thank you for joining us tonight. this is a fox news alert. an historic moment. president trump found guilty on all 34 counts. we'll go live to the courthouse for reaction in just a moment. but, first: >> i guess we all need, what, to shop at banana republic from now on because that's what it feels like yeah a banana republic. i wish there was something to laugh about but it's not. this is a disgraceful day for the united states. a day that america may never recover from. yeah, the jury convicted trump on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in order to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. we will break that all down for you. but, from the beginning, this case should have never been brought. this judge should never have been allowed to sit on the case. these charges should have been dismissed when the first motion was filed by the defense. the jury instructions were fatally flawed they were farcical. you don't have to be a former law clerk to know this was all a travesty. all along bragg's case was just an extension of the otherwise doomed biden campaign this is a humiliating day for the country we all love. it makes us look like a joke to the rest of the world. is this what they meant by the american way? democrats shown who they really are. they don't intend to give up power, not ever. funny, that's what they like to accuse trump of. and if this lawfare is rewarded in november it will mean that never again will you have a real choice in the presidential election. you'll maybe be able to choose between two candidates with minor disagreements on the big issues. but you will never again be able to elect someone who makes fundamental changes again not at our border, not with these wars in places like ukraine, and not in our economic policy. think about this. donald trump gave up fame, fortune, and a very comfortable life to try to save america from the forces that are trying to tear it down right now. and if they can do this to someone like donald trump with his means. it will be very difficult to ever turn this around. at least he has the money and the resources right now to fight the cases that are being brought against him, including this and the appeals that will follow. most people will never get this far. so are we going to establish a precedent where the president can put his political opponent in jail? because, if they can do this now, this will, i promise you, this will be the new normal. the democrats are showing you what real power is like. it's the type of power we usually see dictators exercise in china and cuba and north korea. and if anyone threatens the establishment in the future, the democrats will use the same playbook. charge someone like, i don't know, a j.d. vance or a ron desantis and the liberal jurisdiction on some bogus charges and then have a radical judge hand down jury instructions that will make it almost impossible for a jury not to convicted them of something these great defenders of democracy would rather ruin the public's faith in the entire american system. they would rather lay waste to the constitution. destroy the credibility of the u.s. judicial system than risk the real possibility that the people will elect a common sense populist again like trump. if you allow them to get away with this, my friends, if it goes down in the history books that trump was winning until he was convicted of a crime in a liberal jurisdiction, if trump goes on to lose the presidency, then this will become the model for how the left will hang on to power forever. now, the left is gleeful tonight no doubt. we have seen them in the streets. they are cheering, they are pumping their fist. i could only imagine the coming book deal. the 12 s 12 saviors. the interviews on today show near or gas mic on msnbc. they are thinking trump is the real loser here, really we are all the loser. if this is allowed to stand and if these people aren't thrown out of office with an exclamation point. we will be one party state for the foreseeable future. only recourse now with the appellate process as slow as it is but more importantly with you the voters. and given how things have gone. we will have more luck with the people. and if this feels bad tonight, think of how you will feel if biden and harris win again i say turn this dark day into a time recommit yourself to save america from these vindictive far left tyrants. volunteer, donate. organize. and even reach out to others who maybe haven't followed this trial. explain how this reverb united states far beyond trump and how it threatens our ability to effect real political change in the future. today can't be the end of the line for american exceptionalism, but it will be if we sit on our hands and fall into des pair so don't get mad, get motivated. joining me now from right outside the courthouse andy mccarthy former assistant for the district of new york and jonathan turley professor at j.w. university law school. both fox news contributors. also shannon bream host of "fox news sunday." andy, i want to start with you on the question of what the jury actually concluded here and jonathan, you were touching on this earlier on fox. you made a point that the follow-on or bump up crime to make this a felony was never specified in the jury return that came in, in the actual verdict itself. although you just heard alvin bragg say this was -- he was convicted on essentially a conspiracy to subvert democracy. so, who is right here? what trump -- what was trump actually convicted of by a unanimous jury? >> well, the charges in the indictment and i guess formally what will go down in the judgment of conviction are, as you said, laura, 34 counts of falsification of business records with fraudulent intent to conceal another crime that sounds dry. what was pitched to the jury and what was really pitched by bragg publicly in a very peculiar way from the day the indictment was returned, was this basically a scheme to steal the 2016 election. i sort of stumble over that because what is amazing to me about this is bragg is an election denier. he wears it like a badge of honors even as election denial we are told is like the worst thing you can be in public life. i guess it depends on which election it is. but the reason i say it was very peculiar from day one is usually the prosecutor has the narrative that you want to present to the jury in the indictment. it becomes the framework that you plead the charges in. in a very strange way here, the grand jury returned a fairly bare bones indictment laid out the statutory elements of this business records crime. and co-terminusly