Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. on Thursday announced the all-count trial conviction of former President Donald J. Trump for falsifying New York business records in order to conceal his illegal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election.
Trump, 77, was convicted by a New York State Supreme Court jury of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He is expected to be sentenced on July 11, according to a press release.
“Donald Trump is guilty of repeatedly and fraudulently falsifying business records in a scheme to conceal damaging information from American voters during the 2016 presidential election," said Bragg. "Over the course of the past several weeks, a jury of 12 every day New Yorkers was presented with overwhelming evidence – including invoices, checks, bank statements, audio recordings, phone logs, text messages, and direct testimony from 22 witnesses – that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Trump illegally falsified 34 New York business records. Mr. Trump went to illegal lengths to lie repeatedly in order to protect himself and his campaign. In Manhattan, we follow the facts without fear or favor and have a solemn responsibility to ensure equal justice under the law regardless of the background, wealth or power of the accused. The integrity of our judicial system depends on upholding that principle."
The former president engaged in a scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election and went to extraordinary and illegal lengths to hide this conduct from the American voters and public, illegally causing dozens of false entries to be made in New York business records of his Manhattan-based company to conceal attempts to violate state election law, Bragg added.
The genesis of the scheme was a 2015 meeting at Trump Tower where an agreement was hatched between Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. (AMI). Trump, Pecker and Cohen agreed that AMI would prevent damaging information about the former president from becoming public. AMI, which owned the National Enquirer, purchased stories as part of a “catch and kill” strategy in order to protect Trump, the trial revealed.
In addition, Trump reimbursed Cohen through a series of monthly checks, first from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust – created in New York to hold the Trump Organization’s assets during Trump's presidency – and later from his bank account.
In total, 11 checks were issued for a phony purpose. Each check was processed by the Trump Organization and illegally disguised as a payment for legal services rendered pursuant to a non-existent retainer agreement. In total, 34 false entries were made in New York business records to conceal the initial covert $130,000 payment. Cohen was paid $420,000 in total so he would be made whole on the payment, which was being disguised as income and therefore would be taxed, the DA said.
"While this defendant may not be like any other in American history, we arrived at this trial, and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor," Bragg said at a press conference after the verdict was announced in court.
