NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced it had found Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
The verdict, which came back after the close of the U.S. stock market, plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, when Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden.
COMMENTS:
KEITH LERNER, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, TRUIST ADVISORY SERVICES, ATLANTA
“There was a lot of uncertainty about the election before this. This adds to some of the uncertainty going forward, but in the interim is probably not going to be a significant market mover, and the market right now is relatively flat reacting to this news.”
JAMIE COX, MANAGING PARTNER, HARRIS FINANCIAL, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
“I don’t know if it has any effect on markets necessarily. But it certainly has an effect on the recently-IPOed DJT. It’s market-moving news for that. The market has already discounted a guilty conviction in the hush money case because it was widely believed to be more of a side show. I think it would have been much more news for the market had he been not convicted. But at this particular moment, markets have been down all week for other reasons, specifically about inflation. That’s what markets is concerned with and not the theater of the trial of a former president.”
PETER CARDILLO, CHIEF MARKET ECONOMIST, SPARTAN CAPITAL SECURITIES, NEW YORK
“I don’t think it means much to the markets, what matters tomorrow is the PCE report. As we get closer to the election it could make a difference.”
“What does this mean going forward? We’ll have to wait and see if the Republicans even nominate him. Now that (Trump has) been found guilty there’s a good possibility that they’ll have a change of heart.”
“But regarding tomorrow, PCE will dominate the market action.”
(Compiled by the Global Finance & Markets Breaking News team)
