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Former U.S. president and 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was found guilty on all counts in connection with a scandal involving hush money paid on his behalf to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels on the eve of his election in 2016.
Trump was found guilty on all thirty-four criminal counts he faced in connection with the payout – convictions he is all but certain to appeal. In the meantime, the 77-year-old businessman faces up to four years in prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, 2024 – just four days before he is scheduled to headline the quadrennial GOP convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
“Such bullshit,” the former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., wrote on X as the verdicts were announced.
Within seconds of the verdicts, Trump’s Wikipedia page was updated to reference him as “an American politician, media personality, businessman, and convicted felon.”
“Guilty on all counts,” Trump Jr. added in a follow-up post. “The Democrats have succeeded in their years-long attempt to turn America into a third-world shit hole. November 5 is our last chance to save it.”
How did we get here?
Trump and Daniels had an affair in 2006, according to the porn star. Daniels claimed she first had sex with Trump at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada hotel suite in 2006 – four months after Trump’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, gave birth to their son, Barron Trump. Subsequent encounters were alleged to have taken place at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
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Disbarred lawyer Michael D. Cohen – Trump’s longtime personal attorney – paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 as part of a private settlement agreement which prohibited her from discussing her “intimate relationship” with the former president. Cohen acknowledged paying Daniels the money in 2018, claiming he neither sought nor received reimbursement from Trump, any of his businesses or his political campaign.
Those statements turned out to be false – and Cohen was later convicted for his role in the scandal.
Trump was indicted on charges related to the payout last March – the first time a former U.S. president had ever been criminally indicted. His trial began on April 15, 2024.
From the beginning of this process, Trump has argued – effectively – that his liberal antagonists were weaponizing the justice system against him. That argument carried him to the GOP nomination and has positioned him to defeat beleaguered Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.
In the aftermath of the verdicts, Trump referred to the outcome as a “disgrace.”
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“A rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over!”
“How long can our Republic survive once partisans have taken over the judicial process?” U.S. senator Rand Paul wrote on X. “This verdict will tragically undermine Americans’ confidence in impartial justice. A sad day for America.”
Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson – a longtime supporter of Trump – agreed.
“Import the Third World, become the Third World,” Carlson wrote on X. “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.”
Others summed up the politicization of justice more succinctly …
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Dems have reached the "send election opponents to jail" stage of defending Democracy
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) May 30, 2024
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Trump backers in South Carolina condemned the verdicts – and the purportedly political prosecution which led to them.
“The decision to bring charges against president Trump was fueled by political motivations instead of the rule of law,” South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson said in a statement. “I believe these charges would never have been pursued against anyone not named Trump, which makes a mockery of the judicial systems and causes the public to doubt the integrity of all prosecutors. The jury has made its decision, and now I’ll be one of the first in the fight in support of Trump’s appeal.”
Governor Henry McMaster – Trump’s top acolyte in South Carolina – also voiced his outrage over the verdicts.
“The American people understand that this trial was nothing more than a political attack on President Trump,” McMaster wrote on X. “We will respond decisively at the ballot box in November and return him to the White House.”
Trump’s former 2024 presidential rival turned top cheerleader Tim Scott took to social media to decry “the hoax, the sham” and the “absolute injustice” of the proceedings.
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Absolute injustice. This erodes our justice system.
— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) May 30, 2024
Hear me clearly: You cannot silence the American people. You cannot stop us from voting for change.
Joe Biden — you’re fired. We the People stand with Donald J. Trump. pic.twitter.com/lqylAh1Bze
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Conspicuously silent in the aftermath of the verdicts? Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who was the last Republican standing against Trump in the 2024 election.
On the other side of the partisan divide, Biden issued a joint statement with his vice president, Kamala Harris.
“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” the statement noted. “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.”
Biden and Harris added “the threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater,” arguing that a second Trump term “means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence.”
“The American people will reject it this November,” they concluded.
Will they, though?
At the moment the verdict was announced, Trump led Biden in all seven key battleground states according to composite polling averages tabulated by RealClearPolling. The former president led the incumbent in Arizona (+4), Georgia (+4.8), Michigan (+0.5), Nevada (+5.4), North Carolina (+4.8), Pennsylvania (+2.3) and Wisconsin (+0.1).
With the exception of North Carolina, Biden won all of those states in 2020.
How will Trump’s conviction reshape what has already been an unprecedented election cycle? It’s obviously too early to tell … but keep it tuned to this media outlet as the fallout continues to cascade across the nation’s political landscape.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina and before that he was a bass guitarist and dive bar bouncer. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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37 comments
Time to send Donny von Shitzinpants some soap-on-a-rope. He’ll sure need it at Rikers!
Enjoy some popcorn and watching MAGA snowflakes meltdown en mass :-)
Why are you pretending to be me?
Pretending to be me.
