Trump trial: Biden calls Trump's remarks 'dangerous'

Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in his hush money trial.

Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 felony counts related to a 2016 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. It marks the first time in history that a former U.S. president has been convicted on criminal charges.

Trump last April pleaded not guilty to a 34-count indictment charging him with falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment his then-attorney Michael Cohen made to Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.


Trump guilty on all 34 counts


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Prosecutors, Trump arrive in courtroom

The prosecution team has entered the courtroom ahead of this morning's jury charge.

Prosecutors Josh Steinglass, Matthew Colangelo and Rebecca Mangold are seated at the counsel table, and seven other members of the district attorney's team are in the gallery.

Former President Trump entered the courtroom minutes later.


Reporters take their place for today's proceedings

About 60 members of the press have filled up the courtroom's wooden pews ahead of today's proceedings.

As reporters settled in, a court reporter used an office chair to wheel a three-foot stack of printed transcripts into the courtroom.

She left the precarious slack of binders at the front of the courtroom near the jury box, prompting light applause from the reporters in the gallery.


Jury deliberations scheduled to get underway

The jury in Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial is scheduled to begin deliberating the outcome of the case this morning after lengthy closing arguments yesterday.

Judge Juan Merchan will begin the proceedings at 10 a.m. ET when he instructs the jury about the law in the case -- a vital process that Merchan estimates will take approximately an hour.

Once the jury is charged, they can begin deliberating whether prosecutors met their burden by proving that Trump falsified 34 business records to further a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.

The jury heard nearly eight hours of summations yesterday when defense lawyer Todd Blanche and prosecutor Joshua Steinglass delivered marathon closing arguments.

Blanche told jurors that prosecutors failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt due in part to their reliance on the testimony of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who he described as the "human embodiment of reasonable doubt."

Steinglass argued that Trump's alleged falsification of records ahead of the election amounted to a "subversion of democracy" by hiding critical information from voters.


Court recessed until deliberations begin tomorrow

With closing arguments concluded, Judge Merchan dismissed the jury and instructed them to return tomorrow for deliberations.

He said the jury will deliberate between 10 a.m. ET and 4:30 p.m. ET tomorrow.

The judge ended by advising the parties to instruct their guests that they will be locked in the courtroom once the jury charge starts.

"No one will be allowed in or out of the courtroom," Merchan said.

Trump had a stomp in his step as he exited the courtroom, fiercely gripping his blazer and yanking down loud enough that it made a snapping noise.

He did not address the media, but glared at a reporter and muttered something under his breath as he exited.


Jury rehears Pecker's testimony about Trump, National Enquirer

The jury heard a readback of David Pecker's testimony about Donald Trump dating the "most beautiful women," the National Enquirer's coverage of Bill Clinton's "womanizing," and the "mutually beneficial" relationship between the tabloid and the Trump campaign.

Q: Can you explain to the jury how the topic of women in particular came up?

A: Well, in a presidential campaign I was the person that thought that there would be a number -- a lot of women come out to try to sell their stories, because Mr. Trump was well-known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women. And it was clear that based on my past experience, that when someone is running for a public office like this, the -- it is very common for these women to call up a magazine like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories. Or I would hear it in the marketplace through other sources that stories are being marketed.

Q: Did you have or express any ideas about how you may be able to help kind of deal with those stories by women?

A: All I said was I would notify Michael Cohen.

Q: What about Bill and Hillary Clinton, did their names up during this meeting?

A: Yes.

Q: Can you explain how?

A: As I mentioned earlier, my having the National Enquirer, which is a weekly magazine, and you focus on the cover of the magazine and who -- and who and what is the story that is the topic of the week, the Hillary running for president and Bill Clinton's womanizing was the biggest, one of the biggest sales I had for the National Enquirer and the other tabloids, that's the other things that the readers wanted to read about and that's what I would sell weekly. So I was running the Hillary Clinton stories. I was running Hillary as an enabler for Bill Clinton, with respect to all of the womanizing. And I was -- it was easy for me to say that I'm going to continue running those type of stories for the National Enquirer.

Q: And did you believe that that would help Mr. Trump's campaign?

A: I think it was a mutual benefit. It would help his campaign; it would also help me.

The jury also heard the testimony where Pecker testified that he never purchased stories to kill for Trump prior to the 2016 election.

Q: And what was the purpose of notifying Michael Cohen when you came upon stories like that?

A: Well, as I did in the past, that would be in the past eight years, when I notified Michael Cohen of a story that was a negative story, he would try to vet it himself to see if the story was true or not. He would go to the individual publication to get the story to make sure the story wasn't published and getting killed.

Q: Prior to that August 2015 meeting, had you ever purchased a story to not print it about Mr. Trump?

A: No.