NEW YORK — Donald Trump mentioned Sunday he has determined in opposition to testifying for a second time at his New York civil fraud trial, posting on social media a day earlier than his scheduled look that he “very efficiently & conclusively” testified final month and noticed no want to take action once more.
The previous president, the main contender for the 2024 Republican nomination, had been anticipated to return to the witness stand Monday as a coda to his protection in opposition to New York Legal professional Common Letitia James ‘ lawsuit.
James, a Democrat, alleges Trump inflated his wealth on monetary statements utilized in securing loans and making offers. The case threatens Trump’s actual property empire and cuts to the guts of his picture as a profitable businessman.
“I can’t be testifying on Monday,” Trump wrote in an all-capital-letters, multipart assertion on his Reality Social platform lower than 20 hours earlier than he was to take the witness stand.
“I’ve already testified to every little thing & don’t have anything extra to say,” Trump added, leaving the ultimate phrase amongst protection witnesses to an accounting skilled employed by his authorized group who testified final week that he discovered “no proof, in any way, for any accounting fraud” in Trump’s monetary statements.
A Trump spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to questions on his determination.
The choice was an abrupt change from Trump’s posture in latest days, when his legal professionals mentioned he was insistent on testifying once more regardless of their issues a couple of gag order that has price him $15,000 in fines for disparaging the decide’s regulation clerk.
“President Trump has already testified. There’s actually nothing extra to say to a decide who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and so far seems to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everybody else concerned within the complicated monetary transactions at situation within the case,” Trump lawyer Christopher Kise mentioned Sunday.
Trump’s determination got here days after his son, Eric Trump, ditched his return look on the witness stand. Trump mentioned on social media that he’d advised Eric to cancel.
It additionally follows Trump’s first journey again to court docket since he testified within the case on Nov. 6. Final Thursday, he watched from the protection desk because the accounting professor, New York College professor Eli Bartov, blasted the state’s case and mentioned Trump’s monetary statements “weren’t materially misstated.”
Trump’s cancellation caught court docket officers without warning. With out Trump on the witness stand, the trial will likely be on maintain till Tuesday, when Bartov will end his testimony. State legal professionals say they’ll then name at the least one rebuttal witness.
In a press release, James mentioned whether or not Trump testified once more or not, “we have now already confirmed that he dedicated years of monetary fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his household. Regardless of how a lot he tries to distract from actuality, the information don’t lie.”
Trump was usually defiant and combative when he testified Nov. 6. Together with defending his wealth and denying wrongdoing, he repeatedly sparred with the decide, whom he criticized as “extraordinarily hostile,” and slammed James as “a political hack.”
Trump answered questions from state legal professionals for about 3½ hours, usually responding with prolonged diatribes. His verbose solutions irked the decide, Arthur Engoron, who admonished, “This isn’t a political rally.”
Had Trump returned to the stand Monday, it could’ve been his protection legal professionals main the questioning, however legal professionals from James‘ workplace might have cross-examined him, too.
Engoron dominated earlier than the trial that Trump and different defendants engaged in fraud. He ordered {that a} receiver take management of some Trump properties, however an appeals court docket has paused that call.
Engoron…
