence about allegations of an affair with Trump in 2006. Prosecutors argued that this amounted to illegally seeking to influence the 2016 election. Both Cohen and Daniels testified for the prosecution and were grilled by Trump’s attorneys during cross-examination in a case that has grabbed tons of attention on the cable news networks, online and on social media. The former president repeatedly denied falsifying business records as well as the alleged sexual encounter with Daniels, and he has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that the case was “prosecuted directly from the inner halls of the White House and DOJ.” Trump was also fined a couple of times and threatened with jail by the judge in the case for violating a gag order aimed at protecting witnesses and jurors from the former president’s verbal attacks. During the course of the month and a half trial, the president stayed mostly silent regarding the case to avoid any perceptions of interference. It appeared to be an effort to combat Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated allegations that it was a “SHAM TRIAL instigated and prosecuted directly from the inner halls of the White House and DOJ [Department of Justice].” But the Biden campaign on Tuesday held a news conference outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, which appeared to be a major break with their strategy over the past six weeks of steering clear of the case. Similar to what the Trump campaign had been doing for the duration of the trial, the Biden team came equipped with high-profile surrogates. They were actor and Biden supporter Robert De Niro – who last week voiced a campaign ad for the president – and former police officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, who fought back against pro-Trump rioters during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The move by the campaign came as Biden currently trails Trump both in national polling and in public opinion surveys in most of the crucial battleground states that will likely decide their election rematch. The Biden campaign says the surprise news conference may be a taste of things to come. Officials confirmed to Fox News they will continue “to look for opportunities to drive our message.” Two questions have yet to be answered: how aggressively will the Biden campaign label Trump a “convicted felon” and how and where will the president address the outcome of the trial? No formal remarks from Biden have been announced.
Trump has no visible reaction as jury hands down guilty verdict
Former President Donald Trump was stoic as Judge Juan Merchan read out the jury’s convictions on all 34 counts in his New York criminal trial Thursday. The jury handed down the conviction after roughly two days of deliberation. Fox News contributor and GWU professor Jonthan Turley described the former President as “expressionless” during the proceedings. “The judge is thanking the jury. There is zero response from Trump. Merchan is also lifting any further limits on the jurors,” Turley described from inside the courthouse. “Trump is expressionless.” Moments after the verdict was delivered by the jury, the former president spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom. “This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn’t give us a venue change,” Trump said. “We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.” Trump said “the real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people.” NY V TRUMP: PROSECUTION SAYS THEY HAVE PRESENTED ‘POWERFUL EVIDENCE’ AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT Turley went on to say that he expects the conviction to be overturned on appeal. “I obviously disagree with this verdict as do many others. I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems. However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan. I am saddened by the result more for the New York legal system than the former president,” Turley said. “I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes. It will not rest with others to address the myriad of constitutional and procedural issues in this case. The trial is a target rich environment for appeal. However, that appeal will stretch beyond the election. In the meantime, Democrats and President Biden can add ‘convicted felon’ to the political mantra,” he added. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years. TRUMP PREVIEWS CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN ‘SHAM TRIAL’: ‘VERY DANGEROUS DAY FOR AMERICA’ Sentencing for the former president will be July 11 at 10 a.m – just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified those records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report
Man tied to former North Dakota lawmaker sentenced to 40 years for child sexual abuse images
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a North Dakota man to 40 years in prison in connection with child sexual abuse images. Nicholas James Morgan-Derosier, 36, of Grand Forks, has ties to former Republican state senator Ray Holmberg, who is accused of traveling to Europe with the intent of paying for sex with a minor. NORTH DAKOTA OFFICIALS TESTIFY ON GROWING DANGERS AS ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION SURGES ON NORTHERN BORDER U.S. District Chief Judge Peter Welte also sentenced Morgan-Derosier to pay $39,000 in restitution to 13 victims and to serve a life term of supervised release. An indictment in January 2022 charged him with six counts of possession of materials containing child sexual abuse images and other offenses including receipt and distribution of child sexual abuse images, transportation of child sexual abuse images, transportation of a minor and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity. The North Dakota U.S. Attorney’s Office said investigators found thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse on devices at Morgan-Derosier’s home during a warranted search. In September 2023, Morgan-Derosier signed a plea agreement pleading guilty to receipt and distribution and the six counts of possession. “The monstrous conduct of this defendant towards children makes this strong sentence an appropriate one,” North Dakota U.S. Attorney Mac Schneider said in a statement. “This defendant preyed on kids online and in real life, and the public is safer now that he is in the long-term custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.” The Associated Press left a phone message for Morgan-Derosier’s public defenders with a spokesman for the Federal Public Defender Office in Fargo. Holmberg and Morgan-Derosier exchanged dozens of text messages in August 2021 when Morgan-Derosier was in jail for child sexual abuse charges, according to reporting by The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. Holmberg told The Forum the messages were about “a variety of things,” including patio work by Morgan-Derosier. In early 2022, Holmberg, who is 80, announced he wouldn’t seek reelection, but he later resigned in the wake of The Forum’s reporting, after nearly 46 years in the North Dakota Senate. He was indicted last year and is scheduled for trial in September. He declined to comment on Morgan-Derosier’s sentencing. “I just can’t talk about anything like this, according to — I’m following my attorney’s orders,” he said.
