Exploring the 34 felony charges against Donald Trump: A breakdown of the convictions
The former president was accused of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, but what do these actually mean?
Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies in a single trial. In the US legal system, an individual can face multiple charges in one case.
Usually, there are only a few allegations of misconduct, but in more complex cases, the list can be extensive. In the case of the former president, prosecutors charged him with over 30 offences.
After careful consideration, the jury concluded that he was guilty of all the accusations levelled against him in this case. To help understand this better, we've broken down these charges.
All the charges were for falsifying business records in the first degree, a serious crime in the corporate world. He manipulated these records to conceal the hush money he paid to Stormy Daniels.
Each instance of Trump doing this was counted as a separate charge. Furthermore, the charges can be divided into three categories: invoices for legal services, checks paid for legal services, and ledger entries for legal services, reports the Mirror.
Falsifying invoices for legal services.
Faking invoices can land you in serious legal hot water, as Trump has discovered. To be accused of falsifying invoices, certain criteria must be met.
The invoice in question must be a duplicate, counterfeit, or inflated to appear more valuable than it truly is. Moreover, there needs to be intent.
It must be proven that the individual charged sent the invoice to a client with the intention of defrauding them. Another instance of falsifying an invoice is charging a customer for a product or service they did not receive, but this also requires proof of intent and awareness from the person being charged.
Trump faced eleven charges related to falsifying invoices and was found guilty on all counts.
Falsifying cheques paid for legal services.
There are numerous ways someone can falsify cheques, including forging them entirely, committing grand larceny, writing cheques from an employer to themselves, and depositing a fake cheque into their account in the hope of receiving money back. In this case, it falls under the offence of falsifying business records, which means they are lying about where and how they're spending their money.
Trump faced eleven charges related to falsifying invoices and was found guilty on all counts.
Falsifying ledger entries for legal services.
A ledger is a record of money entering an exiting an account for either a company or individual. Often times these are managed by an accountant, but an individual can do it themselves.
It is possible for an individual to fudge the numbers or report lies to their accountant who then records inaccurate information. This allows for a company to either hyper-inflate their numbers on the books or not report money altogether.
Of his charges, falsifying invoices made up twelve for Trump. He was found guilty on all counts.
