Nov 06, 2023
Donald Trump took the stand in his civil fraud trial on Monday, kicking things off to a fiery start with Judge Arthur Engoron, who repeatedly cut off the former president’s testimony to admonish him for evading questions and going on political rants.
Over the first hour of testimony, Engoron stressed that he wanted to move the case along, insisting that Trump “just answer the questions, no speeches,” and even telling him at one point, “You can attack me, you can do whatever you want, but answer the question.”
Engoron had already ruled before the trial began that Trump and his co-defendants, which include his two eldest sons and The Trump Organization, were liable for “persistent and repeated” financial fraud.
The trial that is currently ongoing seeks to determine how much the Trumps will have to pay in damages and to resolve the other six claims alleged by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
As Trump’s time on the witness stand continued, the judge grew increasingly infuriated with the witness’ responses, beseeching his lawyers to “control him if you can.”
But Trump’s combative behavior may be part of his larger legal strategy, experts say.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek that while he’s not surprised Trump has been defiant on the witness stand, the former president’s choice to take that position on his sole day of testimony in the trial suggests that he’s trying to make the most of a case he already knows he has lost.
“Trump knows that he’s lost this case, and it’s just a matter of how badly. He’s trying to get under the judge’s skin and create a record on appeal,” Rahmani said.
“Judge Engoron asked Trump’s lawyers to control him, but that is a fruitless exercise, because Trump can’t be controlled by anyone,” he added. “The only way to do so is to hold him in contempt, and I don’t think Engoron has the courage to do so.”
Former federal prosecutor and elected State Attorney Michael McAuliffe also told Newsweek that Trump likely knows he and the other defendants in the case won’t be able to improve their circumstances during their time on the stand.
Instead, both Rahmani and McAuliffe said Trump is using his testimony to play to an audience that is well outside the courtroom. They said the former president is using the courtroom for his own “political theater” to speak not to the legal players in the courtroom, but to his base and other voters outside of it.
Asked about the Mar-a-Lago property evaluation, Trump turned his anger to James, calling the trial “disgraceful” and “a political witch hunt.”
“I think she should be ashamed of herself,” Trump said before turning to Engoron to criticize him for the ruling issued before the trial.
“He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump said, adding that he thought Engoron’s opinion was “fraudulent.”
“The fraud is on the court, not on me,” Trump said.
James’ office referred Newsweek to the attorney general’s remarks from earlier in the day, which stated, “This morning, Donald Trump resorted to bullying and name calling, he gave rambling answers and hurled insults from the witness stand to distract from the truth. But make no mistake, he committed fraud. Numbers and facts don’t lie.”
McAuliffe said while it’s “effective in the moment” since Trump can control the courtroom as a witness who isn’t constrained by the rules that the other involved parties face, the former president is “helping the attorney general’s legal case in the long term” because the judge still has yet to determine the penalties the Trumps will face in this case.
Newsweek reached out to Trump attorney Chris Kise via email for comment.
It’s a total disgrace that our Constitution doesn’t have a clause that prevents a filthy crook like Trump to become POTUS. A convicted crook as POTUS. That doesn’t go down too well. I hope that he loses enough fanboys to prevent this ignominy.
That’s A LOT of Fanboys! lol I still don’t think he can win unless he changes his position on Ukraine.
‘A’ RATED @Cygnal Poll Shows Biden Leading In Swing States and Overall
Well, folks, another day, another poll. But this one shows the opposite of what the NYT poll showed Sunday.
Biden not only leads in the swing states but overall, according to one of the nation’s most accurate polling firms:
Overall
Biden 47% (+2)
Trump 45%
Swing Voters
Biden 47% (+5)
Trump 42%
So there you have it. Two different polls, two totally contradictory results. Bottom line? Take all polls with a grain of salt right now and work like hell.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159191323650443&set=a.10150153950690443
I never trust polls anyway, unless I manipulated them myself.
Chris Christie comments:
This is such a bull shit case. Astound me to what level of stupidity and idiocy that democrats can achieve. Rather then allowing the feds to focus on the true crimes, this case is only giving Trump fodder. This case is gonna be blown out once it hits the appeals process. Hey dems you want impeach someone, impeach that idiotic New York AG who is just building up Trumps case on the corruption in the justice system.
He committed fraud. He broke the law. You want them to ignore that just because he committed worse crimes elsewhere?
Bullshit. Anyone who knows anything about commercial real estate or banking or the law associated with this knows this is a bullshit case. No one was hurt. The banks didn’t lose anything and in fact if you know banking you’d know each bank does their own appraisal. The fact trumps financial statements had notes explaining the process eliminates any fraud.
