DONALD TRUMP has became the first former US president to be convicted of serious crimes after a New York jury found him guilty of all 34 charges over a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush-money payment to a porn actor.

Mr Trump sat stone faced on Thursday while the verdict was read. Cheering in the street below could be heard on the courthouse’s 15th floor, where the decision was revealed after more than nine hours of deliberations.

The trial involved charges that Mr Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, who said that she had had sex with Mr Trump, a married man, in 2006.