While former US President Donald Trump’s family business hangs in the balance as his New York civil fraud trial continues, the political theatre outside the courtroom is what has gripped the public’s attention. The Republican front-runner for President in 2024, who has attended the first three days of proceedings, has leveraged the opportunity to create a media spectacle by complaining outside the courtroom that he’s a victim of an overzealous State Attorney General intent on hurting his chances of re-election.
But after days of attacks from the former President, the AG Letitia James accused Trump of a political stunt and that she would not be bullied.
Trump is not required to be at court for the civil trial but has chosen to make an appearance each of the first three days of the hearing, leveraging the opportunity as a campaign stop – arguing as he’s done before that this was all part of a broad political conspiracy against him and a witch-hunt.
“This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. We have a rogue judge, who ruled that the property is worth a tiny fraction of one one-hundredth, a tiny fraction of what they actually are. The crime is against me because we have a corrupt district attorney. We have a corrupt attorney general. And it all comes down from the DOJ [Department of Justice] that totally coordinated this in Washington because I’m leading, I’m the leading candidate. I’m leading Biden by ten points.”
The presiding judge has already ruled that Trump and his businesses committed fraud, finding conclusive evidence that he inflated his fortune to secure favourable bank loans and insurance – a ruling that Trump is now appealing.
As he has continued to launch attacks on those who he believes are persecuting him.
“Judge Engoron has been given false and extremely misleading information about my net worth — private company — nobody’s supposed to know my net worth, now everybody is and will. And well, and I hope you’re impressed because we’ve built a great company. But he’s been given false information, misleading information and corrupt information by a very corrupt and incompetent attorney general, Letitia James. This woman is grossly incompetent. She ran on the basis, ‘I will get Trump,’ without knowing anything about me.”
But the State Attorney General Letitia James, who is seeking at least 250 million dollars in fines and a permanent ban on Trump running businesses in New York, has accused him, his adult sons, the Trump Organisation and others of inflating his net worth by up to 2.2 billion dollars as she directly addressed the litany of attacks against her.
‘They were void of any facts and any evidence. What they were, were comments that unfortunately fomented violence, comments that I would describe as race-baiting, comments that unfortunately appeal to the bottom of our humanity. This case was brought simply because it was a case where individuals have engaged in a pattern and practice of fraud, and I will not sit idly by and allow anyone to subvert the law. Lastly, I will not be bullied. So, Mr. Trump is no longer here. The Donald Trump show is over. This was nothing more than a political stunt, a fundraising stop. Now we can continue to go forward with our trial, and we are confident that justice will be served,” James claims.
Judge Arthur Engoron earlier issued a gag order against Trump after he posted an attack on social media against the judge’s law clerk.
He warned Trump during the second day of trial that personal attacks against members of the court staff were unacceptable and inappropriate and ordered him not to do so again.
The judge himself and the attorney general are excluded from that order. But the last three days do give us some insight into the colourful political theatre that will continue to play out around Trump’s multiple court cases as he runs for the Republican nomination to be president next year. He continues to hold a commanding lead in the polls and his mountain of legal troubles appears to have only boosted his prospects.
Source: SABC
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