Former President Donald Trump went from having a clean record to becoming a felon after a Manhattan jury found him guilty in the criminal hush money case last week — in part due to his imperfect legal strategy and damning instructions given by the judge.

Legal experts say Trump’s conviction can be traced to the defense’s strategy from the beginning of the weekslong trial. Trump insisted the verdict was “rigged” and driven by politics after a jury found him guilty on Thursday of all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money reimbursements made to his ex-attorney Michael Cohen.