(LifeSiteNews) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records by a New York jury.
The verdict, read Thursday evening, makes Trump the first current or former president to have been found guilty of a felony offense.
In response to the verdict, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social:
MY CIVIL RIGHTS HAVE BEEN TOTALLY VIOLATED WITH THIS HIGHLY POLITICAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND ELECTION INTERFERING WITCH HUNT. OUR FAILING NATION IS BEING LAUGHED AT ALL OVER THE WORLD!
The 34 counts Trump has now been found guilty of were first leveled against him in March 2023, when the former president was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on charges brought by George Soros-backed District Attorney Alvin Bragg in connection to “hush money” payments made to pornography “actress” Stephanie Clifford, known as “Stormy Daniels,” during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, gave Clifford $130,000 during the campaign to keep quiet about an affair she and Trump allegedly had a decade earlier. Trump has denied that the affair ever took place, and even Clifford said in 2018 that the affair had never occurred, though she later doubled back again.
In addition to Trump himself, many conservatives view the various charges against the former president as political persecution by the Biden administration’s Justice Department, leading to accusations that U.S. President Joe Biden and the judicial branch of the federal government have “weaponized” the law to prevent Trump from winning another presidential term in 2024.
In addition to today’s guilty verdict, Trump also faces charges in other jurisdictions across the country, putting his bid to reclaim the Oval Office in further jeopardy.