Donald Trump Found Guilty On All Counts. Here’s What That Means
Former President Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felony charges yesterday, making him the first-ever former US president to be convicted of a crime.
In other words, Trump was found “guilty on all counts,” since he was charged with 34 counts and was found at fault for all of those. This phrase has been doing the rounds on the internet since the 77-year-old Republican was convicted, and to clarify, “guilty on all counts” means, “referring to all of the crimes that a person is accused of.”
Ahead of the verdict, Trump declared on social media that he didn’t “even know what the charges are” in the case. This was a clear attempt to convince his followers that the trial was guided by political motivations rather than actual justice. It was also false, as the charges, which related to falsifying business records, would have been read to him in court before he pleaded not guilty last year. (They’re also readily available online.) In New York, falsifying business records is a felony when the motive is to defraud or another criminal action.
We have to go back to 2017 to shed light on the incident that led to this conviction. Michael Cohen, Trump’s attorney, and Allen Weisselberg, one of the Trump organization’s employees, entered into a hush agreement that would see Cohen receive $130,000 as a repayment for the amount he sent to adult performer Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf.
For context, the money was paid to Daniels days before the 2016 elections to keep secret the fact that she and Trump had allegedly slept together years earlier. The idea is that Trump didn’t want this information to come out to avoid losing the voters’ trust, and when it eventually did, the billionaire categorically denied it (and still denies it). However, it is important to note that the key reason why Trump got himself into this debacle was the paperwork that was involved in the Cohen reimbursement.
The next step in this fiasco, which piqued the curiosity of the entire nation, will be a sentencing, and potentially a jail sentence for the former president. It would be an understatement to say that Trump has his hands full currently, as he has to deal with three other impending criminal cases (the classified documents case, the Georgia election interference case, and the federal election interference case). Apart from the law-related formalities, Donald Trump is actively campaigning for President, which might see him return to the White House.
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