A timeline of Donald Trump's guilty verdict: How it all went down

David Knowles
·Senior Editor
Updated ·3 min read
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A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 felony charges of falsifying business records, a historic verdict in the first ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. This is Yahoo News' succinct update on the criminal and civil cases against Trump. Here are the latest developments.

At the conclusion of the second day of deliberations, a New York jury that heard the case brought against Trump by District Attorney Alvin Bragg notified Judge Juan Merchan that it had reached a verdict. Read aloud in the lower Manhattan courtroom with Trump and Bragg looking on, the jury found the former president guilty of all the charges. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee reacted to the verdict by vowing to fight against what he said was a “rigged” trial against him.

Jury starts the day hearing testimony read aloud: Day two of deliberations began with the jury back in the courtroom. They had asked the judge to have some witness testimony read aloud (juries can take notes during a trial, but cannot make recordings). Tellingly, a portion of that testimony concerned an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower between former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and Trump. This was the meeting at which Cohen and Pecker testified that the three men hatched a scheme to keep negative stories from appearing so as to help Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Merchan also repeated his instructions to jurors on how to come to a verdict in the case.

Waiting game: After the jury left the courtroom to continue deliberations, Trump returned to a holding room in the courthouse, where he was joined by his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. In a post to his social media network while the jury was at work, Trump asserted that Pecker’s testimony absolved him.

"Testimony conclusively showed that I clearly stated, 'I DON’T BUY STORIES!' — Not that there would be anything wrong with doing that — NDA’s are PERFECTLY LEGAL AND COMMON!" Trump wrote.

The verdict: As the hours passed, it appeared that the jury might be excused Thursday without having reached a verdict. Merchan said he would excuse the jury at 4:30 p.m. ET if they hadn’t reached a verdict. Moments later, however, Merchan informed the courtroom that the jury had in fact reached verdicts. "Please let there be no reactions, no outbursts of any kind," the judge told the courtroom audience before the jury was seated once more.

The jurors, whose identities Merchan ordered be kept anonymous, voted unanimously that Trump was guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

"I do want to personally thank you for your service," Merchan told the jury after the verdicts were read.

Initial reactions: Trump, who expressed his outrage throughout the trial at being charged, did so again outside the courthouse. "We'll keep fighting, we'll fight till the end and we'll win, because our country's gone to hell," he said.

The Trump campaign sent out an email that quoted Trump saying, “I am a political prisoner!” while also requesting money.

Bragg posted a message on X responding to the verdict: "Today, a jury found Donald J. Trump GUILTY on ALL 34 felony counts."

Cohen released his own statement that read, “Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law. While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters.”

The Biden campaign also saw fit to comment on the outcome of the trial.

"There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,” Michael Tyler, communications director for the campaign told the New York Times. "Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president."

Trump will be sentenced on July 11. His lawyers have vowed to appeal the guilty verdicts, a process that could drag on for several months. The maximum possible sentence, which will be decided by Merchan, would be four years in prison, but the judge could also simply fine the former president and place him on parole. Trump announced he will hold a press conference about the trial on Friday at 11 a.m. ET.