Trump vs NY: Guilty Verdict Against Former President Slammed By Legal Experts, As Political Witch Hunt

Jurors in New York City Thursday, found Donald Trump guilty on all counts, in NY vs Trump case alleging that the former president falsified 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 him in 2006. Far-left Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the 45th president and current 2024 presidential frontrunner with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. In total, he faces a maximum sentence of 136 years.

Discredited hyper-partisan far-left Judge Juan Merchan read the verdict following two days of jury deliberations. He announced that sentencing for Trump will be on July 11 at 10:00 a.m--just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where the former president is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee. The convention is July 15- 18 in Milwaukee.

Any appeal motions by the president's legal team will need to be filed by June 13th.

"This was a disgrace," Trump told reporters following the verdict. "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. We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.

The former continued: "the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people. And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here. 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 okay. I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now."

Trump said that the case was "done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent."

"And I think it's it's just a disgrace," he said. "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 said "millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists. And they're taking over our country. We have a country that's in big trouble." 

"But this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never," he said. "And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over."

After the verdict, Trump's campaign website was updated to say he is "a political prisoner.

During a press conference after the verdict Thursday, Bragg said: "I did my job. We did our job. Many voices out there. The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury. And the jury has spoken." The District Attorney ran his election promising to go after Trump.

The Joe Biden presidential campaign reacted to the verdict, saying Trump "has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain." Campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said: "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."

During closing arguments this week, defense attorneys for Trump told the jury he is innocent, did not commit any crimes and that Bragg "did not meet the burden of proof. Period." 

"President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes. The district attorney did not meet the burden of proof. Period," Todd Blanche said, adding that the case is "simple" and it is "not a guilty verdict."

"This case is about documents; it is a paper case," Blanche said. "This case is not about an encounter with Stormy Daniels 18 years ago. It is not even about a nondisclosure agreement signed eight years ago."

Blanche said the charges are about whether Trump "had anything" to do with payments to his ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, on his personal accounting ledger.

"The answer? The bookings were accurate and there was no intent to defraud and there was no conspiracy to influence the 2016 election," Blanche said. "The proof doesn’t add up."

Blanche told the jury they cannot convict Trump based on Cohen’s testimony, recalling how Trump’s ex-attorney "took the stand and then lied."

"The records are not false and there was no intent to defraud," he said.

Thursday's jury verdict by far-left jurors, was roundly condemned by legal experts and political observers, as a an aggressive vengeful witch hunt by Biden's party against the former the president and opponent in the upcoming 2024 elections. Critics point out that Merchan's daughter and Democrat party activist raised millions of dollars in anti-Trump campaign, while her father presides over the former president's trial, raising impartiality concerns.

"I obviously disagree with this verdict as do many others," constitutional expert Professor Jonathan Turley wrote on X. "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. I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes."

Popular American commentator and podcaster Tucker Carlson also slammed the verdict, writing on X: "Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family."

Even British left-wing TV host and harsh Trump critic Piers Morgan condemned the verdict. "This is a sad, shameful and ridiculous day for America," he wrote X. "To drag a former President, who is running for President again, through criminal courts over something so trivial feels a massive overreach & an incredibly divisive and obviously politically partisan action."

WATCH Trump's remarks following jury verdict in Trump v NY.