Donald Trump: 34 Times a Felon – The Village Voice

A little after 5:00 p.m. this evening, Donald J. Trump became the first former president of the United States to be found guilty of a felony. Within a few minutes, 33 more guilty verdicts were pronounced, on charges of falsifying business records — a clean sweep for the prosecution. The jurors deliberated for less than 12 hours, in a case that hinged on secret payments made to a porn star in 2016 to prevent her from telling her story about a sexual liaison with the then Republican presidential candidate years earlier. 

News trucks, reporters, cops, and citizens of all stripes were outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan as the verdicts were read.

Both supporters and opponents of the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate exercised their free speech rights after the verdict was handed down. One crowd member shouted at Trump supporters, “Now you know what it feels like to be a Mets fan!” Another, wearing a “Fuck Biden” shirt, bellowed, “Donald Trump just won the 2024 election!”

The crowd continued trading barbs long after the former president’s motorcade had begun a slow crawl up the FDR drive (an AP helicopter camera zoomed in on one of the slow-moving black SUVs, bringing memories of the O.J. Simpson “chase” in 1994).

But, as is often the case with New York street theater, the pigeons were the most abiding witnesses.  ❖

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This article is part of a series — At 250, Who Will America Be? — reporting on threats to American democracy as we approach the nation’s Semiquincentennial, on July 4, 2026.
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