A jury in New York on Thursday found Donald Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a trial over the concealment of hush money payments in the run-up to the 2016 election, making him the first former US president convicted of a criminal offence.
Trump, who is seeking the White House again in this November's election, was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme involving his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen to conceal a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
Judge Juan Merchan is set to announce Trump's sentence on July 11, just days before the Republican Party Convention, where his nomination as presidential candidate for the party will be made official.
The former president faces a maximum sentence of several years behind bars, but most legal experts expect he will get a fine. Trump is likely to appeal - and could run in the presidential election even after a final conviction as the US constitution does not prevent a felon from running for the country's top office.
Trump, who had appeared calm in the courtroom in the afternoon, accepted the verdict outwardly unmoved and with a petrified expression.
In brief remarks outside court, he described the decision as a "disgrace," claiming without any evidence that Merchan was "corrupt."
"The real verdict is gonna be November 5th by the people," he added, referencing the date of the US presidential election. "I am a very innocent man."
The campaign of US President Joe Biden, who is set to face Trump in the elections in November, said "In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law."
"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box," the campaign's communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. "Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president."
Daniels said the money was given to keep her quiet about an affair she had with the Republican in 2006. Trump has admitted to paying her on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her "false and extortionist accusations" but denies any sexual encounter.
The seven men and five women of the jury had listened to the statements of more than 20 witnesses since mid-April. The jury's deliberations began on Wednesday.
At the trial, Cohen testified over the course of several days that he worked at Trump's direction to orchestrate the payments to buy the silence of Daniels.
Cohen made the $130,000 payment out of his own pocket.
Although the payment itself - which was not disputed by either side - was not illegal, Trump is alleged to have manipulated documents when reimbursing the amount to Cohen in order to conceal the true reason for the transaction.
Crucially, the prosecution argued that because the pay-off was made to keep the public from learning about the alleged sexual encounter ahead of the election, the cover-up involving the financial records amounted to illegal campaign financing. This allegation elevated what would have been a lower-level misdemeanour case to felony charges.
Trump has claimed without any evidence that he is a victim of political persecution orchestrated by Democrats to keep him from the White House.
Prominent Republicans and ardent Trump supporters reacted indignantly to the guilty verdict.
"Today is a shameful day in American history," Mike Johnson, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives, wrote on social media, calling the verdict "wrong" and "dangerous."
