NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — The story happened just as everyone was about to leave.
Judge Juan M. Merchan had already summoned Donald Trump, his legal team and prosecutors to the court where the former president has been on trial since mid-April. The judge said he planned to send the jury home within minutes – at 4.30pm – with deliberations resuming the following morning.
Trump appeared upbeat, having lively conversations with his lawyers. A bell that rang in the courtroom whenever the jury had something to say to the court remained silent all day.
In the end, it wasn’t the bell that signaled something was happening, but the jingling of a court officer’s keys – a ring full of them jingling as Major Michael McKee hurried past the judge’s bench and out a door into a private hallway. .
Then, unexpectedly, the judge returned to the courtroom. There was another jury note, signed at 4:20 p.m. Merchan read it out loud.
“We, the jury, have reached a verdict,” he said, and asked for another 30 minutes to fill out the verdict form.
The “hurry up and wait” rhythm of deliberations gave way to anticipatory tension.
“I’m sure you’ll hear from the sergeant, the major and everyone else, but please don’t have any kind of outbursts when we make a verdict,” Merchan warned everyone in the courtroom. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As the minutes ticked by, defense attorney Todd Blanche whispered to Trump, who was stone-faced and with his arms crossed over his chest. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, entered the courtroom and sat with aides in the gallery.
The courtroom was packed with people, including dozens of reporters, cartoonists, members of the public and Trump’s son, Eric. Bragg employees crowded into the back row of the audience. Court staff lined the wall next to the judge’s bench. Only two seats were unclaimed, occupied by a Van Gogh sunflower cushion and a newspaper that no one came back to claim.
Just before 5pm, the judge returned to the bench. He reread the portentous note and instructed court officials to bring the jury into court.
The six alternate jurors, who watched the testimony but did not participate in the deliberations, were brought into the courtroom and sat in the front row of the hearing.
The 12 jurors followed. Most looked straight ahead as they passed Trump.
About a dozen court officials filled the room.
So, the moment has come. The courtroom was silent.
“What do you think of the first count of the indictment, charging Donald J. Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree?” asked a court official. “Guilty,” said the foreman, whose name was not publicly released, in a firm voice.
The same answer, “guilty,” came over and over again. Trump was convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying records at his company as part of a broad scheme to cover up payments made to a pornographic actor during the 2016 election.
As the verdict was read and dozens of reporters relayed the news to editors, wireless internet service in the courtroom suddenly became slow.
Monitors in another courtroom, where more reporters were watching the proceedings on closed-circuit television, were turned off while the verdict was read, so that members of the media and the public who were there to observe could not see Trump’s face as the first “guilty”. was read aloud, but a muffled sigh could be heard.
The video broadcast resumed after the last accusation was read aloud, showing Trump sitting with an expressionless look.
Trump began to slowly look around the room and stared, still expressionless, at the jurors as they stated that they found him guilty on all counts.
Blanche placed her face in her hands and frowned.
Merchan thanked the jury for their work, something common at the end of any trial.
“You were involved in a very stressful and difficult task,” he said, adding that the weeks of the trial were “a lot of time to be away from your jobs, your families, all your responsibilities.”
The jury was then dismissed. Trump stood still as jurors filed out of the courtroom, appearing to look at them one by one as they passed in front of him.
In the hallway outside the 15th-floor courtroom, applause could be heard coming from the street below, where a small group of Trump supporters and detractors had gathered.
As the former president and presumptive Republican nominee left the courtroom, Eric Trump placed his hand on his back.
Then, after watching his mother as the verdict was given, Donald Trump turned to the cameras waiting for him in the hallway.
“I’m a very innocent man,” he said, before vowing to continue to contest a case he has repeatedly called “a disgrace.”
“We will fight to the end and we will win,” he said.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, likely in the same courtroom where the story was made on Thursday.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