What’s worse is this case just gives fodder to Trump. Anyone who sees this site knows I’m no fan of Trump. The fact the NY AG is a dem who campaigned on nailing Trump shows the bias. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her being disbarred for the apparent prejudice.
This whole NY case just distracts from the real crimes ie Jan 6 and disclosing top secret data. That’s going to nail his ass. Not this NY crap.
Except for the Jan 6 garbage, well said.
He did nothing on Jan 6 that was a crime. All of that is BS as well. The charges against many of the people that were at the rally are also BS. The idea that it was an armed insurrection is simply a lie.
The crowd was also laden with FBI provocateurs. Those people should be in jail, preferably a small cage in GITMO for a very long time.
Sorry I throw in Jan 6 but I would generally agree based on what I’ve seen I don’t see a case but I’m not close enough to opine. The top secret stuff is a problem and Trump can’t have a defense that other presidents have done it. That’s not a defense. All this other crap is just a distraction.
You’re delusional. Trump’s crimes are laid out in the special counsel’s indictment. They started planning their coup even before the November 2020 election.
You can read the full indictment here:
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/01/1191493880/trump-january-6-charges-indictment-counts
“The crowd was also laden with FBI provocateurs.”
Where’s your evidence of this? Lots of video of the crowd has been published, and has been used by “armchair detectives” to identify people who took part in the insurrection; nobody’s been identified as an “FBI provocateur”.
” Lots of video of the crowd has been published, and has been used by “armchair detectives” to identify people who took part in the insurrection”
As a matter of fact, there’s a manhunt going on this very minute for a man who took part in the riot, and “fled and went off into the woods” when law enforcement officers tried to arrest him earlier today.
“it was an armed insurrection”
It’s not even close to true that all of the people at the Capitol on January 6 were unarmed – and the claim is still false even if it is specifically about guns. People who illegally entered Capitol grounds during the insurrection were armed with a wide variety of weapons, including guns, stun guns, knives, batons, baseball bats, axes and chemical sprays. The Department of Justice said in an official update in Jan. 2022 that so far “over 75” people charged in connection to the attack “have been charged with entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon.” (I don’t know what the count is up to today.)
https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/one-year-jan-6-attack-capitol
A few examples:
Mark Mazza of Indiana was charged with crimes including possession of a firearm on Capitol grounds – he accidentally dropped his loaded revolver during a struggle with police on a Capitol terrace.
Guy Reffitt of Texas was charged with crimes including illegally carrying a semi-automatic handgun on Capitol grounds.
Lonnie Coffman of Alabama, who pleaded guilty to weapons charges, admitted that he had carried two loaded pistols in Washington on January 6 and that a truck he had parked blocks from the Capitol contained additional loaded guns, Molotov cocktails and other weapons.
The BS about “FBI provocateurs” stemmed from an article published by Revolver News, a right-wing website. Several indictments against Capitol rioters who are accused of planning the attack with extremist groups include references to unindicted co-conspirators. The article claimed these co-conspirators could actually be FBI informants or undercover agents who infiltrated the groups, played a leading role in planning the attack, and stormed the Capitol.
Except, federal agents acting within the scope of their duties are never considered unindicted co-conspirators because by definition they aren’t conspiring with the alleged bad guys.
That article, based on bullshit, unproven claims, half-truths and inaccurate drivel, was picked up by the usual right-wing fake news sites and far-right “personalities”.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/17/politics/tucker-carlson-capitol-insurrection-conspiracy/index.html
There were no crimes committed for the “Jan. 6” charade. That’s just a fantasy. Believe me, if someone really wanted to take Congress or the White House they would bring a lot of weapons with them. Capital security was told to stand down and the only casualty was a military veteran protester shot in cold blood and a cop that died a few days later with heart issues. That’s not an insurrection.
Insurrection: “a violent uprising against an authority or government”
Where was the violence? After a couple of hours everybody went home. Where was the uprising? Anyway, we can differ on that.
My own opinion is Trump hasn’t done 10% of the corruption and crimes as Biden but Trump is a fucking Vatnik and on the wrong side of history if he doesn’t support Ukraine.
“they would bring a lot of weapons”
Oath Keepers testified that they had a large weapons cache in a van parked at Arlington National Cemetery to serve as the quick reaction force.
The rioters didn’t have firearms because metal detectors had been set up for the rally. (And trumpkov wanted them removed, saying armed rallygoers were ‘not here to hurt me.’)
