America's Talking - Jury Convicts Trump in Hush Money Case on All 34 Charges

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

A Manhattan jury on Thursday convicted former President Donald Trump on all counts in his hush money case, a history-making verdict that could reshape the 2024 presidential election. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush money payments to an adult film actress as legal costs ahead of the 2016 election. Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to American Focus. I'm your guest host, Cole McNeely, filling in this week for Dan McAle. Manhattan jury on Thursday convicted former president Donald Trump on all counts in his hush money case, a historic making verdict that could reshape the 2024 presidential election. To talk about this unprecedented legal case ruling decision, verdict, whatever you want to say, is the Center Square's investigative reporter Brett Roland. Brett, quite the historic week we had here in terms of, legal proceedings.

Yes, so a lot happened. Starting yesterday, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and another woman. And that has kicked off a chain of events that has sort of, has the power to sort of shape where the election is going to go. It could affect polling, and it certainly puts America in a spot where it's ever been before. So the first thing that's up next for Trump is sentencing. That's going to come on July 11th. But before then, some key things will happen. The first is that prosecutors will get to submit

their sentencing recommendation to the judge. Then the defense attorneys will also get to submit sentencing recommendations to the judge. And the New York Probation Department will submit a report as well. So the judge will factor those take those things into factor when he considers a sentence. The crime is punishable by up to four years in prison, although it's somewhat unlikely that a 77-year-old first-time offender in a non-violent crime would be sentenced to jail. It's still a possibility that Judge Juan Merchant has wide discretion in the courtroom. So he can sort of go where he wants. There are some guidelines, but he has a, good amount of leeway here and a lot of room to run with. So just what will happen remains to be

seen, but that first step will come July 11th. In the meantime, Trump was out this morning with with a record fundraising announcement. He said that he raised $34.8 million after the guilty verdict, which he said was a record. And he also said, said this morning at a news conference at Trump Tower that he planned to appeal the verdict. That was likely all along, but he confirmed that this morning, and it's clear that there will be some sort of appeal. Now, that process will likely take a lot longer than he might hope. It certainly won't happen before the November 5th election.

But that's the biggest news from this morning. Well, and Brett, I'm going to take you back a minute there. You were discussing the potential for jail time. Again, we had 34 felonies. He was found guilty on all 34. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, by the way. But 34 felonies, he's found guilty in all 34. And I would say what you said, right, 77-year-old first time convicted felon, I guess.

And I guess that's the word to use. Unlikely to have jail time. But it's at the discretion of the judge. And I don't think the former president was necessarily the model. defendant in the courtroom. I mean, I don't know what his gag order numbers topped out at, but I do wonder, I mean, is that going to play a role here? Well, it certainly could. There's going to be a lot of different factors. But certainly the judge could factor in Trump's behavior in court, lack of remorse, and sort of insistence that the trial was rigged or the system was

rigged against him. He could consider those in sentencing. But, you know, there's also probably going to be mitigating factors here, too. There was a nonviolent offense, first time offender. New York doesn't have a ton of room and it's jails and prisons. And I think putting Trump in jail would be a bit of a spectacle and probably more of a cost and a pain than a lot of people realized given the level of secret service protection or lab throughout the process. Yeah, no doubt. Unprecedented time to say the least in terms of the idea of how would Secret Service protection in theory, even if it's unlikely, have to contemplate how to protect someone while they are in jail. I have read some things where they said if it was confinement at his home,

kind of house arrest type situation, that would be a much easier lift for the Secret Service. But at that point, we're just speculating based upon what could happen in July. So we'll move on from that. The other, obviously, as you mentioned, there is political fallout from this as well. Donald Trump is going out and trying to raise a lot of money and supposedly has raised a lot of money off of this. At the same time, you do have Republicans and Democrats alike coming out and speaking on this as a whole. I mean, what is the political messaging from both sides coming out around this conviction? So, the Democrats are, I think, pleased to see that he was convicted, but Republicans are following in line with Trump and saying that the system was rigged, that, you know, they were sort of out to get Trump and that he's being unfairly targeted.

So that those contours could change a little bit from the guilty verdict. But we've also seen some polling that tends to show that those people who supported Trump before this were likely to support him afterwards. And that I guess the big question would be for independence and people who are sort of on the fence. he may lose support in those groups. But it's unclear right now just how much of a effect this could have. So I'm guessing in the next couple of weeks we'll see new polling, and we might even have polling from the Center Square,

on just what voters think about this. So that should give us a better reading a couple weeks. Yeah, and beyond that, Brett, I mean, there are considerations of what does this mean? Yeah, I can unprecedented. Do you have a major party presidential presumed nominee? now facing 34 felony charges, convicted, not facing convicted on 34 felony charges. How does this impact the campaign? I've seen things where, you know, if there were a circumstance where he would have, you know,

probation officer or something like that, could create real logistical issues about traveling around the country to campaign. But to clarify, this does not keep him from running from president. Could it keep him from voting for himself as president? I guess that is the question. It could be. So in his home state of Florida, he could be prevented from voting as a convicted felon. But we'll have to see how that shakes out. I think it's too early to tell. I think for politically wise, I think that the real challenge is going to be the November 5th election. So both Biden and Trump were sort of in agreement on that, that this is, this guilty verdict is what it is, but that the real challenge for a mayor.

America and the real sort of the final verdict will come, come from voters on November 5th. And Brett, I want to touch on this real quick. Obviously, we're focused on the Manhattan case right now. He has other legal issues that are still up in the air right now. Do you want to touch on those real quick before we wrap up? Yes. So he, even after the New York case is finished and it's not, we're not quite there. We're not at sentencing yet. But he still faces a trial in Georgia over election interference. That case has been sidetracked by an appeal, but that's still pending. It's still out there. In Florida, he faces federal charges of mishandling classified documents, sharing them with people who weren't supposed to have them, and then refusing to give them back to the government. That case is

proceeding, although not very quickly in part because it involves classified materials. And then last but not least, we have the federal charges in Washington, D.C., where again, prosecutor, Special Counsel Jack Smith's team is prosecuting Trump at the federal level for election interference and the attack on the Capitol. And in the midst of all that, President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden also has a criminal trial going on. Nothing like an election year, and this is one like no other. Brett Rowland from the Center Square, thank you for joining us today on America in Focus.

You can check out Brett's reporting at thecentersquare.com and all of the great reporting. Just click the national button. Thanks for listening to America and Focus.