Donald Trump Asks for Donations After Being Found Guilty on All Counts in Criminal Trial, Lashes Out

Donald Trump is using his guilty verdict as a fundraising opportunity — and lashing out at the justice system.

On May 30 in Manhattan, a jury delivered a guilty verdict in his six-week criminal trial. The former president, 77, was found guilty of all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Immediately after the guilty verdict was read, Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president in the November 2024 election — released a fundraising call on Truth Social, calling himself a "political prisoner" and blasting the court as "corrupt."

A defeated-looking Trump also spoke briefly outside of the courthouse as he departed, once again blaming the Biden administration for charges brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. (A claim that has no evidence.) “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial. The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people,” he said. “We’ll fight to the end and we’ll win.” When a reporter asked Trump why Americans should vote for a convicted felon, he did not respond, according to The New York Times.

The jury that determined Trump's fate comprised seven men and five women representing a variety of backgrounds and ideologies. The group deliberated for two days before reaching their decision.

Trump now faces up to four years in prison. As a first-time offender of a non-violent offense, he is likely to get off easy with probation and a fine, but sentencing is ultimately at the discretion of Judge Juan Merchan, with whom Trump has repeatedly sparred.

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office brought an unprecedented case against Trump that aimed to prove he not only falsified financial records "with intent to defraud" — in this instance, to mask a $130,000 hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels in the final days of his 2016 presidential election — but that he did so in order to conceal a second crime, which elevates the charges from misdemeanors to felonies.

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In falsifying the records, the DA's office argued, Trump was more broadly attempting to bury evidence of an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.