Google News goes down morning after Trump conviction

The popular news service Google News went down on Friday morning, following one of the biggest stories in U.S. history occurring Thursday night after Donald Trump’s conviction.

Thousands of users took to website traffic monitor Down Detector to report problems using the service. Most of those users reporting a problem said it was with the website. People from across the US reported having an issue.

One said: “Google news down here – Virginia.” Another wrote: “Google News down- Wyoming – 6:15 AM May 31. Page is there, but either empty or the dreaded ‘&quot’ (referring to a type of error)”

People also took to social media to vent and joke about the service outing. After trying to search ‘British army’ in the Google New search bar and coming up with nothing, one user quipped: “Either google news is down, or defence cuts really are a thing.”

Another wrote: “So Google news search results are broken for everyone else, right?”

This comes as millions attempt to follow the latest developments following the conviction of Trump in a historic court case.

The former US President faced 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, charges which are punishable by up to four years in prison. He denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty, but today a jury has found him guilty on all 34 counts. He has become the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes.

At the heart of the charges are reimbursements paid to Michael Cohen for a $130,000 (£102,000) hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in exchange for not going public with her claim about a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. Prosecutors say the reimbursements were falsely logged as “legal expenses” to hide the true nature of the transactions.

The jury began deliberations on Wednesday, following instructions from the judge on the legal parameters of the case and what they can consider when determining the former president’s guilt or innocence.