Stephen L. Snyder, the flamboyant plaintiff’s attorney who won hundreds of millions of dollars over a five-decade career, was convicted of attempted extortion and other violations by a federal jury Friday.

Snyder, 77, represented himself against allegations that he tried to shake down the University of Maryland Medical System for $25 million in exchange for not exposing what he said were deficiencies in its organ transplant program. Snyder said he had been aggressive — as was his calling card throughout his career — but insisted he had no criminal intent and was entrapped by the government.

The jury deliberated for just a few hours and found him guilty on all counts. Snyder shook his head slightly as the first guilty count was read.

“I’m disappointed,” he told reporters outside the courtroom, declining further comment.

Snyder’s day in court started with him returning from jail, where he spent the night after U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman found him in contempt following closing arguments. She ruled he had repeatedly and intentionally violated several of her orders and after being warned he was facing criminal contempt. He faces the prospect now of prison time for the extortion conviction.

Sentencing was scheduled for Feb. 25.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron said in a statement that Snyder “flagrantly and criminally violated his oath of office” and violated rules that guide attorney conduct.

“A judge and jury found that he failed to uphold our standards, along with the rule of law, and he should be held accountable,” Barron said.

The allegations dated to 2018, when Snyder took on two clients who suffered severe complications following organ transplants, and eventually died. Snyder produced television commercials accusing UMMS of putting “profits over safety,” and said he would air them as part of a press blitz that would destroy the hospital.

“You are playing with fire,” he wrote in a prepared presentation.

As a malpractice attorney, Snyder was able to secure a total of $13.5 million in confidential settlements for his clients — which he argued in his trial was acknowledgment of problems within the hospital program — but persisted in seeking $25 million from UMMS for himself to act as a consultant.

In conversations secretly recorded by the FBI, Snyder waffled on what exactly he would do to earn the money, saying UMMS could use him as much or as little as it wanted, suggesting a monthly lunch or no contact at all. Snyder said the agreement would also create a conflict that would prevent him from bringing additional cases.

Prosecutors initially cleared him of criminal wrongdoing, only to charge him two years later — a fact the judge prevented Snyder from telling jurors about, but which he sought to discuss anyway.

“The wrong person is being prosecuted,” Snyder told jurors. “It is the bad conduct of Maryland that has not been exposed.”

Hospital officials said they were stunned by Snyder’s pitch, and never wanted to enter into an agreement with him, but kept conversations going out of concern over his threats. Snyder said officials led him on and should have simply let him know they weren’t interested.

“If Maryland didn’t want to do it, that was the end,” Snyder said.

Snyder said his client urged him to pursue a consultancy to reform the hospital, calling it a “mandate.” Snyder said he’d never before pursued such an arrangement, and consulted with three legal experts during his campaign, which he pointed to as evidence that he was trying to be ethical and proper. Though that was the basis for initially clearing him of wrongdoing, trial prosecutors said that amounted to little other than a cover, as he did not inform those lawyers about his threats to expose the hospital.

There was a trial within the trial about whether UMMS actually had serious problems within its organ transplant program. Hospital officials and prosecutors said Snyder twisted and distorted information, and didn’t understand complexities of organ transplants.

Current and former hospital leaders testified that UMMS did transplant higher-risk kidneys at a higher rate than other institutions, but said it was because they wanted to help more people who otherwise might remain on dialysis and be at risk for dying sooner.

Snyder had consulted with medical experts in 2018 who he said gave him searing assessments of the hospital, but at his criminal trial he largely failed to land those accusations, which may have been an indication of his eroding courtroom skills.

His final witness, a Philadelphia doctor whom Snyder had consulted with six years ago about alleged problems at UMMS, said he couldn’t remember the vast majority of what he had told Snyder. The lawyer failed to introduce any documents that could refresh the doctor’s recollection. It was prosecutors, on cross-examination, who showed him an email that summarized his opinions.

Snyder reminded jurors throughout the trial of his success as a lawyer, mentioning magazine covers and his television commercial tagline: “Don’t sue them, Snyder them.” By his own admission, however, Snyder was not at the top of his game. He told the court that he is in poor health and struggling. He repeatedly ran afoul of the judge. Most of his direct and cross-examinations were peppered with sustained objections, including 100 in one day of testimony, for not following court rules and Boardman’s orders.

That culminated in Boardman’s criminal contempt finding late Thursday. Snyder asked Boardman to reconsider given his health, but she did not depart from her order.

Snyder arrived in court Friday morning from lockup in a blue pinstripe suit. He said good morning to Boardman as he walked past the bench to the trial table.

During his campaign to extract money from UMMS, Snyder took a top hospital official, Dr. Stephen Bartlett, out to dinner at The Capital Grille with their significant others. Snyder directed Bartlett to the bar, where the maître d’ handed him an envelope containing graphic images of a hospital patient and internal hospital documents. Snyder said he wanted to be paid to keep it quiet.

Red-faced with bloodshot eyes, Snyder repeatedly told Bartlett’s wife, “As long as he does what I want him to do, you’ll be OK,” according to Bartlett, who was the chief medical officer at UMMS.

“I was sick inside,” Bartlett testified. “I felt as if I had just had dinner with a very bad person.”

Bartlett later sent Snyder a text message saying he had told another hospital official that they were at risk for fraud and punitive damages. Snyder told jurors that was an admission of wrongdoing, but Bartlett said he was conveying Snyder’s threat.

Andrew Jay Graham, a well-known Baltimore attorney whom Snyder hired for ethical guidance, testified that he thought it appropriate for Snyder to seek the consultancy arrangement, though he also said he was unaware of the threats Snyder was making. Another legal expert also testified that there was nothing unusual about the proposed arrangement, and said it appeared to him, based on Snyder’s assertions, that the hospital was at risk for greater economic harm.

Michele Sanders, the client of Snyder’s who lost her husband after severe complications following a kidney transplant, testified that she wasn’t seeking economic relief but wanted to make sure there were changes at UMMS. She said she wanted Snyder to become a consultant “so this would never, ever, ever happen to anyone else again.”

She said she trusts Snyder to this day. But in response to Snyder’s final question, she said she was upset after learning that Snyder’s consultancy would have put him “on their side,” referring to the hospital.

That would mean “you couldn’t help people like me anymore,” Sanders testified. “I said if you ever did this, I would never speak to you again.”

Still, outside the courtroom, Sanders told a reporter that she believed Snyder was not guilty.

Jurors also heard from a former associate who worked for Snyder, Kevin Stern, who said Snyder directed him to destroy his notes of a meeting Snyder had with hospital officials. Stern did not destroy the notes, instead making multiple copies and contacting an attorney.