this is a scam, a rigged trial. many republicans express outrage at the verdict, as eight senators pledged to no longer work with the white house. many democrats defend the proceedings, saying this verdict proves no—one is above the law. hello, welcome to our special report on the historic conviction of former president donald trump and its impact on the 2024 presidential election. mr trump is the first ever us president to be convicted of a crime. on thursday, a new yorkjury found him guilty of 3a felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to adult film star stormy daniels before the 2016 election.

mr trump has since repeated his claims, without evidence, that the prosecution was politically orchestrated and the trial was rigged. let's look at how we got to thursday's verdict. the trial officially began on april 15, after a lengthy jury selection process. over the next six weeks, jurors heard testimony from his former business partners including long—time lawyer michael cohen and ms daniels herself. the jury of seven men and five women deliberated for two days, eventually finding him guilty of all 3a felony charges. mr trump is expected back in the courtroom onjuly 11 to be sentenced — he faces up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each of those counts. mr trump says he will appeal the verdict, as our north america correspondent reports.

this is where it all began ten years ago, and today, donald trump returned here to begin his fightback. scrapping the teleprompter with its scripted remarks, he spent a0 minutes ad—libbing and railing against his opponents, hurling around insults like "fascist" and "sleazebag". it was a rigged trial. we wanted a venue change, where we could have a fair trial. - we didn't get it. we wanted a judge change, i we wanted a judge that wasn't conflicted, and obviously he didn't do that. - nobody's ever seen anything like it. - this is the man donald trump blames for his legal woes, even though it was a jury of donald trump's peers that found him guilty. it's reckless, it's dangerous, it's irresponsible, for anyone to say this is rigged, just because they don't like the verdict. 0urjustice system has endured for nearly 250 years and it's the cornerstone of america.

eight years ago, donald trump famously said he could shoot someone right here in the middle of fifth ave and not lose voters. now he really is a criminal, multiple times over, those voters may well get their chance to prove him right or wrong. as commuters arrived for work from republican—leaning staten island, there was plenty of loyalty for the former president. i love trump. why? because he will make america great again. i'm not a fan of him, or biden, but he's very charismatic. - i think people are still going to vote for him, no matter what anyway. according to the trump campaign, more than $34 million was raised from small donors in the hours following the guilty verdict, almost doubling their previous daily record. party leaders were also completely on message. this is a purely political exercise, not a legal one. key figures, like house

speaker mikejohnson, said the conviction was absurd and outrageous, and plenty more leading republicans followed suit. donald trump has their complete loyalty. donald trump will undoubtedly appeal against his conviction, but that won't happen for months. before that, he'll be sentenced and will enter the final lap of this presidential election with a criminal conviction around his neck. this is uncharted territory in the 250—year history of this country. gary 0'donoghue, bbc news, new york. i spoke to the person who originally launched the investigation, former manhattan district attorney cyrus barnes.

you launched the investigation when you were the district attorney of manhattan. in the end, you chose not to bring charges against the former president. remind us why that was. we launched our investigation and ultimately we did bring charges against the trump organisation. you have to remember this was at a time when covid was very much affecting new york city and our ability to call witnesses and to have juries. but we did ultimately have to go to the supreme court twice, which donald trump opposed when he was president. and ultimately the supreme court ruled in our favour, affirming the rule that not even a president is immune from investigation for misconduct he may have done when he was a private citizen. the supreme court ordered the production of his tax records, which this president uniquely alone had refused to provide to the public.

and ultimately his organisation was indicted for tax fraud, as well as his chief financial officer. that is the foundation, in one sense, of the indictment subsequently bought by the manhattan da who who succeeded me, alvin bragg. the work continued until the very end of my term. we were focused on financial investigations. mr bragg sought to alter the focus of the investigation to the case brought today. i think his trial team did an excellentjob at trial. they were focused, they were experienced and skilful, they were fair and honest. i think the jury understood that and returned unanimous verdicts on the indictment that we received just recently. we heard from donald trump today and several of his backers in the republican party, criticising this case, saying it's politically motivated. saying the charges are weak, and that there was a unique method of turning what is normally a misdemeanour into a felony.

