november 5th by the people and they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here. >> bret: former president trump just moments ago. good evening. i'm bret baier. historic day in the united states of america. donald trump is the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes after a new york jury found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in what prosecutors called a scheme to influence the 2016 election through payments to adult film actress. that verdict exposes the president to prison time. not likely as a first offender. as a republican presidential nominee seeks to return to the white house. the judgment presents voters of another test willingness to accept the former president. he said the ultimate vote here will be the american people on november 5th moments ago after all 34 counts were read and agreed to by the jury members. correspondent nate foy is outside the new york supreme court with the latest in what has been a very interesting day. >> former president donald trump did not show any emotion whatsoever as the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts in the first criminal trial ever involving a former u.s. president after 11.5 hours of deliberating the jury found trump guilty of falsifying business records to unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election. as for what comes next, trump now has 30 days to appeal. jail time is considered unlikely because trump has no criminal history and these are nonviolent crimes. trump will now be interviewed by a probation officer before his sentencing hearing on july 11th. the former president faces four years for each of the 34 counts. but new york law limits the maximum sentence to 20 years for this level of felony. manhattan d.a. alvin bragg posted on x writing after the verdict, quote: today a jury found donald j. trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. bragg watched from the courtroom as the guilty verdict came in. he is expected to hold the news conference later tonight. trump attorney todd blanche argued the only way that the jury reached a guilty verdict is if they believed michael cohen's testimony. blanche asserts cohen lied on the witness stand during this trial. judge merchan denied blanche's motion. cohen is the only person directly connecting trump to auto stormy daniels pay off leading up to the 2016 presidential election. as we look forward, bret, with the legal and political calendar, the sentencing hearing i mentioned is on july 11th. that's just four days before the republican national convention in milwaukee. bret? >> bret: nate foy, great job covering this from beginning to end. we appreciate it. i want to note about the politics. >> thank you. >> bret: thank you. that the trump donor site for the campaign is currently down. it went down some 10 minutes right after the verdict. we don't know what that means. waiting for some reaction from the campaign. they are saying this could be their biggest fundraising day as they look at this and reaction to it. let's gets some analysis on the legal side and the political side. trey gowdy former federal prosecutor, district attorney and former congressman from south carolina. fox news chief legal correspondent, anchor of "fox news sunday" shannon bream and jonathan turley professor at the gegeorge washington university w school. you all have been digesting this all day. let's just go down the line, shannon, john, trey, your thoughts on this and how it all developed? >> shannon: well, i think the more that we heard from judge merchan, the way that he was ruling on objections in the courtroom, the way that he allowed some evidence in and barred other evidence. and the jury instructions he ultimately gave yesterday a lot of people started to feel like this jury, first of all, is going to be very confused potentially but also that they are given so many different off ramps that lead them to conviction that it would be surprising probably the best case scenario was going to be a hung jury. now, there are a lot of things that i mentioned there that many people feel are reversible error potentially meaning that on appeal there is a good chance that this trump legal team can score some victories. maybe this conviction is ultimately overturned but bret, you know, that's going to take weeks, months, years, potentially and certainly past this election, which makes a lot of other things coming down the pike very important, including that immunity decision. we're waiting on from the supreme court could get that as soon as as next week, bret. >> bret: jonathan, the appeal process is a lengthy one usually through the new york appellate process is there a way this gets off ramped because ever the election in particular. >> i think we are out of runway needed to appeal this. go to the new york appellate court. there could be an earth to go to the u.s. supreme court to cut that short. i don't see the supreme court likely granting that type of expedited process any more than they did for jack smith. so, he is very likely going to be in that new york appellate process for a while. this is a target-rich environment for appeal. many of us believe there are layers of reversible error here. and in the end, he very well could be vindicated. i think that that's part of what people have to understand. that you can disagree with this decision. i'm disappointed in it because many of us feel this was a legally flawed case and that it was political in its motivations by alvin bragg and others. but we are a nation committed to the rule of law. we have ways and people waiting to review this case. i think that review is likely to go in trump's favor but it may take a while. it may go into the federal system. but, being in that courtroom today, you could feel the weight of history for a lot of people in that room it was clearly thrilling, many of us thought it was a sad moment. it was also a bizarre moment. because the judge had basically said the jury could not come to a verdict and people were leaving the courtroom when the judge basically said my mistake, we have a verdict. and there was just an absolute hush in the room and it changed immediately. of all the pima room, the pressure was clearly building. but the one who didn't seem to show it was former president trump. he didn't show any emotion at all as this mantra of 34 guilty verdicts was heard from the foreperson. >> bret: we're looking live at trump motorcade as it makes its way through the streets of new york, heading back to trump tower. trey, we also have on the screen that district attorney alvin bragg is