Donald Trump once again transformed his civil trial for financial fraud into a political platform on Thursday, denouncing “electoral interference” which would be “orchestrated” by “the crook Joe Biden”, four days before the start of the Republican primaries of which he is the big favorite.
The former tenant of the White House, who dreams of returning there, is accused with his sons Eric and Donald Jr of having colossally inflated during the 2010s the value of skyscrapers, luxury hotels or golf courses in heart of their empire, the Trump Organization, to obtain more favorable loans from banks and better insurance conditions.
New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who filed a civil complaint in the fall of 2022 for financial fraud, is seeking $370 million in compensation, but the lawsuit also threatens to take control away from the Trump family. of its real estate assets.
Returning to court on Thursday for final arguments, Donald Trump, 77, once again thundered in front of the press against “political interference”, a “witch hunt” and a “very unfair trial”.
“My legal cases, whether civil or criminal, were all set up by Joe Biden, the crook Joe Biden,” said the billionaire after the hearing, in a statement to the press at his “Trump Building” a historic skyscraper on Wall Street in Manhattan.
“They are doing it to interfere with the elections,” he further accused.
At the hearing, the favorite of the Republican Party primaries, which begin Monday in Iowa (Midwest), wanted to make his own speech.
A request refused by Judge Arthur Engoron who feared “a campaign speech” in the courtroom. Finally, the magistrate authorized Donald Trump to develop some arguments and he took the opportunity to attack prosecutor Letitia James, an African-American magistrate elected from the Democratic Party.
Errors or fraud
“They want to make sure I never win (the election) again. She (the attorney general) hates Trump… and if I can’t talk about it, it hurts me,” he said.
The judge tried to interrupt him, but Mr. Trump replied: “You are pursuing your own goal, you can’t listen for more than a minute.”
Since the trial began on October 2, the billionaire and tribune has railed against justice each time he comes to the Manhattan courthouse, denouncing a “trial worthy of a banana republic.”
His lawyers are pleading a case that they believe is legally empty.
One of them, Chris Kise, admitted possible “unintentional” errors in his client’s financial declarations, but without it being necessary to “conclude fraud”.
However, for the prosecution, “the myriad of deceptive schemes used to inflate the value of assets and conceal facts was so scandalous that it cannot be explained in an innocent way,” according to a note before the hearing.
“No dictator”
In a sign of the tense climate surrounding the trial, police in Nassau County, on the Long Island peninsula east of New York, confirmed that Judge Engoron’s home had been the subject of an unfounded alert threat. with the bomb. In front of the courthouse, under surveillance from a helicopter, a few demonstrators chanted “no dictator in the United States”.
During the trial, Donald Trump violently attacked the judge’s team and the attorney general, and the magistrate imposed two fines totaling $15,000.
Unlike the criminal trials awaiting him this year, including that for his alleged maneuvers aimed at reversing the result of the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump does not risk prison time in this civil case.
But he is playing big and things are off to a bad start.
Even before the opening of the proceedings, Judge Engoron estimated at the end of September that the prosecution presented “conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021, the defendants overvalued the assets” of the group by “812 million (to) 2.2 billion US$” depending on the year, in the figures recorded on Donald Trump’s annual financial documents.
As a result of “repeated fraud,” he ordered the liquidation of companies managing his assets, such as the Trump Tower on 5e Manhattan Avenue or the 40 Wall Street skyscraper.
Measures suspended, however, by an appeal court.
The trial concerns several other crimes, such as insurance fraud, and financial penalties requested by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is now seeking US$370 million and no longer US$250 million as in the complaint. initial.
It remains for Judge Engoron to close the proceedings in the coming days and determine the amount of damage and reparations.