Catherine Rusoff
NEW YORK – After five weeks of testimony, Former President Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday at his “silence” trial in Manhattan.
The jury of seven men and five women convicted Trump on all 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records.
Alice Gainer of CBS New York was one of about 60 journalists seated in the main courtroom, and She was there every day of the trialwhich began on April 15th.
“There was an audible gasp in the courtroom.”
Thursday was the second day of jury deliberations. The jury had sent two notes on Wednesday — one asking to review testimony and another asking to hear the judge’s instructions again — but there were no notes from the jury all day Thursday.
At around 4:15 p.m., the judge entered the courtroom and said he would give the jury a few more minutes before dismissing them at 4:30 p.m.
Gainer says the former president appeared to be in good spirits as he entered the courtroom.
At 4:30 p.m., however, the judge returned to court and said the jury had reached a verdict and wanted an additional 30 minutes to fill out the forms.
“There was an audible gasp in the courtroom because no one expected this. They thought they would be dismissed for today and that we would be back tomorrow,” Gainer said. “When they said they had a verdict, he was sitting there and I saw him with his eyes closed again. And that was his behavior throughout the trial. I don’t know. We asked him… and he doesn’t answer that question.”
Court officials instructed the public to remain quiet while the verdict was read.
“He was very red in the face”
Shortly after 5pm, the jury was brought into court and the president read the verdict – guilty on all 34 charges.
Gainer says although reporters are in the main courtroom, they don’t have a clear view of Trump’s face because they are sitting behind him, but there are video monitors they can see through binoculars. When the verdict was read, however, the video feed from the defense table cut out, so they could not see Trump’s immediate reaction.
Jury members appeared expressionless and there was no audible reaction in the courtroom.
The defense tried to file a request for acquittal shortly after the sentence was read, which was denied. There was no visible reaction from prosecutors.
“When the former president came out, he was very red in the face. He kind of awkwardly went to take the hand of Eric Trump, his son. I don’t know if he shook it or what he was trying to do, a father-son moment. And when he was leaving, he was a little sweaty and had a very angry expression on his face,” Gainer said.
“There was a moment when the judge said, ‘What’s the bail situation?’ And the prosecutors said, ‘Uh, there’s no bail.’ Then the former president left, left and we were immediately released from court,” Gainer added.
Trump then spoke to cameras outside the courtroomcalling the trial “rigged” and “a disgrace.”
When dismissing the jury, the judge said it was now up to them to speak publicly about the trial or not.
Sentencing is scheduled for July 11th at 10am
Alice Gainer
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