Create account

Ongoing story / Donald Trump

Trump's New York hush money case and his conviction on 34 felony counts

Overview · reviewed November 5, 2026

A Manhattan jury found Donald Trump guilty on May 30, 2024, on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, making him the first former US president convicted of a felony.[1][2] Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him on January 10, 2025, ten days before he returned to office, to an unconditional discharge, with no jail, fine or probation.[3] Trump has kept trying to overturn the conviction, and in August 2026 a federal judge refused for the third time to move the case to federal court.[4]

Read the timeline

Follow this story to see new developments when you return.

Judge Juan Merchan sentenced him on January 10, 2025, ten days before he returned to office, to an unconditional discharge, with no jail, fine or probation.[3] Trump has kept trying to overturn the conviction, and in August 2026 a federal judge refused for the third time to move the case to federal court.[4]

Coverage over time

Share of tracked outlets · monthly average of weekly shares (UTC)

Dec 2021: average weekly share 9% (left 3%, center 4%, right 1%), from 1 of 1 weekJan 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksFeb 2022: average weekly share 6% (left 2%, center 3%, right 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksMar 2022: average weekly share 4% (left 1%, center 2%, right 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksApr 2022: average weekly share 4% (left 2%, center 2%, right under 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksMay 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksJun 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksJul 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksAug 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksSep 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksOct 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksNov 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksDec 2022: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksJan 2023: average weekly share 3% (left 1%, center 1%, right 1%), from 5 of 5 weeksFeb 2023: average weekly share 1% (left under 1%, center 1%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksMar 2023: average weekly share 36% (left 12%, center 14%, right 10%), from 4 of 4 weeksApr 2023: average weekly share 27% (left 10%, center 11%, right 7%), from 4 of 4 weeksMay 2023: average weekly share 4% (left 1%, center 2%, right 1%), from 5 of 5 weeksJun 2023: average weekly share 2% (left 1%, center 1%, right under 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksJul 2023: average weekly share 2% (left 1%, center 1%, right under 1%), from 5 of 5 weeksAug 2023: average weekly share 1% (left under 1%, center under 1%, right under 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksSep 2023: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksOct 2023: average weekly share under 1% (left under 1%, center under 1%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksNov 2023: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksDec 2023: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksJan 2024: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksFeb 2024: average weekly share 10% (left 4%, center 4%, right 2%), from 4 of 4 weeksMar 2024: average weekly share 18% (left 6%, center 8%, right 4%), from 4 of 4 weeksApr 2024: average weekly share 37% (left 13%, center 15%, right 9%), from 5 of 5 weeksMay 2024: average weekly share 48% (left 16%, center 19%, right 12%), from 4 of 4 weeksJun 2024: average weekly share 17% (left 5%, center 8%, right 4%), from 4 of 4 weeksJul 2024: average weekly share 14% (left 5%, center 6%, right 3%), from 5 of 5 weeksAug 2024: average weekly share 12% (left 3%, center 6%, right 3%), from 4 of 4 weeksSep 2024: average weekly share 10% (left 3%, center 4%, right 3%), from 5 of 5 weeksOct 2024: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksNov 2024: average weekly share 11% (left 3%, center 6%, right 3%), from 4 of 4 weeksDec 2024: average weekly share 15% (left 4%, center 7%, right 4%), from 5 of 5 weeksJan 2025: average weekly share 15% (left 4%, center 7%, right 5%), from 4 of 4 weeksFeb 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksMar 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksApr 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksMay 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksJun 2025: average weekly share 2% (left 1%, center 1%, right under 1%), from 5 of 5 weeksJul 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksAug 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksSep 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksOct 2025: average weekly share 3% (left 1%, center 1%, right 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksNov 2025: average weekly share 1% (left under 1%, center under 1%, right under 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksDec 2025: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksJan 2026: average weekly share 1% (left 0%, center under 1%, right 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksFeb 2026: average weekly share 1% (left under 1%, center 1%, right under 1%), from 4 of 4 weeksMar 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksApr 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksMay 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksJun 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 5 of 5 weeksJul 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksAug 2026: average weekly share 1% (left under 1%, center 1%, right under 1%), from 5 of 5 weeksSep 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksOct 2026: average weekly share 0% (left 0%, center 0%, right 0%), from 4 of 4 weeksNov 2026: average weekly share 3% (left 1%, center 2%, right under 1%), from 2 of 2 weeks, so far

