May 30, 2024

People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump

New York jury finds Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts

The foreperson answered "guilty" thirty-four times. The jury's decisions covered a paper trail of 11 invoices, 12 ledger vouchers and 11 checks.

30 May 2024, second day of deliberations

On the second day of deliberations, the 12-member Manhattan jury reheard portions of Judge Juan Merchan's instructions and asked for testimony before reaching a verdict on 30 May 2024. The Associated Press reported about 9.5 hours of deliberation across the two days.

The jury unanimously found former president Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. He became the first former U.S. president found guilty of criminal charges.

What the 34 counts actually were

The counts were not 34 charges for a single payment. They tracked a paper trail: 11 invoices, 12 ledger vouchers and 11 checks.

Those records falsely characterized reimbursements to Michael Cohen as legal expenses. Cohen had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence before the 2016 election; Daniels alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which Trump denied.

No sentence that day

Merchan accepted the verdict and scheduled sentencing for 11 July 2024. Imprisonment, probation or a fine had not been decided on 30 May.

Because this was a New York state prosecution, a presidential pardon could not erase the verdict. Trump was a former president on the day it was returned, not a sitting one.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 8 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →