Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million lawsuit that could upset the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr. and Trump Organization executives are accused through New York Attorney General Letitia James of participating in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s network in order to offload higher loan terms. The former president has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued that Trump’s allegedly inflated valuations were a product of his business skills.
Former President Trump’s civil fraud trial has been postponed until Tuesday due to exposure to COVID-19, New York’s attorney general announced.
The government did say who had been reported or when.
Trump attended the trial on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week and said Wednesday that he would possibly return to court to hear testimony from his former lawyer Michael Cohen, which could also begin tomorrow.
The trial is expected to continue in the morning with testimony from a lawyer from Trump’s former accounting firm, Mazars USA, followed by Cohen.
The third week of the trial ended Friday when Judge Engoron fined Trump $5,000 for violating a gag order issued through the ruling on banning social media posts and statements about the staff ruling.
While Engoron deemed Trump’s violation “inadvertent,” he threatened additional fines, or even prison time, if Trump violated the order again.
Judge Engoron fined Donald Trump $5,000 for what he called Trump’s “inadvertent” violation of his limited gag order, which occurred when the former president’s fake Truth Social post about the Engoron employee was not removed from the Trump campaign’s website.
“Donald Trump has received many warnings from this court about the potential repercussions of violating the gag order,” Engoron wrote in a ruling released at the end of the day’s hearings. “He, in particular, stated that he understood it and would abide by it. through it. As a result, issuing a new warning is no longer appropriate; this Court has gone far beyond the “warning” stage.
The sentence ruled that it would impose a nominal fine of $5,000 “given the defendant’s position that the violation was unintentional. “
However, the ruling wrote: “Make no mistake: long-term violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the offender to much harsher penalties, possibly including, but not limited to, harsher monetary penalties, convicting Donald Trump of contempt of court, and in all likelihood jailing him pursuant to New York Judiciary Law 753.
The trial was adjourned until Monday without Judge Engoron determining what punishment, if any, Trump would face after a ruling was handed down on whether Trump violated his limited gag order by failing to remove from his crusade online page a fake Truth Social post about Engoron’s secretary.
Prior to the closing, former Trump Organization Vice President Raymond Flores testified about his limited role in Trump’s 2020 monetary policy review and Trump’s price assessment of golf courses.
Flores, who has a limited memory of the events, is expected to return to the witness stand to complete his testimony on Monday.
Judge Engoron will hear arguments from the New York Attorney General, and Ivanka Trump’s lawyer on Ivanka Trump will be due to testify in her father’s civil fraud trial.
New York Attorney General Letitia James issued three subpoenas to Ivanka Trump, who was no longer part of the Trump Organization in 2016, to compel her to testify; however, Ivanka Trump’s lawyer argues that they should be overturned because the General Assembly lacks jurisdiction.
The hearing will most likely take place one morning next week, before the day’s trial begins, according to Engoron’s secretary.