NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0conviction on 34 felony counts\u00a0marks the end of the former president\u2019s historic hush money trial, but the fight over the case is far from over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now comes the sentencing and the potential for a prison sentence. A lengthy appellate process. And all the while, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee still has to deal with\u00a0three more criminal cases\u00a0and a campaign that could see him return to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After more than nine hours of deliberations over two days, the Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records in the case\u00a0stemming from a hush money payment\u00a0to porn actor Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump angrily denounced the trial as a \u201cdisgrace,\u201d telling reporters he\u2019s an \u201cinnocent man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some key takeaways from the jury\u2019s decision:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The big question now is whether Trump could go to prison. The answer is uncertain. Judge Juan M. Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before Republicans are\u00a0formally set\u00a0to nominate Trump for president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The charge of falsifying business records is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest tier of felony charges in the state. It is punishable by up to four years in prison, though the punishment would ultimately be up to the judge, and there\u2019s no guarantee he would give Trump time behind bars. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to say whether prosecutors would seek prison time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear to what extent the judge may factor in the political and logistical complexities of jailing a former president who is running to reclaim the White House. Other punishments could include a fine or probation. And it\u2019s possible the judge would allow Trump to avoid serving any punishment until after he exhausts his appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump faces the threat of more serious prison time in the three other cases he\u2019s facing, but those cases\u00a0have gotten bogged down by appeals\u00a0and other legal fights, so it remains unclear whether any of them will go to trial before the November election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE ELECTION<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conviction doesn\u2019t bar Trump from continuing his campaign or becoming president. And\u00a0he can still vote\u00a0for himself in his home state of Florida as long as he stays out of prison in New York state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who serves as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, said in a Fox News Channel interview on Thursday that Trump would do virtual rallies and campaign events if he\u2019s convicted and sentenced to home confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a deeply divided America, it\u2019s unclear whether Trump\u2019s once-unimaginable criminal conviction will have any impact at all on the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leading strategists in both parties believe that Trump still remains well-positioned to defeat President Joe Biden, even as the Republican now faces the prospect of a prison sentence and three separate criminal cases still outstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the short term, at least, there were immediate signs that the guilty verdict was helping to unify the Republican Party\u2019s disparate factions as GOP officials across the political spectrum rallied behind their embattled presumptive presidential nominee and his campaign reported a flood of fundraising dollars within hours of the verdict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There has been some polling conducted on the prospect of a guilty verdict, although such hypothetical scenarios are notoriously difficult to predict. A recent\u00a0ABC News\/Ipsos poll\u00a0found that only 4% of Trump\u2019s supporters said they would withdraw their backing if he\u2019s convicted of a felony, though another 16% said they would reconsider it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AVENUES FOR APPEAL<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Trump is sentenced, he can challenge his conviction in a New York appellate court and possibly the state\u2019s highest court. Trump\u2019s lawyers have already been laying the groundwork for appeals with objections to the charges and rulings at trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defense has accused the judge of bias, citing his daughter\u2019s work heading a firm whose clients have included Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats. The judge\u00a0refused the defense\u2019s request\u00a0to remove himself from the case, saying he was certain of his \u201cability to be fair and impartial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s lawyers may also raise on appeal the judge\u2019s ruling limiting the testimony of a potential defense expert witness. The defense wanted to call Bradley Smith, who served on the Federal Election Commission, to rebut the prosecution\u2019s contention that the hush money payments amounted to campaign finance violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the defense ended up not having him testify after the judge ruled he could give general background on the FEC but couldn\u2019t interpret how federal campaign finance laws apply to the facts of Trump\u2019s case or opine on whether Trump\u2019s alleged actions violate those laws. There are often guardrails around expert testimony on legal matters, on the basis that it\u2019s up to a judge \u2014 not an expert hired by one side or the other \u2014 to instruct jurors on applicable laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The defense may also argue that jurors were improperly allowed to hear sometimes graphic testimony\u00a0from Daniels\u00a0about her alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies ever happened. The defense unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial over the tawdry details prosecutors elicited from Daniels. Defense lawyer Todd Blanche argued Daniels\u2019 description of a power imbalance with the older, taller Trump, was a \u201cdog whistle for rape,\u201d irrelevant to the charges at hand, and \u201cthe kind of testimony that makes it impossible to come back from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A DEFENSE THAT CENTERED ON CREDIBILITY<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The verdict shows the jury wasn\u2019t persuaded by Trump\u2019s defense, which hinged on assailing the credibility of some key witnesses \u2014 especially Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney-turned-adversary who\u00a0directly implicated Trump in the hush money scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As in many criminal cases, Trump\u2019s lawyers tried to make a lot of their points while questioning prosecution witnesses. The defense called just two witnesses of its own, including\u00a0Robert Costello, a defense attorney who had sought to represent Cohen after the latter came under federal investigation due to his work for Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move may have backfired because it opened the door for prosecutors to question Costello about a purported pressure campaign aimed at keeping Cohen loyal to Trump after the FBI raided Cohen\u2019s property in April 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Costello buoyed the defense by testifying that Cohen denied to him that Trump knew anything about the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But prosecutors portrayed Costello as a \u201cdouble agent\u201d whose agenda was really to keep Cohen from turning on Trump and confronted him with emails he sent to Cohen in which he repeatedly dangled his close ties to Trump ally Rudy Giuliani. In one email, Costello told Cohen: \u201cSleep well tonight. you have friends in high places\u201d and relayed that there were \u201csome very positive comments about you from the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The pugnacious Costello annoyed the judge \u2014 at times in view of the jury \u2014 by continuing to speak after objections and rolling his eyes. At one point, after sending the jury out of the room, the judge became enraged when he said Costello was staring him down. Merchan then briefly cleared the courtroom of reporters and scolded Costello, warning that if he acted out again, he\u2019d be removed from the courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While projecting confidence, Trump and his campaign also spent weeks trying to undermine the case ahead of a potential conviction. He repeatedly called the whole system \u201crigged\u201d \u2014 a term he also used in false descriptions of the election he lost to Biden in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMother Teresa could not beat these charges,\u201d Trump said Wednesday, invoking the Catholic nun and saint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump has lambasted the judge and complained about members of the prosecution team as he tried to paint the case as nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt brought by Bragg, a Democrat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has also complained about a gag order that restricted him from speaking about some people involved in the case. Instead of testifying in the case \u2014 and subjecting himself to cross-examination \u2014 Trump has focused on the court of public opinion and the voters who will ultimately decide his fate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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