what do you say to those criticisms coming from donald trump and his supporters? well, there are many criticisms embedded in that single question, and what i would say is the former president is always a critic of anybody who says anything that he disagrees with. in fact, what i would say is that the investigation into the former president ultimately leads with various chapters until the most recent chapter with alvin bragg. it was started by a us attorney under a democratic administration. it was continued by a us attorney in manhattan under the president's administration. our office subsequently continued it in my two administrations, leading to the ultimately supreme court litigation and indictment. these are people appointed

by the president and elected by the public, four prosecutors over six or seven years. i know my prosecutors well, i know who i am, i know who the us attorneys were, and the allegation this was politically motivated is wrong, it's baseless. i think it is easy to say, but without foundation and proof. with all the hyperbole, what i would say, with respect to the former president, is i think this is the one who is putting politics into the case, not the prosecutors, who are generally professional lawyers working for a public agency. so it's misguided. donald trump's lawyers have been quick to say they will appeal this verdict. what grounds do you think they might have for an appeal? well, i think they will appeal on every possible ground, just as they tried to dismiss the case while it was a pending indictment on any possible ground, irrespective of the likelihood of success.

but i think there will be constitutional issues that they will appeal on, issues of bias, and the appeal will be a multi—layered rehash of everything the former president has said again and again publicly. the new york law that the judge charged was examined in pre—trial motions carefully. however that's not to say one can predict exactly what an appeals court will do in future. i'm confident this case will be appealed directly to the supreme court. as the former da, i take nothing for granted in terms of the process. but for the moment, with what has been achieved today, i think it was achieved honestly and fairly by a jury, properly guarded and charged by a judge... i think it was a fair and thorough process.

we have about 20 seconds, so briefly, how do you think the sentencing might play out? july 11 will be a big day. how likely is it that we could see jail time for donald trump? certainly thejudge has the power to impose up to fouryears injail or no jail at all. my personal opinion is it's very unlikely donald trump, as a candidate for the republican party, would be sentenced four days before the republican convention — there will be some other sentence imposed, whether probation or continuance of the sentence until after the election, but i do not think donald trump will go to jail onjuly 11, my personal opinion. cyrus vance, thank you for your insights.

the verdict answered a lot of questions, but a big one remains, what happens next? i spoke to our north america correspondent, who had the answers to some of your most pressing questions. the first, can mr trump still run for president as a convicted felon? yes, surprisingly he can. there is nothing in the us constitution that prevents us citizens with a criminal record or in prison from running for the presidency. the second question, what sentence could he face onjuly ii? it's possible he could go to prison, but most legal experts seem to think that a fine might be more likely. it's a low level state crime, he is a first—time offender, all of that will be taken into account. but mr trump did behave pretty badly during the trial. he repeatedly violated a gag order, so perhaps that could affect the judge's decision. we will have to wait forjuly ii. could donald trump pardon himself? no, presidents can only

issue pardons for people convicted on federal crimes, this was a state crime. but presidents pardoning themselves, this is all unprecedented, this is uncharted legal territory. so to be honest, it's all a bit of a question mark. will vernon with answers on the trial. for more on the historic nature of the verdict, i spoke to a presidential historian. it's only been one day but how do you think history will look back at this moment? the first president to be convicted of a crime? thank you for having me. i think the history books will look at it in two ways. first, it is extremely unusual in american history to see something like this. we've never had a president convicted of a crime, so it is an unprecedented moment. really lucky as a nation that

no president has acted in such a way to be convicted of a crime. that's an exceptional statement. the second piece worth mentioning, under the rule of law, every citizen is supposed to be treated the same. that goes for a former president. the fact that the rule of law applies to mr trump as a presidential candidate and the former president means the justice system did not bend to take into account political rhetoric or positions. long term, that will be seen as a strength of the rule of law and the justice system. as you said, this has never happened before. are there any parallels in american history? what about something like the watergate scandal with president richard nixon? i think the watergate scandal�*s about as close as we can get. of course, richard nixon accepted a pardon, which is inherently an acceptance of wrongdoing. basically an acknowledgement that he had done something wrong and accepted the pardon

