Trump brands US a ‘fascist state’ in 40-minute rant amid wild scenes outside his Manhattan home - live

Republican-led states have historically made it difficult for those convicted of a felony to vote or barred it altogether. Now the Republicans’ presumptive nominee for president, who lives in one of those states, is among them.

Donald Trump’s conviction in the New York hush money case puts a spotlight on a wider movement to restore rights that has been gaining momentum in recent years, with the notable exception of Trump’s newly adopted state of Florida and a pair of its Southern neighbors.

Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for the estimated 1.8 million people in the state who had felony convictions, but the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by making the payment of all fines, fees and court costs part of the requirement before voting rights would be restored. That had the effect of making it complex, expensive and risky for people convicted of felonies to try to cast ballots.

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Donald Trump’s trial is not “my focus”, Rishi Sunak has said when asked if he would work with the convicted former US president if the Republican returns to power.

The Prime Minister refused to comment on the ex-president’s hush money trial conviction when asked by reporters.

A New York jury found Mr Trump guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, who said the two had sex.

The former president, the first to be convicted of felony crimes, insisted he was a “very innocent man” and claimed without evidence the trial was “rigged”.

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Whether it was by luck or some other means, Donald Trump has spent his entire life evading consequences, moving through the world with impunity and accusing others of being criminals when his own conduct was called out.

This “I’m rubber, you’re glue” strategy was in part how he defeated New York senator turned Obama administration secretary of state Hillary Clinton when they faced off in the 2016 presidential election.

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Crowds gathered outside Trump Tower for the former president’s planned postconviction remarks on Friday, 31 May, following the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict in his hush money trial.

Trump scheduled a post-trial news conference in the same lobby where he descended a golden escalator to announce his 2016 presidential campaign almost nine years ago.

He was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made to the porn star Stormy Daniels on his behalf in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election in order to buy her silence over a sexual encounter she claims they had a decade earlier, which Trump denies.

Donald Trump became the first US president to receive a criminal conviction on Thursday, being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial.

It’s a serious moment in history, but that didn’t stop internet users from finding the humor in it all, with the jokes pouring in on social media fast and furious. One of the many users to troll Trump pointed out that the verdict came exactly seven years after the former commander-in-chief’s infamous “Covfefe” tweet.

The former president will now have to wait until July to find out his sentence after he was convicted of falsifying business records in order to conceal hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

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Now that Donald Trump is a convicted felon, his list of countries to visit has gotten much shorter.

Graig Graziosi looks at some of the nations that can now bar the former president from entry:

A unanimous 12-person jury in New York found Donald Trump guilty of all 34 counts against him in his so-called hush money case.

The jury agreed, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Trump not only had a hand in falsifying records but did so in order to commit or conceal another crime – specifically, that he violated state law against conspiracy to influence an election by “unlawful means.”

Those “unlawful means” include violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act, the falsification of other business records, and violations of state and federal tax laws.

These are the full 34 counts against the former president: