We start in the US, where Donald Trump has been found guilty on all counts in his hush money trial. This makes him the first former US President to be convicted of criminal charges and the first major party candidate to run for office as a convicted felon. He's called the verdict a disgrace. Mr. Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal involving the former porn star, Stormy Daniels. The verdict, handed down just a few hours ago, comes after two days of deliberations. The former The best President could face up to four years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each count. The trial officially began on April the 15th after a lengthy jury selection process. Then, over the course of more than six weeks, testimony from Mr. Trump's former business partners, including long-time lawyer Michael Cohen, and his accuser, Stormy Daniels, were heard. Twelve New York jurors deliberated for two days to reach Thursday's verdict, in which they found him guilty on all 34 felony charges. Mr. Trump will return to the Manhattan courtroom on July 11th to be sentenced. Here's our North America correspondent, John Sunworth.

In a nearby park, his opponent celebrated. Trump is guilty. While inside the court, the former President was walking into history. Are you worried about coming in to help? As the first ever to be convicted of a crime. This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt. It's a rig trial, a disgrace. But it was a jury who convicted him on the evidence, 34 counts of falsifying business records to disguise hush money payments to the porn star Stormy Daniels for the purpose prosecutors said, of keeping her claimed that they'd had sex from the American public just ahead of the 2016 election. The verdict brought only gloom to Mr. Trump supporters who were left repeating those claims of political persecution.

And they're afraid of a much more popular opponent, which they know will defeat them.

But this was a decision made by 12 ordinary New Yorkers, your fellow citizens. There's nothing political about that, is there?

I'm not going to say that the jury was tainted, but who knows? Who knows?

So despite the sense of despondency amongst the Trump supporters. It's all pretty good natured here, although, as you can see, there's a pretty large police presence just in case. The bigger question, though, is what the reaction is going to be longer term with America now in unchartered territory. You can't even see the back. There's so many people here. What effect will it have on his election chances? Will it put those crucial undecided voters off or draw others to him? And what about the impact of his attacks on America's institutions, already intensifying in the wake of the verdict? The man who brought the case insisted the result was a sign the justice system is working.

While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial, and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors. By following the the facts and the law in doing so without fear or favor.

Millions will agree with him, and millions won't. Sentencing will be in early July. Mr. Trump is unlike legally, legal experts say, to go to jail. But either way, one-half of a divided country now has a convicted criminal as its candidate. John Sudworth, BBC News, New York.

Earlier, we heard from Vinu Gargi's, a Wall Street criminal defense attorney and former New York prosecutor. He told us more about what happens now.

Well, between now and July 11th, his team will get to present a written submission regarding sentencing, and it's basically called a mitigation packet. So they're going to be arguing that the judge doesn't sentence him to any prison time. That's the argument they'll put forth. They'll put forth letters in support. And the prosecution at some point, and maybe they'll do it the day before, will announce what sentence they're seeking, what their recommendation to the judge is. My feeling, or my strong feeling, is that they will be seeking some jail sentence, perhaps the max. And so you have these dueling written submissions. And then on the day of sentencing, the prosecutor, one prosecutor will get to speak. The one attorney for Donald Trump will get to speak. And Mr. Trump, if he chooses, will also also get to speak. Those are the only three people who are legally allowed to speak. The judge could allow others, but it's unlikely. And then the judge will pronounce sentence. And it's my view, and I've said this, I was on your show, that in my view, this judge is going to give him jail time. The concerns that your correspondent brought up about security risks, that's a city issue.

The judge, who is a state court judge, doesn't really care about that. And in fact, I think he's to be one who wants to go down as a person who put Donald Trump in jail. And also from the district attorney's point of view, a DA, Alvin Bragg, they want to say they took a hard life. And so all these factors weigh in for a very strong possibility that he's going to see the inside of Rikers Island, one of the most notorious prisons in the world.

Well, I'm on this. Let's speak to Dr. Thomas Gift, Associate Professor of Political Science at University College London and Director of the US Center on US Politics. Thanks for being with us. Just to pick up on that last point, do you really think this is going to end up as jail time for former President Trump?

Good morning. Thanks so much for having me. I do not. I certainly don't think it's going to end in jail time before the election because most likely, Trump is going to appeal and it's going to progress past November. But even when the ultimate sentence is delivered, given that Trump hasn't committed a crime before, he has no prior criminal record, I think much more likely to see something like probation, I think, at the maximum. I think it's very unlikely that the judge would want to be the one, actually, who was responsible for putting Trump behind bars.

Let's turn to the political implications. What does it mean for the Trump candidacy? Will it be independent and undecided voters who they will affect the most, this verdict?

Well, I think it does two things. First of all, it definitely energizes the far left and it galvanizes the far right. But of course, those are the voters who are already following politics closely, are decided about who they're going to vote for and will certainly turn out to the polls. We really are just talking about a relatively small fraction, I think, of a few percentage points in the middle who this could tip in one direction or the other. Most of the polling that we saw before the actual verdict came down was that 2-3 percentage points of voters would more likely to vote for Biden than Trump. But of course, this is such a wild card, such a unique situation. And given how all of the media frames this and poses it, I think that that could have a big impact. Ultimately, I'm not sure if a whole lot of voters will change their mind, especially it still may. By the time we get to November, as crazy as it sounds, this might just feel like the distant past.

What about the broader question of how we've heard the reaction from Mr. Trump saying that the verdict was a disgrace. Presumably, that's an attempt to delegitimize the court system. How much of an impact does that have on the state of the US?

Well, certainly, this is just one more example of Trump accusing Democrats and the sitting government of weaponizing the judiciary against him. And he's framing this very much as not just a hit against him, but a hit against all of his supporters throughout the country, writ large. I do think that Trump has been very effective so far at leveraging this brand of grievance politics to his advantage. It's one reason why we have seen some increases for Trump in the polls of late. But more broadly, I do think that it sows distrust and a sense of a lack of legitimacy, at least among 50% or so of the electorate. To that extent, it's going to entrench polarization and really tear at the fabric of American democracy.