Trump found guilty on all counts in historic NY hush money trial | The Excerpt

On Friday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi breaks down the jury's guilty verdict in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money case. Across battleground states, voters react to Trump's guilty verdict with a mix of emotions. USA TODAY Consumer Travel Reporter Zach Wichter discusses a plan Boeing has submitted to the FAA to address quality-control issues. The NBA Finals matchup is now set.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Friday, May 31st, 2024. This is The Excerpt.

Today, Donald Trump has been found guilty in his hush money trial. Plus, voters in swing states react to the verdict and Boeing submits a plan to address quality control.

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Former president Donald Trump has been found guilty on all counts in his historic New York hush money case.

Donald Trump:

We didn't do a thing wrong. I'm a very innocent man, and it's okay. I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now.

Taylor Wilson:

The more than six weeks long trial against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was the first criminal trial in US history against a former president. And Trump's conviction marks another historic moment with an uncertain impact on this year's presidential election.

Alvin Bragg:

And while this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor.

Taylor Wilson:

That's Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. For more, I caught up with USA TODAY Justice Department correspondent Aysha Bagchi for a closer look at the jury's decision and what happens next. Aysha, thanks for hopping on.

Aysha Bagchi:

It's very good to be here, Taylor. Thank you.

Taylor Wilson:

Just remind us what these counts center on and what did the jury actually decide here?

Aysha Bagchi:

Donald Trump faced 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The fact that they were felonies meant that prosecutors were saying Trump not only falsified records, but that he did it with a purpose. It was to commit or conceal another crime.

And the other crime that prosecutors charged Trump with having intended to conceal was the violation of an election law that has to do with unlawfully interfering in an election process. Prosecutors said that Trump was falsifying business records in order to unlawfully interfere in the 2016 election, and that really had to do with a hush money payment that his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.

He made that payment less than two weeks before election day, and then Donald Trump paid Cohen through a series of monthly checks in 2017. Prosecutors said that those checks were reimbursements for the hush money payment as well as a couple of other things, but that Trump falsified them to make it look like it wasn't reimbursement for hush money, that it was actually legal expenses in 2017.

And that's what the falsified records charges really stemmed from this idea that Trump had misrepresented what he was paying Cohen back for. And the wider story was that he was misrepresenting it because he wanted to cover up the hush money. And according to prosecutors, the hush money was illegal. It was illegal interference in the 2016 election, one thing that they said is it violated federal campaign finance laws.

Taylor Wilson:

So Aysha, what was the response like inside the court after the verdict was read and how did the former president himself, Trump, react and respond?

Aysha Bagchi:

Yes, the courtroom was very quiet. You could hear a pin drop when the verdict was being read. Basically, you had someone asking the jury foreperson for the verdict on each of the 34 counts. So the courtroom is almost entirely filled of reporters. We're all busily typing on our laptops. Many of us are messaging editors. So that is the kind of din of noise that you can hear across the courtroom. And unfortunately, there are screens that we have in the courtroom that usually allow us to see Trump's face because the back of his head is towards us. And I was ready to type with my right hand and use my binoculars with my left to be watching him, but the screen was not operating as each count was read.

But right after the juror foreperson said, "Guilty on count 34", the screen turned on. So I immediately zeroed in on the former president and he was sitting with his face forward. He wasn't looking at the jurors, he wasn't showing any type of expression. He wasn't turning to either of his lawyers on his right, his left. He wasn't saying anything to them. He seemed really stoic, definitely not happy taking it in, not really connecting with anyone around him or anyone else in the courtroom.

Taylor Wilson:

So Aysha, what happens next? This is a judge who will be sentencing someone who has attacked him for weeks. Trump has called him corrupt, among other things. What complications does that bring to sentencing? And the question a lot of folks are wondering, "Could Trump go to prison?"

Aysha Bagchi:

I actually did a story on this question before the trial took place. So I talked to a good handful of New York litigators and legal experts, and the answer is yes, Trump could go to prison, but he doesn't have to. That's not a given. Each of the 34 counts carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. There is no minimum sentence, he could get just probation. New York law caps how much you can add those sentences together at 20 years. So even theoretically, Trump couldn't face anything more than that.

But nearly all experts I spoke to told me that it's very unlikely he would face a sentence that dramatic. There were some people who said they thought he would just get probation because he doesn't have a criminal record and this is a nonviolent crime. Other people said no, they thought that some time incarcerated was a realistic possibility.

And they talked about why. And I talked to one expert who looked at people who'd been sentenced for similar crimes before and did find people who got jail time. And then the charges here have to do with unlawful interference in the 2016 presidential election. And it may be the case that a judge thinks that that's a particularly serious allegation tied to falsifying business records. So we will have to see. Trump has absolutely warred with Judge Juan Merchan, but that does not have anything to do with whether the judge can sentence him.

Judge Merchan is going to sentence him, and he announced a sentencing date before we left the courtroom. He said that Donald Trump is going to be sentenced on July 11th. That's just four days before the Republican Convention where Trump is expected to accept the nomination from the party to be president. So you can see again how this criminal case is tying in to Trump's campaign calendar. That's almost surely going to be something that's going to come up when the convention happens. There's going to be a regular interplay between what's happening with Trump's criminal case calendar and what's happening with his election calendar.

Taylor Wilson:

And Aysha, what about appeals and motions? What's the timeline there?

Aysha Bagchi:

He gave Trump's team a deadline of two weeks to file any motions after the conviction. When we get those motions, we could see an argument from Trump's team about whether Trump should get any jail time. That's almost surely going to be an argument that he shouldn't get any jail time and then prosecutors are going to have a chance to respond later in June. So seeing what the prosecution thinks should happen to Trump could be really indicative. It could tell us something about the range that Judge Merchan might be looking at, so we're going to have to wait and see about that. But the judge always has the option to sentence a defendant to more than the prosecution even asks for.

