Donald Trump is returning to the campaign trail a day after he became the first former or current US president to be convicted of a crime.
The Republican presidential hopeful will stage a news conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan hours after he was convicted of trying to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actress who claimed they had sex.
His lawyers and supporters described him as defiant and ready to fight the 34 guilty verdicts which they claimed are illegitimate and driven by politics.
No former president or presumptive party nominee has ever faced a felony conviction or the prospect of prison time but Mr Trump is expected to keep his legal troubles central to his campaign.
He has long argued without evidence that the charges against him were orchestrated by Democratic President Joe Biden to try to keep him out of the White House.
“There is nobody who is more defiant,” said Trump spokesman Jason Miller hours after the verdict was read. “He’s ready to get out there and start fighting again.”
On Friday his campaign announced it had raised 34.8 million dollars (£27.2 million) as donations poured in after the verdict. That is more than one million dollars for each felony charge and more than his political operation raised in January and February combined.
Mr Trump and his campaign had been preparing for a guilty verdict for days, even as they held out hope for a hung jury.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump claimed that not even Mother Teresa could beat the charges, which he repeatedly labelled as “rigged.”
His top aides on Wednesday released a memo in which they insisted a verdict would have no impact on the election, whether Mr Trump was convicted or acquitted.
Mr Trump, his team and reporters at the courthouse had been under the impression that the jury on Thursday would wrap up deliberations for the day at 4.30pm. Mr Trump sat smiling and chatting with his lawyers as the proceedings seemed to be coming to a close.
Instead, Judge Juan Merchan announced that a verdict had been reached. Thirty minutes later, Mr Trump listened as the jury delivered a guilty verdict on every count. He sat stony-faced while the verdict was read.
His campaign later fired off a flurry of fundraising appeals and Republican allies rallied to his side.
One text message called him a “political prisoner” even though he has not yet found out if he will be sentenced to prison. The campaign also began selling black Make America Great Again caps to reflect a “dark day in history”.
Aides reported an immediate rush of contributions so intense that WinRed, the platform the campaign uses for fundraising, crashed.
Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes cited the outpouring as a sign “that Americans have seen this sham trial as the political election interference that Biden and Democrats have always intended”.
“November 5th is the day Americans will deliver the real verdict,” he said.
However, Democrats welcomed the verdicts and praised the US justice system.
“Trump toadies are going to attack the jury and the court because they have a plan to dismantle our democracy and it relies on everyone believing the justice system is rigged,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said.
“It isn’t. Donald Trump committed a crime. He got caught. He got convicted. That’s the rule of law.”
Judge Merchan set sentencing for July 11, just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Republican leaders are expected to formally make him their nominee.
The charges of falsifying business records carry up to four years behind bars though Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg would not say on Thursday whether prosecutors intend to seek imprisonment, and it is not clear whether the judge would impose that punishment even if asked.
The conviction, and even imprisonment, would not bar Mr Trump from continuing his bid to return to the White House.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today in this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes through the courtroom doors, by following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favour,” Mr Bragg said after the verdict.
The trial involved charges that the former president falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to Stormy Daniels.
The 130,000 dollar payment came from his former lawyer and personal fixer Michael Cohen to buy Ms Daniels’ silence during the final weeks of the 2016 race in what prosecutors allege was an effort to interfere in the election.
When Mr Cohen was reimbursed, the payments were recorded as legal expenses, which prosecutors said was an unlawful attempt to mask the true purpose of the transaction.
It is unclear how much Mr Trump’s campaigning schedule will ramp up in the days ahead.
He held only a handful of public campaign events as the trial unfolded despite the fact that he had Wednesdays, as well as evenings and weekends, to do what he wished.
He is set in the next two months to have his first debate with Mr Biden, announce a running mate and formally accept his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention.