in exchange for basically going away. he did so, and president ford did so, as a way to have a moment of national healing. but of course nixon wasn't charged. so it is a bit of an imperfect parallel. the other parallel people have discussed is eugene debs was the candidate for the socialist party in 1920, when he ran from jail, the only other candidate, not that trump will necessarily be in jail, but the only other candidate that has come close. what sort of mark do you think this guilty verdict puts on the office of the presidency itself? i think there are two different ways to look at it. one, the mark that if trump loses, he is a former president that has been convicted. therefore he would have among the worst

tenures, perhaszohn tyler competes with him because he sided with the confederacy after his presidency. treason is not great. the other piece that is important, if he is re—elected, it is an amazing statement to suggest the american people would elect a felon. and while there is no prohibition against that in the constitution, i think it is fair to say that the founders would be very surprised that that is something the american people would do. we heard yesterday both donald trump and joe biden essentially saying that, in the end, this is all going to be decided at the ballot box in november. how do you look at the campaign itself? have we ever seen a campaign shaping up like this one in 202a? no, i haven't, and it's almost impossible to predict what is going to happen next. frankly, historians aren't very good at that anyway. but i think it's clear, no matter what happens the next couple of months, it's going to be a very close election. that is true any time you have this kind of intense polarisation. so this moment, if it does have an effect,

is going to be one really felt on the margins, and in the middle where voters are undecided or not yet paying attention. that's where we might see some sort of impact of this moment. really interesting to look back at the history. we really appreciate your time. the verdict puts the presidential election into uncharted territory, but opinion polls show it hasn't really move the needle much for the voters themselves. president biden leading donald trump by about 2% according to a national reuters ipsos poll carried out just after the conviction. 41% of registered voters said they would vote for biden in november, 39% likely to back donald trump. one in five undecided or considering third—party candidates or say they might not vote at all. 0ther polling says swing states have been a bit more favourable to donald trump. on may 13, he was ahead in five

of the six major swing states. nevada, arizona, michigan, pennsylvania and georgia. mr biden holding a small lead in wisconsin. because of the electoral college, these states will have an outsized influence in the north america elections. nomia iqbal has been speaking to voters in the key swing state of georgia. out in the suburbs of georgia, it is voters who will decide donald trump's fate, notjurors. rachel is an independent voter who leans republican. that's right? really, he's guilty? they found him guilty? guilty on all 3a counts. all 3a counts. donald trump's now been convicted. does that factor in to how you will vote in november? i did not have any idea that he... i i honestly did not think he would be convicted. just because, i know that sounds ridiculous, but he's got away with everything else so far! we already knew he was a bit

of a liar and a cheat kind of before he got in! it is date night for conservative couple ron and mickey at their local spa. their peace and quiet is momentarily disrupted to take in the verdict. wow. what's your reaction, ron? i'm not surprised at all. because i think that he was guilty as well. but i'm... i'm pleased, yeah. i am. mickey voted for donald trump last time — not this time. i think he's a complete narcissist. i think that he is, it's all about him and he doesn't take the heart of the american people to heart. for moderate republicans, they are still processing this verdict. i'm not 100% there, i'm not. i think that i'm veryl close because i think most americans will vote with their pocketbooks i or their wallets and at this point, i'm a wallet voter. i if donald trump crossed

a red line for you, would you vote forjoe biden? no, i would not vote forjoe biden. - i would leave it blank. if he crossed a red line. but polls suggest one in four republicans will still dance to donald trump's tune regardless. how can you back a convicted presidential candidate? well, it's not too hard when you look at who is president now. and, you know, i won't go into any of the things that he does that i haven't been pleased with since the day he took office. but if you look at the lesser of the two evils, i would take trump any day. georgia will get to have a say on donald trump twice — once at the polls in november, and at his election interference trial. the date of that is not yet clear. nomia iqbal, bbc news, georgia. the political fallout continued on friday, eight republican senators pledged to stop working

with the white house. the group is made up of right wing conservatives includingjd vance and marco rubio. although the verdict was not mentioned specifically in the letter they wrote, all eight supported trump throughout the case. i spoke to the national political reporter for the washington post. will this verdict change the way any of his supporters, anyone in the country, votes come november? what struck me about some of the voices we heard was the surprise. a lot of people were not actually expecting this to happen. because they weren't paying that much attention or because

