2024-01-11 21:25:09
New York (agencies)
Donald Trump’s civil trial in New York on charges of financial fraud entered its final session yesterday with his lawyers presenting their closing arguments, while the former US president denounced “political interference.”
Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House, is accused, along with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., of inflating the value of their real estate assets over the years to obtain loans and insurance contracts on better terms.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the civil lawsuit once morest them in the fall of 2022, is demanding that they be fined $370 million in damages.
Since the start of the trial on October 2, the 77-year-old billionaire has criticized the judiciary in every appearance he makes in the courtroom or in the corridors of the Manhattan courthouse, denouncing a “campaign of brutality.”
Upon his return to civil court yesterday, he once once more denounced to the press “political interference,” “electoral interference at the highest level,” and “unfair trial.”
For three months, the Trump family’s lawyers considered the case file “empty” from a legal standpoint.
Trump, who is leading the race for the Republican Party’s nomination for the White House in the primary elections that begin on January 15 in the state of Iowa, requested that he personally handle the defense arguments.
At the beginning of the month, one of his lawyers, Chris Case, wrote to New York Judge Arthur Engoron, opposing his client’s request.
According to emails exchanged between the two parties that were added to the judicial file regarding whether Trump himself conducting the closing argument was appropriate and the conditions imposed on such an exceptional gesture, the judge categorically refused to approve the request.
On Tuesday evening, the lawyer requested that the hearing be postponed until January 29 due to the “death” of the mother of former First Lady Melania, noting that Trump was “very close to her.”
But Judge Engoron rejected the request, and set conditions on Wednesday followingnoon to allow Trump to speak personally, saying: “Either you accept the offer or there is no agreement, or now, or not, and you have until noon, in seven minutes… I will not give any additional deadline.”
After a quarter of an hour, the judge decided the issue, announcing that the former president “will not speak before the court” on Thursday.
Amid the tense atmosphere surrounding the trial, police in Nassau County, on the Long Island peninsula east of New York, confirmed that Judge Engoron’s home had been subjected to a bomb threat that turned out to be false.
In this civil case, Trump does not face a prison sentence, unlike other criminal trials awaiting him this year, including a trial on charges of attempting to tamper with the results of the 2020 presidential elections, in which he was defeated by President Joe Biden.
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