LeftCenterRight

Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. Over more than two years each bar is a month: the average of that month's weekly shares, so the shape stays readable. The weekly table below keeps every week. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 14 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.

Weekly counts, outlets and reports (66 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)LeftCenterRightOf trackedShareReceipts
Nov 2, 2026716124 of 4715%
Aug 24, 2026818632 of 4667%
Feb 2, 20263519 of 1775%
Jan 12, 20260156 of 1913%
Nov 3, 202543411 of 2095%
Oct 27, 2025510419 of 17411%
Jun 9, 202568216 of 1998%
Jan 27, 202546414 of 2236%
Jan 6, 2025325337122 of 22155%
Dec 30, 202418251760 of 19531%
Dec 16, 202417311159 of 22626%
Dec 9, 202439416 of 2088%
Dec 2, 2024611724 of 22811%
Nov 18, 202414281355 of 22524%
Nov 11, 20241521945 of 21121%
Sep 9, 202447516 of 2307%
Sep 2, 202426333190 of 21242%
Aug 26, 2024923941 of 20420%
Aug 19, 20242316 of 2093%
Aug 12, 20241122942 of 21719%
Aug 5, 202455313 of 2026%
Jul 29, 202411171038 of 22817%
Jul 22, 202498522 of 2349%
Jul 8, 202449619 of 18410%
Jul 1, 202427341374 of 21335%
Jun 24, 20241618943 of 25017%
Jun 17, 20241218939 of 22218%
Jun 10, 20241120839 of 24716%
Jun 3, 202410181442 of 22818%
May 27, 2024596850177 of 24772%
May 20, 202425352585 of 22638%
May 13, 202432371786 of 21640%
May 6, 202437392197 of 23641%
Apr 29, 2024374224103 of 23743%
Apr 22, 202431382695 of 22343%
Apr 15, 2024434731121 of 24749%
Apr 8, 202430311677 of 26429%
Apr 1, 202418261155 of 26421%
Mar 25, 202426311572 of 24529%
Mar 18, 2024910524 of 24610%
Mar 11, 202419301362 of 24326%
Mar 4, 202486519 of 2547%
Feb 26, 202414151039 of 25615%
Feb 12, 202425271264 of 24226%
Oct 2, 20233306 of 2432%
Aug 14, 20234329 of 2464%
Jul 17, 20231012527 of 26710%
Jun 26, 2023815427 of 27910%
May 29, 202365415 of 2586%
May 22, 202325613 of 2695%
May 8, 202325310 of 2544%
May 1, 202355212 of 2565%
Apr 17, 202313221146 of 25418%
Apr 10, 202329262378 of 25431%
Apr 3, 2023566538159 of 26061%
Mar 27, 2023606044164 of 27859%
Mar 20, 202318211655 of 23324%
Mar 13, 202321312577 of 18342%
Mar 6, 20231216634 of 17719%
Feb 27, 20232608 of 1854%
Jan 30, 20231191232 of 19017%
Apr 25, 20222406 of 2043%
Apr 4, 20221012123 of 19112%
Mar 21, 2022715729 of 19215%
Feb 21, 20221523644 of 20022%
Dec 27, 202168216 of 1809%

Latest coverage

The newest reporting in this story's record.

