President Donald Trump is planning to address the court to deliver his own closing argument for New York Attorney General Letitia James’s politically motivated civil “fraud” trial against him.
Unnamed sources reportedly told the Associated Press that one of Trump’s attorneys has told radical Judge Arthur Engoron that the 45th president will be speaking to the court.
If the report is correct, it would be highly unusual for Trump to go through with the reported plan.
Defendants with attorneys rarely give a closing argument if they have lawyers to represent them.
The civil business fraud trial began after NY AG James, a Democrat, filed a lawsuit against Trump and three of his children in September of 2022.
The suit alleges that Trump, along with Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, misled the value of his company’s assets in financial statements “over 200 times in 10 years.”
Initially, James sought $250 million in fines for Trump.
However, James is now asking the judge to fine Trump more than $370 million, according to a brief filed last week.
She is also seeking for Trump to be banned from the real estate industry for life.
Trump has held that James — who vowed to “get” the 45th president while she was running for attorney general — is targeting him for political reasons.
“There is no crime,” Trump said before he entered the New York City Supreme Court in Manhattan for the first day of his trial in October.
“The crime is against me.”
Trump’s defense has argued that their client’s financial statements were unaudited estimates.
The statements were clearly offered as such.
Trump’s legal team adds that the estimates of his net worth were too low.
This is the opposite of what James is claiming, however, as the Democrat prosecutor alleges that he inflated the value of his assets.
“There have been no losses to any party, as the loans here were negotiated between very sophisticated parties,” Trump’s lawyers Christopher Kise and Michael T. Madaio wrote in court papers on Friday.
“Lenders made their own informed decisions.”
Trump called Engoron, who is presiding over the trial, a “deranged, Trump-hating judge.”
Engeron has donated thousands of dollars in political contributions to Democrats, according to campaign finance records.
He has already rescinded some of Trump’s business licenses in New York.
The judge is expected to come to a verdict in the civil business fraud trial by the end of the month.
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