with that, bragg put out on his own not through the grand jury what he called the statement of facts, which was this narrative narrative about trump defrauding the united states out of what would otherwise have been the delight of having the hillary clinton presidency. and i don't mean to be too snarky about it. you just need to read it. that's basically what it says. it relies explicitly on inadmissible evidence against trump. it relies as a bedrock matter on this idea that michael cohen pled guilty to campaign finance violations and, therefore, the fact that there was this conspiracy to violate the campaign laws and thereby suppress politically damaging information was like an established fact. and that certainly is how judge merchan treated it. >> laura: well, jonathan, if that's the case, why did judge merchan not allow the former fec commissioner to testify? if this was such an open and shut case of election interference, that was aided and abetted by this so-called falsification of the business records by trump, even though he didn't personally do that why not let the jury hear what the fec was really thinking on this matter? >> well, you know, laura, the problem that i saw in that ruling is not that he said that it is his responsibility to say what the law is. that's true. it's up to the trial judge to give those instructions. the problem is that he never gave the instructions, that is the instructions he gave did not go into any meaningful detail on what would constitute a federal election offense. it had some information but it was incomplete and that's why the defense wanted to bring in a legal expert. one of the most telling things that that expert would have brought in, smith. he said look, not only is hush money not a campaign contribution, that's been long established, even if it were a contribution, it couldn't have been part of a conspiracy to influence this election, because it wouldn't have had to have been actually revealed until after the election. so, under -- that's just a matter of dates. that's a matter of filings that are in the regulations. it's not a matter of interpretation. the jury was never told that the jury heard because judge merchan allowed them to hear the prosecutors stated over and over again that it was an establishd fact that elections violations occurred here and that trump ordered those violations that included in the closing argument and many of us were mystified because the judge had given an instruction that cohen's plea agreement could not be used to impute the guilt of trump. and then steinglass, the prosecutor repeatedly did that and judge merchan would do nothing about it. that's the reason i don't blame this jury. what they heard in that room and the instructions they were given, probably to some of them made it look like they had no choice but to convict. and that's the problem. >> laura: yeah, i mean i'm not sure even how much it's worth unpacking this shannon because from the get-go this was a flawed and novel application of this statute. and we all know as lawyers why prosecutors don't like using novel applications of statutes, especially in high profile cases because of the possibility likely possibility of a reversal but, in this case they don't seem too concerned about getting reversed. they wanted to get to the results. >> shannon: yeah, if the result is it oget it done and get conviction before the election then mission accomplished for alvin bragg. remember when he started talking about this more than a year ago the indictment coming together, there were people right, front and center who thought this was a very weak case a bad decision a gamble by alvin bragg that many of them including on the left did not think would pay off. they knew it was novel and yet, he was willing to roll the dice. we have seen new york juries and judgment have not been friendly to president trump. so it's a good jurisdiction for them to try something novel. there is a good chance as we all talked about many things that this trump team will put together for appeal. many things that they can point to and even if they ultimately win it won't matter for this election. it gets you months, maybe years down the road to get to that point even if you eventually get that conviction overturned. in the meantime, it gives the biden-harris campaign a talking point to use about a conviction president trump just did an interview with fox news digital he said he has never had more support. website supposed to be fundraising arm having trouble. overloaded by people who wanted to weigh in now. this gives him that fresh talking point now saying the real verdict comes on november 5th. i would imagine him to keep using that lang wage over and over again tell people if you don't like this verdict i need to you show up in november. >> i want to go back to what i brought up with andy and also with jonathan. what alvin bragg said tonight and whether that was really born out by what the jury concluded, at least what we know about the jury concluded about that bump up crime to the felony. watch. >> this type of white collar prosecution is core to what we do at the manhattan district attorney's office. in the 1930s, district attorney thomas dewey ushered in the era of the modern, independent professional prosecutor. for now nearly 90 years, dedicated professionals in this office have built upon that fine tradition. donald j. trump is guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to conceal a scheme to corrupt the 2016 election. >> laura: andy, do we know that the jury actually unanimously concluded that? no what they unanimously concluded was the business records convictions. the bit about the conspiracy to steal the election is alvin bragg's narrative about the convictions. but, you know, the victors write the history. if this gets upheld on appeal, i don't think it will, but, if it does, that is how it will go counsel in history. certainly laura how it will be written in the press tomorrow. >> laura: jonathan, what precedent does this set going forward for anyone who comes along to challenge an incumbent like donald trump? what precedent does this set? >> it's not good precedent. and i think that when people, perhaps some who are celebrating tonight, and the celebrations are occurring all around us, i think that some may look back at this and wonder what we have done. because there is great damage here. you know, the reference to dewey was confusing, in my view. it was maddening. dewey ran against truman. he didn't try to put truman in jail. so, i don't see bragg as a dewey. i think that this is going to be part of