Seems to me the only one who should have been charged was “Stormy” Daniels, a whore, of extortion. Guess we’ll need to round up anyone and everyone who’s been extorted and paid up to save themselves embarrassment, including your kids bullied on the playground.
He was convicted of trying to influence the election by covering up the affair and for filing false financial statements indicating the payment was for attorney fees when he knew it was not. The first charge is the same crime John Edwards was charged with and tried for. Edwards was acquitted because the jury concluded the payment was not to influence the election. Don the Con might have also made that defense work had he not stuck to the obvious lie that the affair never happened, despite ample evidence, including his own bragging that it did. He is just a constant liar that the jury could not believe especially since he offered no evidence to support a defense.
lol
Poor trumptard. Have you tried drinking and drugs, like the rest of your MAGA peers?
Weak.
You can defended your twice-impeached, found guilty of lifelong financial fraud and found guilty of rape better than that can’t you?
Don’t worry, Putin and FitsNews will have talking points ready for you tomorrow. Don’t get a headache trying to think for yourself!
Remember “LOCK HER UP!!!”
lol
MAGA are such fucking idiots. One more trial, one more guilty verdict. More convictions to come.
Welfare Will Folks claims to be a ….lol, so dumb….a “Libertarian”. Real Libertarians booed Don Snoreleon out of the building, while Will plays the ever loyal cuck.
Yea, if Trump wanted Hillary locked up, then he should’ve hired her.
Wills working overtime censoring these comments.
Typical Republican anti-free speech behavior.
Yet another fake post pretending to be me.
Are you 4 years old?
Appeal won’t be in a NYC jurist filled court and the whole thing will be thrown out.
Sorry but his pet judge Cannon would be the only one who can kill the case for him since she’s the only one thus far to be brazen and corrupt enough to just blatantly flout the law.
Still plenty of charges to be convicted of though.
Don’s only hope is to win the election, or abscond to Russia. I’m sure he’s got a plane ready to go at any moment for Plan B.
Sure thing, dumbfuck.
Why do republicans hate the Rule of Law so much?
You were warned over and over that you are supporting an obvious fraud. Now the Courts are showing you how true that is.
I can understand your embarrassment and shame for being so easily conned. Boomers are just suckers, who are easy marks for Russian propaganda and FoxNews. Hopefully you have learned something through your stupidity.
I am sick and tired of Republicans saying Trump could not get a fair trial in NYC. That is just a bunch of crap. 68% of registered voters in NYC are Democrats. only 63% of registered voters voted. Trump got about 1/3 of the registered voters voting. That means over 50% of NY registered voters either voted for Trump or did not vote. That does not include all the people who are not registered to vote. And you telling me his lawyers cannot find a fair jury from all those people. Of course, it was fair. If we listen to you that would mean no Democrat could ever get a fair trial in a red state and no Republican could get a fair trial in a Blue State. What system do you recommend we go to? A Star Chamber. Trial by torture. Or are you just saying Trump is above the law?
The truth is that you know Trump did everything he was accused of. Yes, he slept with a porn star. Yes, he tried to cover it up until after the election. Yes, he lied on his financial statements, when he said the payment to her was a legal fee.
“Yes, he slept with a porn star. Yes, he tried to cover it up until after the election. Yes, he lied on his financial statements, when he said the payment to her was a legal fee.”
It’s hilarious. None of this is being contested. They are fine with him doing all of the above.
If Biden did this though…
I love how MAGA idiots are pointing out how corrupt the Supreme Courts is. It’s their only hope and they are shouting from the roof tops that they know the Supreme Court will give Trump…..er the sitting President absolute immunity to do whatever Biden pleases.
Once again, MAGA goons have zero self-awareness and are the most short sighted fools around.
The verdict aside, why is there not equal outrage among Trump supporters, and especially evangelicals, over the simple fact that the man cheated on his wife with a porn star and lied about it. What ever happened to the party of Family Values?”
They see a frumpy old man marrying a model (because money) and cheating on her with a porn star (because money) as something to aspire to even though it is 100% against the teachings of their own religion.
It’s nothing new though. Most of us can see what both Newt Gingrich and John Edwards did as disgusting. They can only see one of those as disgusting. It’s a moral failing on their part. They don’t care, tribalism still compels them. Maybe a small part of their brain screams at how it is wrong, but the rest is stubbornly resisting because it doesn’t want to leave the cult.
We are the party of law and order.
Also our guy should never be charged for anything and should have the power to execute political rivals on a whim while president.
What? The founding fathers clearly stated that the tree of liberty must be watered by tyrants with blood, or something like that. The only way to protect democracy is by electing untouchable dictators with a cult following.
Christ has a plan. Trust in him.
Trump going to jail? I like that plan.
Thank you, jebus, for finding trump guilty AGAIN!!!
Now, on to more guilty verdicts in his other criminal trials! Geez, there are so many trials…,
Again, not me… just a douchebag who wishes he was me.
