An evidently combative Donald Trump repeatedly exchanged words with the trial judge on Monday as he took the stand in the New York civil fraud case threatening to cripple his real estate empire.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Trump had made history by being the first former US president to testify as a defendant in a court case in more than a century, only one year before an election that he believes would bring him back to the White House.
During his testimony, the 77-year-old Trump accused Judge Arthur Engoron of issuing ‘fraudulent’ rulings, and denounced New York state attorney general Letitia James, who brought the case against him, as a ‘political hack.’
‘He called me a fraud and he did not know anything about me,’ Trump said of the judge, who was sitting right next to him, before calling the trial a ‘political witch hunt.’
‘This is not a political rally,’ the judge admonished Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. ‘Please, just answer the questions, no speeches.’
At one point, a visibly angry Engoron told Trump’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, to ‘control your client.’
Dressed in a dark blue suit and tie with an American flag on his lapel, Trump denounced what he called a ‘very unfair’ and ‘crazy trial’ brought by Democrats ‘coming after me from 15 different sides.’
Africa Today News, New York reports that Trump, his eldest sons, Don Jr and Eric, and other Trump Organization executives are accused of exaggerating the value of their real estate assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
Testifying under oath, Trump dismissed allegations that the company’s financial statements were fraudulent, describing them as ‘very conservative.’
‘They were not really documents that the banks paid much attention to,” he said, and the value of the “Trump brand” was not taken into account in the valuations of his assets.
‘I became president because of my brand,’ Trump said under questioning from Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office.
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James, the attorney general, told reporters before Trump’s testimony that the former president had “consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets.”
“Before he takes the stand, I am certain that he will engage in name-calling and taunts and race-baiting and call this a witch hunt,” James said. “But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers.
“And numbers, my friends, don’t lie.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked James, who is Black, as “racist,” and has also gone after Engoron, calling the judge “unhinged” and a “Trump-hating radical left, Democrat operative.”
Engoron has responded by slapping Trump with $15,000 in fines for violating a partial gag order imposed after he bashed the judge’s clerk on social media.
Trump’s testimony follows that of his sons Don Jr. and Eric, who took the stand last week and blamed accountants for any inaccuracies in the financial statements of the company.
According to The Washington Post, the last former president to testify publicly as a defendant was Theodore Roosevelt, who took the stand during a 1915 libel trial.
Trump has already given testimony twice in connection with this case, both times in closed-door depositions.
Trump and his sons do not risk going to jail, but face up to $250 million in penalties and potential removal from the management of the family company.