NEW YORK – “Answer yes or no and do not hold rallies: This is a trial, not a rally.” “This is not a fair trial, but a political attack launched by Biden by Democratic judges led by a racist and corrupt prosecutor maneuvered.”
It’s just one of the brutal back-and-forths between Judge Arthur Engoron and Donald Trump during the hearing of the civil trial into the alleged financial and tax crimes of his group, the Trump Organization, in which the former president was called to the stand.
More than an interrogation of a defendant, a bullfight: a taste of what will happen in a civil trial without prison sentences when Trump is charged in early 2024 with crimes for which he faces a lengthy prison sentence.
On a procedural level, the court would have a straightforward task: Having already gathered clear evidence of the false financial certificates – because they were based on disproportionately inflated property values created for years by the Trump Organization – it would only have to determine the seriousness of the crimes and the level of Donald Trump’s awareness of the fraud and sets out the penalties: a fine of up to 250 million dollars and, above all, the possible ban for the former president and the other leaders of the group (his children). ) from running businesses in upstate New York, the center of his real estate empire.
But Trump is not just any defendant: for months he has repeatedly repeated that he is the victim of a political conspiracy aimed at preventing his re-election. Judges tried to prevent him from doing so by imposing so-called gag orders on him to insult or threaten judges, lawyers and witnesses in his trials. Many thought he would be more careful under oath.
But Trump entered the courtroom and repeated one of his incendiary statements at the door. And then, under oath, after partially answering some questions, he began his political accusations again, prompting an increasingly annoyed judge to repeatedly (and in vain) remind him of the substance of the financial questions. Until after 4 hours he dejectedly concluded: “It’s a broken record.”
He pushed for the inflated values of his property and after New York Attorney General Letitia James told the hearing that the former president could insult and say he was being persecuted, but in the end it all comes down to facts and numbers, Trump initially blamed his two chief financial officers and an outside accounting firm and then admitted to having been involved in defining those values. Finally, he resorted to his famous “Mona Lisa thesis”: The numbers listed in the documents mean little because their properties, like those of the Mona Lisa, are priceless. Someone can always come along and offer a fortune for Mar-a-Lago or Trump Tower. And in any case there are no victims: the bank loans have been repaid. “A week ago,” prosecutors replied.
After an hour, the angry judge paused the hearing and asked Trump’s lawyers to persuade him to answer questions more quickly. But his new lawyer Alina Habba used the break to accuse the judge of being a prevaricater with his constant allusions to Trump. There is a brief respite in the restart in which Judge Engoron, who is responsible for announcing the verdict (there is no jury in this civil trial), is concerned about not supporting Trump’s defense, which will request a mistrial (trial with errors ). prejudice) or will appeal in the appeal process.
Trump continued to alternate political accusations with some admissions, and when Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace questioned the inflated value of 40 Wall Street ($550 million, two and a half times the market value), Trump exploded against Attorney General James, who was in the first row: “He’s racist and doesn’t know what 40 Wall Street is: he just wants to take away my property, like the communists in China.”