I have served on a jury and have selected too many to count. The way to think about jury duty after you take into consideration the pain inn the @ss and that it often causes jurors to lose income, is that it enables others to get their constitutional right to a jury trial- just like you would want if you needed one. Pay it forward...

I've been summoned twice, first time jury selection was Monday morning and i was selected. trial started after lunch that day, ended with closing arguments Thursday morning and we were home by 4pm that day. it was a felon with a firearm and assault case with several counts. the jury was mostly middle aged middle class white people with one POC, one older retired lady and once young college student as one of the ALT. the defendant was a very large black man with the nickname Diesel (i only know this because one of the witnesses kept referring to him by that name so the prosecutor had to clarify for the jury who he was talking about... i live in an extremely conservatives county that is mostly rural and farm land with lots of blue collar work. i was very surprised by the jury selection as the defense only struck one juror. and yes... this liberal beating heart lefty voted guilty...

second summons was at the tail end of Covid and my summons was for the very last eek that they canceled/postponed trials. i haven't been called back since but expect it any time now. will happily serve again as i believe it is a duty we have as citizens.

💯 % I would do my duty and I would try my hardest to be unbiased and follow instructions. Frankly, it would be an honor. I appreciate and respect those who have served on juries. Having said that, I can imagine it’s a pain in the azz.

VERDICT IS IN "GUILTY" 😳

Guilty - ALL 34 counts... we have a convicted felon running for president...

No need to doubt now:

Trump found Guilty on 34 felony counts.

And the people said amen.

I am surprised and at the same time- not surprised...

Look who discovered religion!

Sentencing on July 11... will he go to jail? anyone else would... i doubt he will. i expect the judge to not do that to him.

Donald Trump Convicted in New York Hush-Money Case
Jury finds former president guilty of falsifying business records


WSJ
Donald Trump became the first former president ever convicted of a crime, with a Manhattan jury finding him guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.

The historic verdict, stemming from conduct that took place around Trump’s remarkable run to the presidency in 2016, could threaten his 2024 bid to return to the White House. Trump can still run and his poll numbers remained steady during the more than monthlong trial, though some voters have said they might be less likely to vote for him if he were convicted.

The presiding judge, Justice Juan Merchan, now faces the unprecedented task of sentencing Trump, 77 years old. The New York offenses were low-level felonies that carry no mandatory punishment, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged the case in a manner for which there is little precedent. Trump also is a first-time offender with no criminal record.

Such circumstances could make a prison sentence unlikely. Merchan has other penalties from which to choose, ranging from a fine to probation. Trump is certain to appeal, which could take months or years to resolve. The process could be further complicated if Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, wins a second presidential term.

Trump faces three other prosecutions—two over his alleged efforts to overturn President Biden’s 2020 election victory and one alleging he illegally retained classified documents after leaving the White House—though none may go to trial before
Election Day. The hush-money case was considered by many observers to be the least serious of the four.

Bragg, a Democrat, announced the Manhattan case in April 2023, the first indictment of a former president. The district attorney alleged Trump falsified dozens of records to conceal reimbursements to his former fixer, Michael Cohen, for buying the silence of adult-film actress Stormy Daniels. She says she and Trump had an affair, a claim he denies.

New York false-records charges can be a misdemeanor, but Bragg argued they were felonies in this case because Trump committed the offenses in connection with other illegal conduct, namely an unlawful scheme to influence the 2016 election. Bragg didn’t charge Trump with any election-related conduct. The former president has called the prosecution politically motivated, a claim Bragg rejects.

While the case centered on allegedly falsely labeled documents such as invoices and checks, prosecutors told jurors a sweeping story of election fraud, describing a criminal conspiracy with Trump at its center.

Prosecutors alleged Trump hatched a plan with Cohen and David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, to boost Trump’s electoral prospects by purchasing negative stories about him to bury them.

Witnesses testified that urgency within the Trump camp grew in October 2016, with the emergence of a hot-mic “Access Hollywood” recording, in which Trump lewdly referred to grabbing women. “This was a crisis,” former Trump campaign press secretary Hope Hicks testified.

Shortly after, Cohen testified, he learned Daniels was seeking to go public about her alleged 2006 encounter with Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nev. Daniels, during two days on the witness stand, said Trump invited her to his hotel to have dinner, where they talked about the business of the adult-entertainment industry and then briefly had sex in his room.

Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, told jurors that Trump ordered him to make the $130,000 hush-money payment to Daniels when it appeared her story could go public before the election. And Trump approved his reimbursement after he won, Cohen said.

The Daniels payment was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in 2018.

Most defendants don’t testify in their own defense, and Trump opted for that strategy, a reversal after stating before trial that he would take the stand.

Trump’s defense team said seeking to sway voters was legal. “There is nothing wrong with trying to influence an election,” Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told jurors. “It’s called democracy.”

Blanche said the checks to Cohen were for legal services, adding that it was ludicrous to think Trump, while running the country from the Oval Office, was involved with the day-to-day accounting at his New York family business.

