The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s conviction: a criminal unfit to stand or serve | Editorial

The prosecution and the guilty verdicts are unprecedented. But making history is not the same as shifting election outcomes

Guilty. The New York jury's unanimous verdicts on 34counts mean that Donald Trump is not only the firstsitting or former US president to be prosecuted inacriminal trial, but the first to be convicted.

Trump was found to have falsified business recordsto hide $130,000 of hush money paid to coverup a sex scandal he feared might hinder his runin2016. Before his entry into politics, it would havebeen taken for granted that such charges would kill a campaign. Yet Trump is running for the White House as a convicted criminal. If he is jailed when he issentenced in July - which most experts think unlikely - it is assumed that he would continue.Ifanything, the prospect of such asentencespurs himon.