  1. Nov 4, 2026 · first reported · Headline from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

    Court weighs Trump’s hush money appeal

Background

Alvin Bragg took over the Manhattan 's investigation of Trump when he was sworn in in January 2022,[5] and the next month the two prosecutors leading it resigned.[6] One of them, Mark Pomerantz, said Trump was guilty of numerous felony violations,[7] while Bragg's office said in April that the investigation was continuing.[8]

Read the full background (4 more paragraphs)

Manhattan prosecutors convened a new in January 2023 to hear evidence in their years-old investigation of payments made to keep the adult film actor Stormy Daniels quiet,[9] and in March Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen was expected to testify before it.[10] On April 4, Trump pleaded not guilty in a Manhattan court to 34 felony counts, becoming the first former president to face criminal prosecution.[11] In July, a federal judge rejected his bid to move the case to federal court.[12] In February 2024, Judge Juan Merchan kept the trial on schedule for March 25, making it the first of Trump's criminal cases to reach a jury.[13] The start later slipped to April. In March, he barred Trump from making public statements about witnesses, court staff, jurors and prosecutors other than the district attorney.[14]

Jury selection began in mid-April, and within days 12 jurors had been sworn in.[15] In opening statements on April 22, a prosecutor told jurors that Trump had orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election, in part by hiding a payment to the adult film actor Stormy Daniels.[2] On April 30, Merchan held Trump in contempt and fined him $9,000 for nine violations of the gag order, warning that further violations could mean jail.[16] Daniels testified about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 and the payment that bought her silence a decade later.[17] The prosecution's central witness, Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen, testified that Trump was involved in every part of the scheme, including the $130,000 payment and the false invoices used to conceal it.[18] On May 30, 2024, the jury found him guilty on all 34 counts, making him the first former US president convicted of a felony.[1]

Sentencing was delayed several times. After the Supreme Court's July 2024 ruling on presidential immunity, Merchan postponed it to weigh Trump's argument that the ruling undermined the verdict.[19] In December, after Trump had won the election, Merchan rejected the immunity argument, finding that falsifying the records involved what he called decidedly personal acts.[20] On January 10, 2025, ten days before Trump returned to office, Merchan sentenced him to an unconditional discharge: no jail, fine or probation, though the conviction remains on his record.[3]

Trump has kept trying to overturn the conviction. In August 2026, Judge Alvin Hellerstein refused for the third time to move the case to federal court, saying Trump had waited too long after his conviction to seek removal.[4] On November 5, his lawyers were to ask a New York appeals court to throw out the conviction.[21]

Supporting stories (21)
  1. Guilty: Trump becomes first former U.S. president convicted of felony crimes
  2. Trump tried to 'corrupt' the 2016 election, prosecutor alleges as hush money trial gets underway
  3. Judge sentences Trump in hush money case but declines to impose any punishment
  4. Judge rejects Trump’s newest bid to fight hush money conviction in federal court
  5. Alvin Bragg sworn in as Manhattan DA, taking over Trump case
  6. Prosecutors in Charge of Trump Criminal Probe Have Resigned
  7. Ex-prosecutor: Trump 'guilty of numerous felony violations'
  8. Manhattan DA: Trump criminal investigation is continuing
  9. New grand jury is examining Trump hush money, reports say
  10. Cohen to testify before grand jury in Trump hush money probe
  11. Trump charged with 34 felony counts in alleged hush money cover-up case
  12. Federal judge nixes Donald Trump’s bid to move hush-money criminal case, keeping it in state court
  13. Trump’s New York hush-money case will start March 25. It’s the first of his criminal trials
  14. NY judge issues gag order on Trump in hush money trial, blasting his ‘threatening, inflammatory, denigrating’ statements
  15. 12 jurors have been picked for Donald Trump's hush money trial. Selection of alternates ongoing
  16. Judge holds Trump in contempt, fines him $9K, raises threat of jail
  17. Stormy Daniels returns to the stand for more questioning in Trump’s hush money trial - Boston News, Weather, Sports
  18. Michael Cohen links Trump to all aspects of hush money scheme in 2nd day of testimony
  19. Judge delays Trump’s hush money sentencing until at least September after high court immunity ruling
  20. Judge rejects Trump’s bid to toss hush money conviction because of Supreme Court immunity ruling
  21. Judges appear open to Trump’s push to overturn hush money conviction

The full record

Each date is when an update was first reported.

