Former US President and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump holds a marketing campaign occasion throughout a Club 47 USA occasion at Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida on October 11, 2023.
Giorgio Viera | Afp | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump returned to court in Manhattan on Tuesday to attend the continued $250 million civil fraud trial in opposition to him and his firm.
Before leaving Trump Tower for the trial at Manhattan Supreme Court, Trump despatched a social media put up that slammed the judge listening to the case as a “Radical Left Democrat.”
“America can’t let this occur. Our authorized system is corrupt and damaged!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump had initially deliberate to be current on the trial this week for the testimony of Michael Cohen, his former private lawyer and fixer.
Cohen’s testimony earlier than Congress in 2019, during which he alleged that the Trump Organization misleadingly modified the values of key actual property property for monetary advantages, prompted New York Attorney General Letitia James to launch a probe into Trump and his enterprise.
But Cohen’s anticipated look within the trial was delayed due to what he referred to as a “pre-existing medical situation that impedes my capability to testify.”
“Rest assured, I’ll testify on the earliest alternative,” Cohen stated Saturday in an announcement to NBC News.
James’ probe led to the lawsuit accusing Trump, two of his grownup sons, the Trump Organization and others of a yearslong sample of enterprise fraud. James seeks round $250 million in damages, and a court docket order completely barring Trump and different defendants from operating a enterprise in New York.
Trump has denied wrongdoing. He repeatedly criticized James, the judge and the proceedings usually when he was in court docket for a part of the primary week of the trial in early October.
During that stretch, Judge Arthur Engoron imposed a partial gag order on Trump after the previous president despatched a social media put up attacking the judge’s regulation clerk.
Engoron ordered Trump and others within the case not to communicate publicly about any member of his workers.
Trump has since been hit with one other partial gag order in a federal legal case in Washington, D.C., the place he faces fees associated to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump, who’s operating for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, left the New York civil trial after two-and-a-half days, after complaining that he was “caught right here” as an alternative of campaigning.
He shouldn’t be required to attend the trial, which is predicted to final till late December.
Engoron is conducting the trial with no jury and can ship verdicts within the case himself.
Trump within the Truth Social put up Tuesday morning repeated his declare that he has been unfairly denied a jury within the case.
“I am unable to have a JURY and am being viciously tried below a Statute that has by no means been used earlier than. The Radical Left Democrat Judge, WHO IS HIGHLY POLITICAL, serves as Judge, Jury, and all the things else,” he stated.
This is growing information. Please examine again for updates.