Former President Donald Trump wrote in a social media publish on Sunday that he will not testify in his $250 million civil fraud trial in New York on Monday.
“I can’t be testifying on Monday,” Trump wrote in an all-caps, multi-part publish on Truth Social.
Trump had beforehand been expected to return to the witness stand this week to testify in his personal protection in the fraud trial introduced by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
“President Trump has already testified,” Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise stated in a press release on Sunday. “There is admittedly nothing extra to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and to this point seems to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everybody else concerned in the complicated monetary transactions at problem in the case.”
Trump, alongside together with his two grownup sons and co-defendants, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, beforehand denied any wrongdoing once they had been questioned on the witness stand by attorneys for the state. James has accused Trump and his co-defendants of falsely inflating Trump’s belongings for monetary achieve.
Posting on Truth Social, the previous president assailed the trial, which threatens his enterprise empire in addition to his household’s skill to do enterprise in New York in the longer term.
“I’ve already testified to every little thing & don’t have anything extra to say aside from it is a full & complete election interference (Biden marketing campaign!) witch hunt that may do nothing however preserve companies out of New York,” Trump, who’s working for president once more in the 2024 elections, wrote in the social media publish.
The trial, which has gone on for greater than two months, is coming into its last week of testimony and is predicted to finish in January. Trump had been anticipated to testify in his personal protection to push again on James’ claims that he and his co-defendants falsely inflated Trump’s internet value by billions of {dollars} to safe tax advantages and extra favorable phrases for financial institution loans.
Trump returned to court docket final week after the previous president’s gag order in the case was reinstated after being quickly suspended whereas Trump’s attorneys challenged it in appeals court docket. The order bars him from making public statements concerning the employees of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron, who’s presiding over the continued civil fraud trial. Engoron imposed the gag order after the decide’s principal legislation clerk, Allison Greenfield, had repeatedly grow to be the goal of Trump’s public criticism.
Trump continues to be allowed to publicly criticize each Engoron and James.
Trump’s lawyer, Kise, went on to slam James and what he described as a “rabid and unreasonable pursuit of President Trump” in his assertion. “There is no legitimate motive for President Trump to testify additional in this case,” Kise stated in the assertion.
In her personal assertion, the New York Attorney General responded to Trump’s determination not to take the stand once more.
“Donald Trump already testified in our monetary fraud case in opposition to him,” James stated in the assertion on Sunday. “Whether or not Trump testifies once more tomorrow, we now have already confirmed that he dedicated years of monetary fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his household. No matter how a lot he tries to distract from actuality, the info do not lie.”