a very troubling legacy for not just bragg but for the new york legal system. it's a sad day. and i know that everyone basically fulfilled their narrative tonight, right? i mean, trump was able to show that there was a political prosecution that gave him very little chance in manhattan. i think that's pretty accurate other side filled anywhere narrative is he a convicted felon. when it comes to the law, i think that we also have to take that leap of faith, to believe that we have a legal system that is stronger than all of this, that the people around here who are celebrating the demise of an individual are going to be disappointed. this isn't necessarily a demise. trump did not look like he was surprised at all. you know, some defendants look like they are heading to jail. he looked like he was heading to dinner. he really did not register it. this is going to be a long road. >> laura: yeah. >> we're going to see how it plays out. i have faith in the legal system. >> laura: well, andy, jonathan, and shannon, all of you thank you so much. joining me now is judge jeanine pirro, co-host of "the five." trump just told fox news digital that the guilty verdict, judge jeanine is a scar on the new york justice system. he vowed to keep fighting. he maintained that the election will be the most important day in the history of our country. and i want to give props to you, judge, because when i thought i saw one or two jurors on that jury who, i don't know, seemed to me a little bit skeptical of the pro-proce whole process yout bank on it this is a new york jury and those lawyers on the panel would have a lot of influence on the rest of the jurors. like this is our area of expertise listen to this. you were right, judge and your comment on what you saw today? >> judge jeanine: well, you know, it's a sad day. i think america went over a cliff today. i think the indictment alone but now the conviction of a former president of the united states on two dead misdemeanors that were resurrected to life by a judge who was not taken out of the wheel but literally picked out because of his anti-trump bias. and a case that was advanced before the election as opposed to those defendants who were in jail waiting for trial whose turn it is to go to trial the fact they had a magic show literally resurrected misdemeanors and brought to light through a felony nobody knew anything about with a judge saying you don't have to be than news on the specifics whether it's a federal election campaign violation, a federal tax crime, or a bookkeeping crime. and so we'll never know whether -- which of those it was. and, of course, they had no jurisdiction over those cases either, laura. i can go on and on. but this was a magic show. where they basically said look over here, we have got stormy daniels and isn't she interesting? and look over here we have, you know, michael cohen and he was convicted of federal elections campaign violation. and david pecker, he had a non-prosecution with a federal election campaign people. and as a matter of law, michael cohen is aiding and abetting in the same allegations as our defendant. so what the judge did, he gave the jury no choice, laura. what he said michael cohen was aiding and abetting in the same agencies that this president is charged with or this defendant. so the jury did what they thought they were supposed to do and they brought back a verdict, which is not only a sad day, laura, but what it does to me as someone who has done this for a living for 32 years, it reminds me of the power of indictment. the power of a prosecutor. and when we have george soros funded prosecutors, and we have the department of justice the biden administration dropping down prosecutors so that they can assist them with local d.a.s, we have got a kangaroo court. but make no mistake. i still believe in the system, laura, because i came up with it. this case is riddled with reversible error and it will be reversed. but, after the election. >> laura: well, how about -- yeah. you can imagine -- given how this has gone, i mean, i think people are wrong to assume, judge, that they're not going to try to put trump either behind bars or basically geo fence him in so he can't really campaign and he needs to ask permission every time he wants to do a rally and then that permission is oh, i will get back to you next week or, well, it will be probation until november 5th. i don't put anything past them. so you have more faith in the new york judicial system, perhaps, because you grew up in it when it was truly the great d.a.s. d.a.s had who a storied history of taking down the real criminals in the city. not this nonsense with this novel application of the law. i'm very concerned about this attempt to remove trump from the campaign trail when he is cutting through with minority voters especially, in places like chicago, filly, and maybe even in l.a. which i know the trump campaign wants to do an event in. >> judge jeanine: well, i think that look, this judge has set july 11th as the sentencing date. the judge can do any one of a number of things. but this team will ask for bail pending appeal. and if it isn't granted, they will go to the appellate division to get bail. this thing has been locking donald trump down. laura, you are a trial lawyer. you were. you and i both know you don't let a jury go for seven days and say look, come back after you have a few barbecues over the memorial day weekend. the whole intent was to keep donald trump locked down. and i agree with you, they will do everything they can to stop him. what they have done is awakened a sleeping giant. everybody listens to all the indictments out there. they have convicted a former president of the united states and probable future president of 34 felonies based on a porn think think owe call her a star and a cereal perjurer michael cohen he was the linchpin of this. if you ask an ordinary american what did donald trump do? they won't be able to tell you. so our job right now is to continue to have faith and support this man as he goes forward because he is the strongest man i have ever met, laura. >> laura: i'm going to repeat it, judge. don't get mad, get motivated. judge, great to see you as always. thank you. joining me now florida congressman byron donalds. congressman, i have to say this is happening as i alluded to with judge jeanine at the same time that we really see trump starting to eat away at the democrats' edge with minority voters. and i think they were in a full frothy panic about biden and harris going up against trump unleashed on the campaign trail. and now they maybe will have