Trump vows to ‘fight to the end,’ promising ‘this is long from over’ after guilty verdict
Former President Trump vowed to continue fighting for the Constitution after he was found guilty on all counts in the unprecedented NY v. Trump case, adding the “real verdict” will be read on Election Day. “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” Trump said outside the court Thursday. “This was a rigged decision right from day one. With a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never. And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over.” TRUMP FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NY TRIAL The Manhattan District Attorney’s office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty in the case. TRUMP SAYS COSTLY TRIAL IS ‘PROVING MY POINT’ THAT COURTS ARE WEAPONIZED AGAINST HIM: ‘DISGRACE’ The jury found Trump guilty on all counts late Thursday afternoon. “You have a Soros-backed DA and the whole thing. We didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man. And it’s OK. I’m fighting for our country. I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now,” Trump continued. NY V. TRUMP: JURY TO CONTINUE DELIBERATIONS FOR 2ND DAY IN UNPRECEDENTED CASE The jury’s verdict comes after deliberations on both Wednesday and Thursday. “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’s gone to hell. We don’t have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We’re a nation of decline, serious decline,” Trump added. The verdict comes after six weeks of trial in Manhattan court, which largely kept Trump off the campaign trial.
What’s next for Trump legally? Which case might up before Election Day?
Former President Trump was found guilty on all counts in New York v. Trump, but his legal challenges are far from over, as he awaits scheduling of trials and a major Supreme Court decision to determine whether he’ll have to spend any more time in a courtroom during the 2024 election cycle. The former president was found guilty on all counts in New York v. Trump Thursday afternoon. A sentencing hearing for the 34 criminal charges in the New York case is set for July 11. TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN NEW YORK CRIMINAL TRIAL Trump, speaking to reporters after the jury announced its verdict, said he will “fight to the end,” and declared: “This is far from over.” The trial kept the former president of the United States confined to a Lower Manhattan courtroom and off the campaign trail for six weeks. During the trial, Trump had pleaded with New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan to let him attend arguments at the Supreme Court on the issue of presidential immunity, and on whether he was immune from prosecution by Special Counsel Jack Smith in his 2020 election interference investigation. FEDERAL JUDGE POSTPONES TRUMP’S CLASSIFIED RECORDS TRIAL INDEFINITELY Merchan denied his request and was required to stay in New York while those arguments took place. A decision from the high court could come any day. That decision will impact whether a trial will take place for the former president related to Smith’s charges in that jurisdiction. Smith charged the former president with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights. Those charges stemmed from Smith’s investigation into whether Trump was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and any alleged interference in the 2020 election result. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in August. The Supreme Court’s decision will determine if and when a trial could take place related to those charges. But that isn’t the only federal case pending. TRUMP SAYS IT WAS ‘MADE CLEAR’ THAT A PRESIDENT ‘HAS TO HAVE IMMUNITY,’ DURING ‘MONUMENTAL’ SCOTUS ARGUMENTS Smith also charged Trump in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida related to his investigation into the former president’s alleged improper retention of classified records. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. Trump was also charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment: an additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts. Trump pleaded not guilty. But earlier this month, Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the case, postponed Trump’s trial indefinitely. The trial was initially scheduled to begin on May 20, but noted that due to the “myriad and interconnected pre-trial” issues “remaining and forthcoming,” it would be “imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions.” Cannon vacated the initial May 20 trial date and reset the trial “following resolution of the matters before the Court consistent with Defendants’ right to due process and the public’s interest in the fair and efficient administration of justice.” Cannon scheduled hearings through late July, but did not set a new date for trial. It is unclear if that trial will take place before the November presidential election. And in Fulton County, Ga., Trump was charged by District Attorney Fani Willis with one count of violation of the Georgia RICO Act, three counts of criminal solicitation, six counts of criminal conspiracy, one count of filing false documents and two counts of making false statements. He pleaded not guilty to all counts. Willis had proposed the trial begin in August, but that has been postponed, amid her own controversy surrounding the case. Willis has been in court defending herself after revelations that she had a romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade, who she brought onto her team to help bring charges against Trump. A trial date has not yet been determined. Meanwhile, Trump is appealing a decision in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ non-jury civil fraud case. New York Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable for $454 million in damages and barred him from operating business in New York for three years after ruling he inflated his assets. Trump had his bond slashed to $175 million, which he posted, and is appealing the decision. Trump and his family denied any wrongdoing, with the former president saying his assets had been undervalued. Trump’s legal team insisted that his financial statements had disclaimers, and made it clear to banks that they should conduct their own assessments.
Texas runoff yields no clear winner among GOP’s warring factions, setting stage for power struggle
Neither of the Texas GOP’s dueling factions landed a clean knockout blow during a grueling primary season that only seemed to set up further chaos and strife.