set to hold a news conference at 6:30 eastern time. we will take that live here on fox. the district attorney, obviously ready to crow about a successful guilty on 34 counts. but, in order to get there, trey, as we have talked about many times, he had to do some at a. >> trey: they took a misdemeanor and put a tuxedo on it and called it a felony. keep in mind, bret, he ran for office promising to do what was done today if that's where we are as a country where we are going to elect the chief law enforcement officer who promises to go after people not crimes you couple that with the evidentiary rulings from this judge. as you know, bret, i was a prosecutor. i enjoyed some pro-prosecution judges. i have never seen one like judge merchan. never saw a judge whose evidentiary rulings undercut the defense that doesn't even get to the jury instructions which were essentially a road map to a guilty verdict only as good as the information they are given. the verdict does not surprise me. >> bret: the fact that the time, shannon, it seemed like guilty was probably the way this was going just by the timing of it as we were looking at it. we were going to have a lot of time to digest the politics and the political fallout. the latest poll that we could find was a marist poll that dealt with this, specifically. if donald trump is found guilty in the hush money trial in new york, are you more likely to vote for him 15%, less likely 17%, or will it make no difference in your vote 67%. the question is what does it mean politically as it legal process continues to play out? >> shannon: yeah, you remember, bret, over a year ago before he was indicted in this first case about alvin bragg he was talking about we drop out if he indicted he said no, it would help his numbers. it's helped with fundraising. you mentioned their website is down right now. has it been crashed because people showed up there and responded to their texts calling for fundraising. it's helped him in the polling. helped him get rid of all of his rivals in the g.o.p. primary as each of them were forced to go out and disenkd him against what they have been calling a political prosecution through these cases. there has been definitely some political upside. you heard the president come out, after the verdict today, he was pretty subdued but he was fighting. and that's what his folks like to see, his supporters want that. they like that about him. they feel like he is fighting for them as well. so he said this is far from over. and now the decision, the verdict comes to the people on november 5th. and i think that will be the line going forward. seems to really rally his base. whether it connects with independents, we know there is a very small group that's movable at this point. and we will see how they feel. >> bret: as we are looking at the trump motorcade going live through manhattan. we have had a flurry of statements from political figures. most of them on the right. we did have a statement from the biden campaign. we expect something more from, perhaps, the president himself. but, speaker mike johnson put out a pretty lengthy statement in which he, in part, said today is a shameful day in american history. democrats cheered as they convicted the leader of the opposing party on ridiculous charges predicated on the testimony of a disbarred convicted felon. this is a purely political exercise, not a legal one. continuing the american people see this as lawfare. they know it's wrong and dangerous. president trump will rightfully appeal this absurd verdict and he will win. we talked a little bit about the appeal process and what is going to happen. let's take a look really quickly at what comes next. specifically in this legal process for former president trump. correspondent c.b. cotton is outside the new york state supreme court as well tonight. good evening, c.b.? >> hi, good evening, bret. this appeals process could buy former president donald trump time to challenge this conviction before the november election. trump's team has 30 days to file a notice of appeal with new york's appellate division. there, trump's legal team can request any sentencing penalties to be put on hold while the appeals process plays out. as for the conviction, trump's lawyers can appeal that, too. legal experts argue there are several grounds, trump's team can pursue. one theory, trump's defense team may argue that stormy daniels testimony was prejudicial. now, during daniels' testimony defense attorney todd blanche argued for a mistrial basically saying that daniels recounting of an alleged sexual encounter with the former president had, quote: nothing to do with the charges in this case. judge juan merchan said the level of details daniels provide was, quote, unnecessary but ultimately he denied both requests and said the defense was partly to blame for allowing that testimony to stray. trump's lawyers may also appeal over the prosecutor's novel legal strategy that we have been talking about. again, trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. those are typically a misdemeanor under new york state law. but, again, the d.a. charged those counts as felonies, alleging the records covered up a second crime, a violation of the new york state election law, which makes it a crime to promote a candidate's election through, quote: unlawful means. now, bret, if this conviction is upheld upon appeal, trump could then try to appeal to new york's highest appeals court. and then at that point he could take this case all the way to the u.s. supreme court. you may remember more than two decades ago in bush v. gore the u.s. supreme court did become involved finding that florida could not reassess those votes. therefore, upholding the election that bush won. back to you. >> bret: okay. c.b., thank you. again, reaction come in. fast and furious. one of the first people putting out a statement former secretary of state former cia director mike pompeo saying the future of this country should and will be decided by the american people in an election, not by 12 new yorkers in a travesty of a politicized courtroom. tom cotton, senator from arkansas as we look live at the trump motorcade, again, getting to trump tower. tom cotton saying the trump jury made a mistake partly because the nakedly partisan judge biased the trial at every turn from allowing an unconstitutional indictment in the first place to excluding key today rigging the jury instructions. the american people see right through joe biden and the democrats' weaponization of the legal system against senator cotton there. speaking of the democrats