Amid election campaign, Trump first former president convicted of crime (Lead)

New York, May 31 (IANS) In a historic verdict that could impact the presidential elections with reverberations around the world. Donald Trump, who is in the middle of a campaign to reclaim the White House, has become the first former President to be convicted of crimes.The verdict came on Thursday from a jury of 12 ordinary citizens — seven men and five women — who convicted Trump on 34 criminal charges relating to hush money paid before the 2016 election to buy the silence of a porn star who alleged that they had had a sexual tryst.US laws, however, do not prevent him from running for President or getting elected.Of the four criminal cases pending against him, this is the first to conclude with a verdict before the November election and the others may be delayed.Trump was charged with falsifying business records to cover up the hush money payments by showing them on his company ledgers as legal expenses paid to his lawyer Michael Cohen, an offence under New York state laws.He faces a range of sentences from probation or a fine to prison sentences of as many as four years for each of the 34 charges.Even if he is sentenced to prison, he could still stay out and campaign with an appeal to a higher court which is most likely.Leaving the court, Trump said, “This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.””This is long from over,” he added.Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the case, set the sentencing for July 11, just four days before the Republican Party Convention that is expected to formally declare him its candidate for President as he has won an overwhelming majority of the delegates in the primaries, the intra-party elections.Trump said the real verdict will be in November when the presidential elections are held.A poll sponsored by the government-subsidised Public Broadcasting Service showed that 67 per cent of voters said his conviction would not influence their vote; among independents, it was 74 per cent.Trump is evenly matched in polls with President Joe Biden, with less than 1 per cent lead in the aggregation of polls by RealClear