All 210 recorded updates

November 2026

  1. Judges appear open to Trump’s push to overturn hush money convictionHeadline from KVIA El Paso · 25 outlets

August 2026

  1. Judge rejects Trump’s newest bid to fight hush money conviction in federal courtHeadline from KVIA El Paso · 32 outlets

February 2026

  1. Judge appears skeptical of Trump’s latest bid to nix his hush money convictionHeadline from NBC4 Washington · 9 outlets

January 2026

  1. Michael Cohen says he was ‘coerced’ by Letitia James and Alvin Bragg to turn on TrumpHeadline from New York Post · 6 outlets

November 2025

  1. Appeals court gives Trump another shot at erasing his hush money convictionHeadline from Los Angeles Times · 11 outlets

October 2025

  1. Trump appeals New York hush money convictionHeadline from ABC 12 Flint · 19 outlets

June 2025

  1. Federal appeals court hears arguments in Trump’s bid to erase hush money convictionHeadline from Los Angeles Times · 16 outlets

January 2025

  1. President Trump appeals his New York hush money convictionHeadline from St. Louis Post-Dispatch · 14 outlets
  2. Alito spoke with Trump before president-elect asked Supreme Court to delay his sentencingHeadline from ABC 17 Mid-Missouri · 25 outlets
  3. Supreme Court rejects Trump’s bid to delay sentencing in his New York hush money caseHeadline from Philadelphia Inquirer · 75 outlets
  4. Judge denies Trump's bid to halt Friday's hush money case sentencing while they appeal to block itHeadline from FOX 5 New York · 39 outlets
  5. Judge sentences Trump in hush money case but declines to impose any punishmentHeadline from MyNorthwest · 108 outlets
  6. Donald Trump blasts "corrupt" Judge Merchan days before sentencingHeadline from Newsweek · 12 outlets
  7. Judge sets Trump's sentencing in hush money case for Jan. 10, but signals no jail timeHeadline from WWL New Orleans · 54 outlets

December 2024

  1. Judge rejects Trump’s bid to toss hush money conviction because of Supreme Court immunity rulingHeadline from WHEC Rochester · 57 outlets
  2. Trump's lawyers allege juror misconduct in latest bid to get his hush money conviction dismissedHeadline from Minneapolis Star Tribune · 21 outlets
  3. DA suggests unusual idea for halting Trump’s hush money case while upholding his convictionHeadline from Daily Journal · 14 outlets
  4. Citing Hunter Biden pardon, Trump asks judge to dismiss his criminal hush money caseHeadline from ABC 11 Raleigh · 28 outlets

November 2024

  1. Judge Merchan postpones Trump's hush money sentencing indefinitelyHeadline from Newsweek · 5 outlets
  2. Prosectors oppose dismissing Trump’s hush money caseHeadline from Foxla · 22 outlets
  3. Judge delays Trump hush money sentencing in order to decide where case should go nowHeadline from The Republic · 47 outlets
  4. Judge delays ruling on whether to scrap Trump’s conviction in hush money caseHeadline from Las Vegas Review-Journal · 47 outlets

September 2024

  1. New York appeals court rejects two more attempts by Trump to lift gag orderHeadline from ABC 17 Mid-Missouri · 16 outlets
  2. Trump gets criminal sentencing delayed till after presidential electionHeadline from Delaware Public Media · 90 outlets
  3. Federal judge denies Trump’s request to move hush money case to federal courtHeadline from CNN · 24 outlets

Coverage & sources

Read the reports, see how much was collected over time, or compare outlets by political leaning.

Coverage & sources →