Donald Trump has become the first US president to be convicted of a crime after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election.
After deliberations over two days, the 12-member jury announced that it had found Trump guilty on all 34 counts he faced. Unanimity was required for any verdict.
Trump watched the jurors dispassionately as they were polled to confirm the guilty verdict.
Justice Juan Merchan set sentencing for 11 July, three days before the start of the Republican National Convention expected to formally nominate Trump for president.
The verdict plunges the United States into unexplored territory ahead of the 5 November presidential election, when Trump, the Republican candidate, will try to win the White House back from Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump, 77, denied wrongdoing and is expected to appeal.
"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt," Trump told reporters afterwards.
"The real verdict is going to be 5 November by the people," Trump said.
"I am a very innocent man," he added.
Trump faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of a similar crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation.
Incarceration would not prevent him from campaigning, or taking office if he were to win.
Opinion polls show Trump and Mr Biden, 81, locked in a tight race, and Reuters/Ipsos polling has found that a guilty verdict could cost Trump some support from independent and Republican voters.
Late in the day, Justice Merchan, overseeing the case, gathered lawyers for both sides along with Trump at 4:15pm (9:15pm Irish time) to tell them that he planned to dismiss the jury for the day at 4:30.
He then left the bench.
About 20 minutes later, he returned to the bench and informed the parties that the jury had sent a note signed by the foreperson at 4:20pm indicating that it had reached a verdict.
He said the jury had requested 30 more minutes to fill out the verdict form.
The jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business documents after sitting through a five-week trial that featured explicit testimony from adult film actress Stormy Daniels about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in 2006 while he was married to his current wife Melania.
Trump denies ever having intercourse with Ms Daniels.
Trump's then-fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump approved a $130,000 (€120,000) hush money payment to Ms Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 election, when he faced multiple accusations of sexual misbehaviour.
Cohen testified he handled the payment, and that Trump approved a plan to reimburse him through monthly payments disguised as legal work.
Trump's lawyers criticised Cohen's credibility, highlighting his criminal record and imprisonment and his history of lying.
Falsifying business documents is normally a misdemeanour in New York, but prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office elevated it to a felony on grounds that Trump was concealing an illegal campaign contribution.
Trump had complained that he could not get a fair trial in his heavily Democratic hometown.
The case was widely regarded as the least consequential of the four criminal prosecutions Trump faces.
Jurors heard testimony of salacious stories that have been public since 2018, although the charges themselves rested on ledger accounts and other records of Cohen's reimbursement.
This case was also likely to be the only one to go to trial before the election, as the others are delayed by procedural challenges.
If elected, Trump could shut down the two federal cases that accuse him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss and mishandling classified documents after leaving office in 2021.
He would not have the power to stop a separate election-subversion case taking place in Georgia.
Trump has pleaded not guilty in all the cases, and has portrayed his various legal troubles as an effort by Mr Biden's Democratic allies to hurt him politically.
Trump verdict shows 'no one is above the law' - Biden campaign
Trump's conviction shows that "no one is above the law", his election rival President Joe Biden's campaign said.
"In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law," Biden-Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement.
"But today's verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box."