No surprise that StepTim Fethcit feels obliged to play the subservient Neeeeeegro. Just what you expect from a grinning, stereotype of a minstrel clown. LindseyGBTQ+ should know better, but Trump probably has Kompromat of him with rentboys. Alan Wilson needs to lose his law license for encouraging disrespect for our judicial system. Republicans are the party of crime and criminality.
Bless his heart.
Of course, Trump’s acolytes would condemn the verdict. Tim Scott is Trump’s “water boy”. A few weeks ago, he refused to answer a simple yes/no question by Kristen Welkr “Will you accept the result of the election if Biden wins?”
Meanwhile, sycophant Lindsey Graham, has forgotten the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, when he said, “I’m so over with Trump.”
S.C. A.G. Alan Wilson is the most hyper partisam Attorney General that South Carolina has ever had.
I questioned Governot Henry McMaster’s mental fitness when he endorsed Trump. I think that Trump made a deal with McMaster: “If you endorse me, I’ll make you governor.” By the way, I intentionally misspelled governor.
We are just going to have to get used to Democrats being the only ones willing to accept reality.
Well, the two extremes (the hardcore Trump cultists and the TDS leftist) seem to have thoroughly had their say on this blog thus far, so now here is the opinion of the more rational conservatives who were neither “never trump” guys but also see the larger evil of the transformed Democrat party that bear little resemblance to its mainstream 1990s majority and is now completely controlled by the Maoist communists and far left Chavez- style socialists:
Yes, Trump probably slept with the whore, but the whore also lied out of both sides of her mouth. But that was irrelevant. The issue was making a state -level felony out of how an expenditure was classified for accounting of purposes; i.e whether the payoff to said whore was or was not a “legal expense” and whether or not there was a legal reason to make such a payment that was independent of purely electoral campaign matters. That’s what it all boils down to…and as to that core issue, Hillary Clinton’s campaign did PRECISELY the same thing when it classified the payments to the former British intelligence analyst (to produce the now-infamously garbage dossier to trigger the Trump-Russia collusion hoax) as legal payments because, just like Trump, the payments were routed through or made via legal counsel and recouped in the law firm’s billing. But Hillary wasn’t charged with a damn thing – her campaign coughed up about 100k as a penalty and that was that. As mentioned by another earlier, John Edwards (D, NC) also did precisely the same type of thing as to the hush money that was from actual campaign donations to his paramour that he got pregnant while his wife was battling cancer. The Federal Election Commission and DOJ knew all of these things when they were evaluating whether or not to make a case, and chose not to seek prosecution against Trump….that fact was hidden from the jury in Trump’s case, and probably would have made a big difference in the trial.
So two takeaways from this: if DeSantis was the GOP nominee, none of these sham trials would have happened and we wouldn’t have to worry if the GOP nominee was going to be in prison (or killed there) AND the right needs to open their eyes and hit back with the same tactics; its the only thing that makes the communists back off.
lol
Typical MAGA non-sense, word-salad.
And you are a far-right extremist. Total nut-job bigot.
These guys would be great fiction writers if it weren’t for the crippling mental illness.
“Maoist communists and far left Chavez- style socialists”
Somebody call the Wah!mbulance. Snowflakes are melting before our eyes!
“The issue was making a state -level felony out of how an expenditure was classified for accounting of purposes; i.e whether the payoff to said whore was or was not a “legal expense” and whether or not there was a legal reason to make such a payment that was independent of purely electoral campaign matters.”
And if Trump was not a lying POS, he might have been able to make that case. It would have been BS in my opinion, but he could have tried to argue that. But he chose to do what he always does, lie, lie, lie. He said he never slept with her. He said he thought the payments were legal fees, He said it’s all made up, He said he did not even know what he was charged with. He said the trial was rigged. Well, no one believes any of that. So how can you believe anything else that comes out of his mouth? When John Edwards was arrested and tried for the exact same crime as Trump, I don’t recall any Republicans speaking out against it. They all applauded. Edward’s case ended up with a hung jury because he did not lie. He admitted the affair and defended the payment as not made for illegal purposes.
As for your need to constantly refer to Stormy as a whore, look at Trump and look at Melania. Why do you think she sleeps with him or slept with him at least once?
Back in the day, I was on this platform applying critical thinking towards our State House Heroes when there used to be news reporting on the State House general assemblers. Me and Fits go way back…I ran a small gift boutique webstore during the 2000’s and made the gifts here in the backyard. Then one day after a few critical thoughts aimed towards a few local general assemblers I get a phone call from some guy who said he was told to call me and that DEHEC wanted to do a an inspection of my small business. That was a warning to stop the critical thoughts. They have been doing this a longtime threatening criticism from those who disagree with their lawmakers. Nothing new. Lawyer up. Why the heat? I was a political influencer in the chatroom armies of America. Retired, maybe you’d like to read some of my ‘critical thoughts’.
disqus dot com/by/RepublicanForAmerica/