2023-11-06 22:47:00
Under a large decorative fresco in faded colors celebrating the adoption of a “Charter of Liberties” in 1683, topped with the inscription in golden letters “IN GOD WE TRUST”, Donald Trump, with a closed face, raises his hand and swears to tell the truth.
The moment is historic: it is the first time in more than 100 years that a former president has been called to testify in his defense during a trial, since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1910s.
Judge threatens to exclude Donald Trump from courtroom: ‘I will draw every negative conclusion possible’
For four hours, interspersed with a lunch break, the Republican favorite for the next American presidential election on November 5, 2024, wearing a navy blue suit, matching tie and shirt, alternates between long, sometimes argumentative answers regarding his fortune, which he is accused of of having colossally overvalued to seduce the banks, and invective once morest this justice which would be at the orders of its political adversaries.
The tone rose when he described the Attorney General of the State of New York Letitia James, who initiated the proceedings, as a “little politician”, then Judge Arthur Engoron, with whom he has execrable relations, as a “judge very hostile.”
“It’s a political witch hunt”, also denounced, as usual, Donald Trump, posing as the victim of an alleged legal scheme, worthy according to him of “third world countries and banana republics”.
“It’s finish?”
Arms crossed, he stares, head slightly tilted, at prosecutor Kevin Wallace, who assails him with questions regarding his sumptuous Mar-a-Lago residences in Florida, Seven Springs in a bucolic corner of the New York suburbs, his skyscrapers. sky of Trump Tower or 40 Wall Street in the American megalopolis.
But on several occasions, his volcanic temperament takes over.
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Donald Trump goes into a long tirade once morest the trial, an “electoral interference” led by a “small politician”, Attorney General Letitia James, and her “very hostile” judge.
“Is it over?”, Kevin Wallace then surprises him by addressing him like an angry child.
“This is the end,” agreed Donald Trump.
To his right, Judge Arthur Engoron, 74 years old, slightly disheveled white hair, is not left out, during a trial which also serves as a trial balloon before those who await Donald Trump in criminal proceedings in 2024, notably for having attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
He asks him for short answers, “not speeches”. “We are not at a political meeting,” says the magistrate, whose annoyance is sometimes perceptible, amidst his humor.
Voluble, he discusses the value of the jewels of his empire, such as his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, and assures that the assets were on the contrary “undervalued” and that the banks made good deals in lending to him “a lot of money”. After four hours of hearing, Donald Trump gave nothing away, repeating once more and once more that the banks made money.
“You have no case,” he says, provocatively, to the prosecutor.
The judge cuts him off: “but it’s a broken record,” he jokes.
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