Donald Trump blasts ‘rogue judge’ as New York civil fraud trial begins
Former US president Donald Trump has claimed that the “sham” civil fraud trial against him and his sons is a political attack that has taken him off the campaign trail.
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Former US president Donald Trump claims that the “sham” civil fraud trial against him and two of his sons in New York is a political attack that has taken him “off the campaign trail”.
Returning to Trump Tower after spending the day in court, Mr Trump was asked by reporters if he would return for the second day of the civil trial.
Mr Trump is not required to attend the trial, which is a civil action rather than a criminal case.
“We may, I’d love not to. I’d love to be campaigning instead of doing this,” he said.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Mr Trump and his sons Eric and Don Jr committed fraud by inflating the value of the real estate and financial assets of the Trump Organisation for years.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking $250 million in penalties and the removal of Mr Trump and his sons from management of the family empire.
Ms James accused the former US president of “persistent and repeated fraud” and said “justice will prevail.”
“No matter how powerful you are, no matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law,” she said outside court.
Mr Trump attacked the lawsuit against him in the same manner that he has railed against the criminal charges he’s facing in four other jurisdictions.
“This was for politics. It has been very successful for them — they took me off the campaign trail,” Mr Trump said as he exited the courtroom, after the hearing ended.
“Because I’ve been sitting in a courthouse all day long, instead of being in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or a lot of other places I could be at.”
COURT TOLD OF ‘REPEATED FRAUD’
During the hearing, Kevin Wallace, with the attorney general’s office, alleged that Mr Trump and his co-defendants conspired to commit persistent and repeated fraud, CNN reports.
Mr Wallace alleged that Mr Trump’s financial statements convinced banks to take on hidden risk “to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.”
As the former US president looked on, Mr Trump’s lawyers argued that the case was flawed, saying that the differences in valuations were just part of the commercial real estate business.
Mr Trump’s attorney, Christopher Kise, argued there was no intent to defraud and “no victims” in the case.
Earlier, Mr Trump denounced the case as a “scam” and a “witch hunt” when he arrived at the Manhattan court.
“It’s a sham,” he said. “My financial statements are phenomenal.”
He went on to slam Justice Engoron as a “rogue judge,” and accused Ms James, who is Black, of being a “racist attorney general.”
“We have a racist attorney general who is a horror show who ran on the basis that she’s going to get Trump before she knew anything about me,” he said as he arrived for the opening day of what could be a three-month trial.
President Trump: "This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time." pic.twitter.com/xmp8pZJNC8
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 2, 2023
In addition to this civil case, Mr Trump also faces several major criminal proceedings in the months ahead.
Hr is scheduled to appear before a federal judge in Washington on March 4 on charges of trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden.
Mr Trump will then be back in New York State court, this time on criminal hush money charges, and later in a Florida federal court, where he is accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving office.
Finally, he will also have to answer to state charges in Georgia, where prosecutors say Mr Trump illegally tried to get the southern state’s 2020 election results changed in his favour.
In the New York civil case, Engoron ruled that Mr Trump, his two eldest sons and other Trump Organisation executives lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme that exaggerated the value of their properties by $812 million to $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.
As a result, the judge revoked the business licenses that allowed the Trump Organisation to operate some of its New York properties.
Under that kind of pressure, Mr Trump — who made his reputation and fortune as a real estate mogul in the 1980s and had promised to bring his cutthroat industry tactics to the Oval Office — could eventually lose control over many of his company’s flagship properties, such as his Fifth Avenue Trump Tower in Manhattan.
According to Ms James, Mr Trump’s own apartment in that building is among the spaces that were fraudulently overvalued — it was listed as three times bigger than its true size.
Another Manhattan building, at 40 Wall Street, was overvalued between $200-$300 million in financial disclosures, Ms James alleges.
Mr Trump’s luxury Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and several other Trump Organisation golf clubs also appear in Ms James’s complaint.
On Truth Social, Mr Trump claimed there was no “wrongdoing” in his actions of “fully paying back sophisticated Wall Street Banks in full, with interest, with no defaults, and with no victims.”
HIGH-PROFILE WITNESSES
There are likely to be dozens of witnesses called to testify at the trial, including Trump himself, and former financial director of the Trump Organisation Allen Weisselberg, who served time in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud in a separate case brought against the business.
Mr Trump’s children Eric, Don Jr and his oldest daughter Ivanka — who was initially also targeted by Ms James’s complaint but ultimately not prosecuted — are also likely to present their own testimony.
Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen — now an outspoken critic of the former president — and officials from certain Trump-linked financial institutions are also expected to appear.
– Reporting with AFP
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