Trump’s lawyers sought to undermine the government’s case by portraying Cohen and Daniels as lying opportunists who had built careers off attacking the former president. The defense pointed to Daniels’s “Make America Horny Again” tour, advertised with a picture of her and Trump, and TikTok videos in which Cohen, himself a felon, said he wanted the former president to be imprisoned.

The verdict provides vindication for Bragg, who took a gamble on a case that other prosecutors declined to pursue. Federal prosecutors first investigated the hush-money payments, leading to Cohen’s 2018 guilty plea to campaign-finance violations. But they opted against charging Trump, despite finding that he directed payoffs to two women.

Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance, then considered state charges, but ultimately favored a broader potential indictment focused on Trump’s business practices. A hush-money case, his team believed, rested on an untested legal theory. He took no action before he left office at the end of 2021.

Is he convicted yet? I’m probably splitting hairs but just wondering.

Convicted.
Awaiting sentencing.
Then comes the appeal (and other issues should he be elected)...

I was expecting a hung jury...especially when the jury took its time

Trump definitely won't get any jail time...first criminal offense...non-violent crimes...low level felonies

he'll certainly appeal...wonder if that'll cause Judge Merchan to pause sentencing?

If he wins POTUS, he won't have the authority to pardon himself....state case, not federal

Thanks, rfenst. I wasn’t sure if conviction was after sentencing or after jury verdict. I know it’s splitting hairs either way. Just curious.

So the appeal will be in a NY State Court and not a Federal Court? Obviously I don’t know chit about these details.

No hair splitting at all. There are specific events that generally occur.

1) A person is charged. Generally this happens in one of 3 ways. Either a sworn law enforcement office writes an affidavit of probable cause, a grand jury issues an indictment or a judge issues a warrant.

2) A person is booked. Once step 1 occurs the accused person is booked into a jail on the charges listed per step 1. The accused then: ia) released on their own recognizance under the understanding they will appear in court to face the charges on a schedule set by the judge hearing the case, b) has bail set by the judge, or c) bail is denied and the accused is remanded into custody pending disposition of the charges.

3) The accused is formally arraigned where the charges are read and the accused is given the opportunity to enter a plea of either guilty, not guilty or no contest. If the accused pleads guilty or no contest and the judge accepts the plea then the person is considered to be convicted of the charges at the time the judge accepted the plea.

4) If the accused pleads not guilty at the arraignment then a trial ensues. The accused generally has the right to have the case decided by a juror or the accused can opt for a bench trial where the trial judge assumes the role of the jury and decided innocence or guilt. If the accused is found not guilty then assuming that defendant has no more pending charges in any court in the US or overseas where an extradition warrant has been filed then the defendant is generally free to go at that time.

5) If the defendant is found guilty (convicted) of any offense then that defendant may be granted a pre-sentencing bail, be released on their own recognizance or remanded back into custody pending sentencing.

6) A sentencing phase or trial if you will is conducted to determine the penalty to be handed down. If if there are mandatory sentencing for a particular offense generally there is still a sentencing phase that is conducted.

7) The convicted individual is formally sentenced. Depending on the particular offense the convicted individual generally will be sentenced to a specific term or given probation in lieu of a term. If given probation there may be conditions that if not met then the convicted person could be remanded back into custody to serve out the remainder of the sentence. If sentenced to a term all, part or none of that sentence may be suspended. Assuming some of the sentence is suspended the convicted person may or may not be put on probation for the term of the suspended sentence. Or no part of the sentence is suspended and the convicted person will be remanded to the appropriate state Department of Corrections or if a Federal conviction then the US Bureau of Prisons to serve out that sentence.

8) if the convicted person serves 100% of their sentence then upon completion they are released from custody and their obligation is completed. Or they may be paroled after serving a portion of that sentence. Like probation there may conditions associated with parole and if the convicted person violates those conditions then that person can be remanded back into custody to serve out the remainder of the sentence.


Trump just completed step 5. Now he goes to step 6.

Once convicted in step 5 the convicted person will seek post-conviction relief aka as filing an appeal or multiple appeals. The filing of appeals may or may not temporarily halt the beginning of step 6.

Even though I tried to break it down into a step by step order of sequenced events no such definitive order actually exists. Every case is different

In conclusion let me muddy the water a bit. At any point after formal charges have been filed the prosecution or the defense can file motion to the court requesting the charges be dismissed. Or the judge can dismiss the charges without a formal request.

I’ve tried to cover the most important issues.

Hopefully this helps.

Yes and no.

One can appeal state issues through the state appeals process. They person can also seek relief in the federal court system for alleged constitutional errors.

Example: a death penalty case based on state murder statutes.

In the state appeals process once could appeal things such as whether or not an actual violation of the law occurred. On the federal level one might appeal whether or not the punishment of death is cruel and unusual punishment per the 8th Amendment.

Anthony, thanks very much. Those details are interesting. I’ll be watching this story with a clearer understanding now.

The case must go forward within the New York legal system.

It next goes up from the trial court to an intermediate state appeal court. Thereafter, it will be appealed to New York's highest court.

Trump can't get this in to federal court unless there is a "federal issue" or "fundamental right" in play.