Trump verdict brings GOP skeptics into the fold

Donald Trump is the first former U.S. president to become a convicted felon after a jury on Thursday found him guilty on all counts of falsifying business records to conceal alleged affairs during his 2016 campaign. 

The 34-count conviction deals the most striking legal blow yet to a man who dodged criminal scrutiny for decades, now unable to fend off a guilty verdict in the city that fostered the fame that catapulted him into the nation’s most powerful office. 

Trump’s conviction does not prevent him from running for the office of the presidency or returning to the White House should he win in November, but it hurls the country into uncharted waters as he has firmly secured his spot as the presumptive Republican nominee. 

His July 11 sentencing date comes just four days before he is set to officially become that nominee at the Republican National Convention.