it's never happened before. so to the extent that this has been a hypothetical in the polling, how would this affect your vote, it doesn't have a very good track record of being predictive. it's going to take some time to digest that, and for both campaigns to message on it. that's one of the things that we are seeing already, and that we definitely can expect going forward, is to hear a lot more about this. trump was already making his prosecutions front and centre of his campaign. he's only going to intensify that more. the biden campaign for its part had been hands off, not talking about it. now they are viewing it as fair game, now it has been decided by a jury. so there's no question this is going to be talked about a lot more, that's probably the one thing we can say for sure right now. talked about a lot more, and we heard today the trump campaign announcing a record day of fundraising from small from small donors —

$34 million, double their previous high. what does that kind of number tell you? yeah, and they say it's up to more than 50 million in the latest 2a hour period, so that's probably the other most important immediate effect, a concrete effect, that trump had really fallen behind biden in fundraising. the democrats are fundraising off this too. they haven't given numbers but they probably also got a bump, although not that size. so the other most immediate material impact is going to be a tightening of the money race. you have been following the make america great again movement. we all know what happened onjanuary 6, the storming of the capitol building, will there be an increase in political violence with this verdict? we didn't see any of that in the surrounding of the courthouse in the run—up to the verdict.

obviously a lot of security precautions taken, so that's a big sigh of relief. but we have continued to hear trump decline repeated direct opportunities to rule out the possibility of political violence, to tell his supporters not to go there. and he continues to take the position of notjust refusing to disavow that but continuing to glorify it, to align himself with people charged in the attack on the capitol, to glorify them. that has the effect of telling his supporters that that kind of violence and criminality is ok when it's on his side. we have also had a lot of rhetoric from former president trump about the justice system itself. president biden warning today, saying it is dangerous for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don't like the verdict. is there a sense to you that donald trump's attacks on the justice system could harm the nation's confidence in it?

again, it's early, but there's a parallel between the way he attacked the election system and called it rigged and undermined confidence in it, and what he is now doing to the legal system. it's hard to anticipate the consequences of that. but you do certainly see in the way republicans have almost uniformly responded to this verdict by dismissing it, rather than respecting the institution and process. we have a minute left, so briefly if you don't mind, this puts the republican party itself in a difficult position, doesn't it? their likely nominee for president will be a convicted felon. we have heard from the politicians, but what about the republican party? how will it react to this?

trump has, over the past four years since he has been out of office, consolidated control of the republican party, the rank and file. so i am sure that there will be rumblings about a freak—out about the convention and some kind of contingency, but the campaign has been painstaking in making sure there is no chance anything like that could succeed, and he will be the nominee. donald trump are expected to be sentenced onjuly11, the republican national convention just a few days after that. isaac, thank you very much. historic verdict, historic day in the us, plenty more on the website, and more top stories coming up at the top of the hour on bbc news.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

the soldiers killed everybody. they're killing everybody? everybody, yeah. just be careful. thank you. appreciate it. so you can see... i mean, this is the entrance to the camp here, and it stretches all the way down here. complete destruction. all these buildings have been mowed down, the roads have been razed. you can see some israeli military vehicles up there. um, it really does seem like the whole city is on lockdown. explosion.

newsreader: israelis woke up today - to find their worst nightmares had come true. newsreader speaking french. this assault marks the most significant hit in israel in decades. newsreaders speaking. families were killed, revellers at a music festival were shot, and civilians - were terrorised... an unprecedented attack by palestinian militants on israeli territory. joe biden: in this moment of tragedy, i want to say i to them and to the world, and to terrorists everywhere, the united states stands with israel. singing. october 7th 2023

was the bloodiest day in israel's history. armed palestinian gunmen launched a brutal attack, killing around 1,200 men, women and children. over 250 more were taken hostage. singing. benjamin netanyahu: israel is at war. we didn't want this war. it was forced upon us in the most brutal and savage way. we will exact a price that will be remembered by them and israel's other enemies for decades to come. the attack was carried out by hamas, a designated terrorist group. in response, the israeli military invaded gaza, the small strip of palestinian land that's controlled by hamas. but the international court ofjustice has ordered israel to take all measures within its power to prevent