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At 4:37 p.m. on Thursday, audible gasps could be heard in the Manhattan courtroom where former President Donald J. Trump’s hush money trial was taking place. Justice Juan Merchan announced that the jury had reached a verdict.

After just under 12 hours of deliberations, the jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump now faces the potential for four years in prison for each count, though any sentence would likely be set to run concurrently—and the logistics of imprisoning a former president along with Secret Service officers may make such a sentence unlikely.

The end result is that Donald Trump is a convicted felon awaiting possible jail time. He is unlikely to face such a sentence during the course of the likely yearslong appeal. If he is elected again in November, he may never face justice for his crimes.

Before the verdict was read out, Trump sat cross-armed, glaring ahead as his lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove whispered to him. His son Eric Trump briefly left the courtroom but returned immediately. (One reporter asked if there was time to use the restroom before the verdict was read, and an officer politely told her, to laughter, no, adding, “Do you really want to leave now?”) District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose team had the historic victory of the first prosecution and conviction of a U.S. president in American history, also joined the courtroom for the first time once the news of the verdict was announced, chatting with his seatmate and putting his hand to his chin as he waited in anticipation.

As they had done throughout the proceedings, none of the jurors made eye contact with Trump as they passed him on the way to the jury box. The courtroom sat in silence as the........

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