So there's a lot of uncertainty. We're going to have to wait to find out. I did talk to legal experts who expected that if Trump is sentenced to time in jail or prison, that he would be able to be out while his expected appeal is pending. So they said that it's very unlikely that he would be incarcerated anytime before the November election this year, but it is an open question about what kind of sentence he could face.

Taylor Wilson:

Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA TODAY. Aysha, thank you so much for making the time on this historic week.

Aysha Bagchi:

Thank you, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

We're less than six months out from the November election and are just beginning to digest the potential consequences of Trump's guilty verdict. Across the battleground states, voters are reacting with surprise, joy, anger, and indifference. In Wisconsin Green Bay resident Hannah Niece said the jury made the right call but was shocked by the verdict. And Milwaukee resident, Damon Anderson was speechless. He also can't imagine Trump continuing to be the nominee.

Waupaca County GOP chair, Joel Bartel in the state said the verdict was a misuse of the judicial system. In Nevada, retiree Doug Goodman, a nonpartisan voter, said the verdict was handed down by 12 people who were agreed to by both sides. Another resident in his town of Sparks, Diana Mackey, was drinking champagne at a local casino yesterday to celebrate Trump's guilty verdict. She called the verdict wonderful. And elsewhere, Pennsylvania resident Charles Flore insisted he was unmoved by the trial. The 73-year-old independent said it does not have any impact and doesn't change his mind on the candidates.

You can read more reaction to the verdict from swing state voters with a link in today's show notes. And be sure to tune into The Excerpt again tomorrow for continued coverage on the verdict's aftermath.

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In non-Trump related news, Boeing has submitted an action plan to the FAA to address systemic quality control issues following January's Alaska Airlines door plug failure. I spoke with USA TODAY consumer travel reporter, Zach Wichter to learn more. Zach, thanks for hopping on.

Zach Wichter:

Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Taylor Wilson:

So Zach. What's in this Boeing plan? Would you just outline it for us?

Zach Wichter:

It is kind of a lot to unpack, but essentially what you need to know is that the Boeing plan that was announced on Thursday essentially says that the FAA and Boeing are going to be working together more going forward and that the FAA is going to be increasing its oversight over Boeing. And this basically came out of that January incident in which an Alaska Airlines jet lost a piece of its fuselage in flight. Boeing has been under regulatory scrutiny for quite a while now, I would say as far back as 2018 when the first 737 Max crash happened. And so since then there have been a lot of calls really for Boeing to be under more regulation and more scrutiny. And it seems like those critics of the company are getting some of what they're looking for. So the FAA is stepping up its active oversight of Boeing and Boeing has also committed to doing some work to make culture changes to really increase its emphasis on safety on the factory floor again.

Taylor Wilson:

And I know you mentioned some of these incidents, Zach, but how did we get to this point?

Zach Wichter:

Just to clarify, the 737 Max is the newest version of Boeing's longstanding, extremely popular 737. It's one of, if not the best-selling single aisle jets on the commercial market. Almost everyone who's ever flown has flown on a 737. So like I said, I think that really the heightened scrutiny of Boeing goes back probably to 2018 when the first 737 Max fatal crash happened. Obviously just a few months after that, there was a second fatal 737 Max crash. Between the two, 346 people died. And in the wake of that second crash, regulators around the world grounded the Boeing 737 Max fleet. And so in January, when that Alaska Airlines 737 Max lost a door plug shortly after takeoff, it really renewed the scrutiny, jump started the talks about what needed to change at Boeing in a way that hadn't really been discussed in a few years. And basically regulators and lawmakers really increased the pressure on Boeing started investigations. The DOJ has opened criminal investigations against Boeing and you can really see the long tail of these incidents from a few years ago coming to fruition now.

Taylor Wilson:

The FAA says there's more work to be done and we also know the Department of Justice is considering criminal prosecution of Boeing. So Zach, what happens next?

Zach Wichter:

There's no clear answer to that yet. So what was announced on Thursday is this action plan from Boeing in which Boeing outlines some steps that it's taking to reinvest in its safety culture, to encourage employees who have concerns to speak up, to really clarify what the requirements are and what's expected of its employees, improve training, a whole bunch of action items that the company is taking.

Simultaneously, the FAA said it is increasing and again, stepping up oversight of Boeing by taking a more active role in its regulation of the company and some of its subcontractors. We have heard that the Department of Justice is pursuing possible criminal charges against Boeing as a is result of those 737 Max crashes from a few years ago that I mentioned before. We've also heard that passengers on the Alaska Airlines flight that lost that piece of the fuselage received notification from the FBI that they may be victims of a crime as a result of that. So it seems clear that different branches of government are doing what they can to step up their oversight and turn the screws on Boeing. But again, we're still in the middle of this process, so we don't exactly know how this is going to play out or where exactly this ends.

Taylor Wilson:

Zach Wichter covers consumer travel for USA TODAY. Thank you, Zach.

Zach Wichter:

My pleasure. Thanks again.

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Taylor Wilson:

The NBA finals are now set. The Dallas Mavericks took down the Minnesota Timber Wolves last night to win the Western Conference finals after 36 point nights from Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić respectively. It'll be Luka's first NBA finals appearance and the Mavericks first since 2011. On the other side, they'll meet Eastern conference champions, the Boston Celtics who took down the Indiana Pacers earlier this week in the east. They last made the finals just a couple of years ago, but haven't won it all since 2008. The series will tip off next Thursday, and you can follow along with USA TODAY Sports.

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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump found guilty on all counts in NY hush money trial | The Excerpt