This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A jury of New Yorkers, where a massive majority of the population dislikes President Donald Trump, on Thursday said he was guilty of the 34 counts of business reporting violations claimed by DA Alvin Bragg.
It's the first time a former president has been convicted of a felony crime.
Bragg, a Democrat who revived dead misdemeanors to orchestrate the lawfare against Trump, claimed Trump called his legal expenses "legal expenses" and that was an offense.
He charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
He took misdemeanor violations that had been passed over by a multitude of other prosecutors and claimed they were in furtherance of another, unspecified, crime, and that made them felonies.
The case, being run by Juan Merchan, a local New York judge, has been plagued with one scandal after another.
Merchan first issued multiple gag orders against Trump but refused to provide Trump with the same protection from wild statements made by others in the case.
Merchan refused to recuse even though his daughter is a Democrat activist who has fund-raised millions off of the decisions her father is making in the case.
Merchan also has repeatedly ruled against Trump, building a solid case, according to multiple commentators, for reversal on appeal.
According to Fox, "Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006."
Merchan refused to allow an expert to testify that suppressing negative information was not illegal.
It was Trump's former lawyer, a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen, who was the star witness for the prosecution.
Noted legal expert and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz said it's clear the judge was insisting on a guilty verdict against Trump.
The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed, "Merchan has come under fire for a perceived bias against Trump in the case. He imposed an expanded gag order on April 1 after Trump criticized the judge’s daughter in multiple posts on Truth Social, including one linking to a New York Post report on Loren Merchan’s firm helping Democrats raise $93 million for the former president’s indictment in the business records case."
The report noted, "Merchan also made a $15 donation to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and two $10 donations to Democratic groups via ActBlue, one to a 'Stop Republicans' group and another to a 'Progressive Turnout Project,' according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records."
Former Trump corporation payroll lawyer William J Brennan told "America Reports," "Shockingly, these payments … on their face are not illegal. They have to show two things. They have to show there was malfeasance in the record-keeping in the notations as to what the money was spent for. And then to make that huge leap to felony land, they have to show it was with the intent, not just the motive, but the intent to commit another crime -- election fraud, election finance."
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett said he'd never before seen such an abuse of America's legal system as that orchestrated by Bragg and Merchan.
The jury, of seven men and five women, had deliberated for two days.
The case is the first time a former U.S. president has faced a criminal trial.
However, analysts have pointed out that now that the process has been established, future presidents can expect to be prosecuted for whatever their successors dislike about them after they leave office.
Commentator Tucker Carlson said, "Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family."
Polls have shown that voters who responded have said their support for Trump will not be affected by a guilty claim by a jury in leftist New York. 15% said it would make them more likely to vote for him.
Trump pointed out that the trial was "rigged," and the judicial system's failures were "disgraceful."
"I'm a very innocent man," he said.
"Today is a shameful day in American history," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. "Democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges, predicated on the testimony of a disbarred, convicted felon. This was a purely political exercise, not a legal one."
"Travesty of justice," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
And Rep. Elise Stefanik wrote, "Today’s verdict shows how corrupt and rigged the American justice system has become under Joe Biden."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X an image of an upside-down American flag, a symbol that is used to warn about a disaster.