“Capital security was told to stand down”
That’s not true. They were told not to use the department’s most powerful tools; they were never told to stand down.
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/548104-capitol-police-told-not-to-use-most-aggressive-tactics-in-riot/
“the only casualty” – Roughly 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot.
“There were no crimes committed”
More than 1,146 people have been charged with a variety of offenses. 623 people have received sentences, and 378 people have so far been sentenced to jail time.
“After a couple of hours everybody went home.”
A bit over 3 hours, and the insurrectionists left only after the leader of the attempted coup tweeted for them to go home.
Anyone who knows anything about the law associated with this knows that he’s guilty of fraud. The law says nothing about whether or not the loans were repaid. He got better terms than he would have had he not committed fraud. That he got lucky and was able to repay the loan is irrelevant.
Here’s an analogy: We’re in a casino and you ask me to loan you $1000, and say you’ll give my your Rolex Oyster as collateral, and say it’s worth 10 grand. But, you know it’s a fake that you bought on the street in Chinatown for 5 bucks. You gamble, win, and pay me back. I’m out nothing, because you got lucky. But I never would have loaned you the money had I known the true worth of your collateral.
“The fact trumps financial statements had notes explaining the process eliminates any fraud.”
The judge noted that such disclaimers “do not insulate defendants from liability.” In this case, they plainly state that “Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and for designing, implementing, and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement.”
Parties who issue such statements still have a duty to try to provide accurate information, despite a disclaimer.
You can read the judge’s ruling here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/09/26/us/trump-judges-ruling.html
“The banks didn’t lose anything”
Trump was able to con the banks into giving him loans at lower interest rates because of his supposedly excellent financial condition and his personal guaranty—none of which was true. Had he played by the rules and managed to get a loan, it would have been at a higher risk to the bank and therefore would have carried a higher interest rate. According to the state, the banks lost out on some $168 million in interest that they could have earned and should have been paid.
“this case just gives fodder to Trump.”
Unfortunately, that’s true. Those who aren’t fazed by his other crimes certainly won’t be bothered by this; he’ll just use it as a fund-raising opportunity to continue fleecing those in his cult. But that’s no reason to ignore the law being broken.
Larry you really do have Trump derangement Syndrome. It’s all extraneous bullsgit that distracts from the real issues. I told you this law has never been tested at the appellate level. See how quick this shit get thrown out. You ever hear the phrase…no harm no foul.
“I told you this law has never been tested at the appellate level.”
So what? That doesn’t mean the law would be thrown out.
“You ever hear the phrase…no harm no foul.”
Yes – in sports. Not in the law. By your logic, if I shot at you and missed I couldn’t be charged with attempted murder – “no harm, no foul.”
As for TDS, I’m simply posting facts in response to BS that others are posting.
And by the way Larry the law you’re referring too has never been tested at appeal level bill make any bet once this law is reviewed at appellate level it will be completely thrown out. M
Simply it’s a freakin distraction and gives Trump a platform to say the system is corrupt.
Dems are just so stupid. They do crap for show knowing well it means nothing.
Once again, the Democrats have nothing to do with this.
^bert
“the law you’re referring too has never been tested at appeal level bill make any bet once this law is reviewed at appellate level it will be completely thrown out.”
Funny – I just ran across this:
New York’s Appellate Division Reinstates Attorney General’s Statutory Fraud Claim Against “Trump University”
In State of New York v. Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC, New York’s Appellate Division recently denied a motion by Donald Trump’ organization to dismiss a fraud claim brought by the New York Attorney General (“AG”) under Executive Law § 63(12).
————-
So, not only was the law reviewed at the appellate level, but it was in a case involving another one of trumpkov’s frauds. 😂
“So, not only was the law reviewed at the appellate level, but it was in a case involving another one of trumpkov’s frauds. 😂”
😂😂😂
Indeed! The Judge, given his opinions before the trial, should have recused himself. As it is, he has misbehaved repeatedly and should be removed from the bench and disbarred.
They have nothing on Trump, but they are desperate to keep him out of office.
How is a civil case keeping him from office? It is not, he can at best be fined and barred from conducting business in New York.
It will not deter him from becoming president, it may even help him.
^bert
The Democrats?
We are not talking about Russia.
It isn’t a political trial, if he didn’t commit the crime he will not be convicted.
^bert
“Trump can’t be controlled by anyone,….”
Except of course by putler.
You said it. Kompromat can be a darned thing if it’s nasty enough.