and the reaction so far, we have only gotten reaction from the biden-harris campaign. let's talk about that and that reaction from white house correspondent peter doocy. is he live on the north lawn. good evening, peter. >> peter: bret, good evening. there is white house reaction coming from the council's office and falls way short of some of the reporting about what we might hear from the white house and officials calling president trump officially convicted felon donald trump. instead the counsel's' office spokesman says we respect the rule of law and have no additional comment right now. there is nothing official from president biden and you can count on one hand the amount of times that he has referenced this case over the last few months. he said at one point he knows trump is free on wednesdays, which is when court was out. and he has joked trump is busy. but the first -- the closest thing to biden reaction is coming from the campaign in wilmington and the communications director who says, in part, donald trump is always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain. but today's verdict does not change the fact that the american people face a simple reality. only one way to keep donald trump out of the oval office at the ballot box. convicted felon or not, trump will be the republican nominee for president. this is going to have no difference in the ways 67% of voters are going to approach november in the new npr, marist poll, 17% saying a guilty verdict makes them more likely to back trump. 15% say less likely, speaker mike johnson is saying. [siren] >> bret: let's listen in and see if we can hear anything. hold on. [shouting] >> guilty. >> bret: motorcade arriving trump tower gave the fist pump and walking in. he has had a number of truth social posts today. and we expect something more we saw perhaps the cameras right after he left the courtroom. peter, we interrupted there. you were making the point that i made earlier about how many people this effects, potentially in the election. does the biden campaign see that or are they looking to capitalize, obviously, on this moment? >> it seems like they do see it because they are still trailing in a lot of polls and decided that yesterday, after weeks of a trial, they had to finally go to new york and address all the cameras. i will point out, they said they only did that press conference in new york outside the trial because that's where all the cameras are. well, next week all the calm are as are going to be right by campaign hq wilmington delaware for hunter's gun trial. we don't expect to hear much from president biden about that or this. he is not here at the white house. he and the rest of the first family are in delaware right now. they are marking today, which is the ninth anniversary of beau biden's passing. so, the first on camera reaction or at least the first chants at that is going to be at some point tomorrow either when the president is coming back or when he is hosting the kansas city chiefs for their super bowl presentation here at the white house. bret. >> bret: peter, what is next physically for the president as far as a campaign trail? do we have anything on that? >> they are going to use the world stage to try to show that the president is the diplomat in the race because we don't think is he going to have anything all weekend and then at the beginning of next week, he will fly to france for the 80th anniversary of d-day which fits in with the whole biden campaign theme of the last couple months, that he is a defender of democracy. we also hear joe biden talk a lot about a report that donald trump and his allies dispute in the atlantic that trump went to france for a different anniversary five years ago and called the people that were buried there suckers and losers. you can expect next week to be a lot more of president biden bringing that back while he talks about democracy and threats to item crazy and freedom vs. fascism but in terms of actually going to the great lakes blue wall states or the sun belt states, that's not going to come for a couple more weeks it. seems like the big -- they are building up for a trip to europe and then practice for the debate which is in less than a month. >> bret: that's right. okay, peter doocy, stand by if you would. thank you. i want to go back to the legal eagles really quickly jonathan and trey and shannon. jonathan, we talked about the appeal process. it's expected that this is going to be filed, at least quickly. we have heard that the sentencing from judge juan merchan is going to come down on july 11th. again, that's four days before the start of the republican national convention. what are the possibilities for sentencing and if an appeal is filed before that, does the sentencing get delayed? >> it can be delayed if those appeals are successful. it's unlikely. you know, it's also unlikely that he would get jail time. it's the first offender. these are not violent offenses. i also believe that judge merchan will have to recognize how he would set off a cascading problem. if you try to even put a -- the leading presidential candidate on home confinement, in new york. so, you're going to have multi tracks going forward. there is going to be appeals taken while he does. the president will be subject to an interview with a probation officer, then a sentencing most of us assuming there is not going to be jail time. the judge obviously has some leeway i also expect you are going to find some three-point shots. they might try to leapfrog to the supreme court. as unlikely as that is. the important thing is people have onto remember around here very upset people here and also many people who i can only describe as an ecstasy over this verdict. but for most americans i think they have to recognize that these moments are a leap of faith in our system. can you disagree with this verdict. not hate the jury for it. you can really believe in the system enough system can be reversed. i think what you were just repeating bret, a lot of people seem to be taking that view. they are not taking the verdict on its faces a validating these charges. there is a feeling that the president can't seem to escape this vortex of new york that he is being pulled from courthouse to courthouse. control that message certainly regain control over the legal side as he picks what appeals to take as it unfolds in the coming days. >> bret: shannon, in fact, judge merchan made a point in one of the q&as back and forth after the defense stood up and ended a statement saying that this could end up with the former president in jail he