(BrightPress.org) – Former President Donald Trump declined to testify any further at his New York state fraud trial. He was previously scheduled to testify on December 11th but decided not to at the last moment. The announcement came on Sunday, December 10th via a post on Truth Social.
In the Truth Social post, Trump said he “already testified” and had nothing more to add other than the case against him is election interference from the Biden campaign. In the comments, Trump reiterated the fact that the NY case against him involves no jury and there is no victim in the case. He also said Judge Arthur Engoron is suffering from “a massive case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” and called him a puppet of NY Attorney General Letitia James.
James famously ran her campaign on the promise of “getting Trump,” and using an official office to meddle in an election is a federal felony. Don’t expect Merrick Garland to do anything about it though. George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley suggested her remarks were “an embarrassment to the entire New York bar.”
This week will mark the last phase of the trial. Trump was the final witness and had been expected to give remarks touting the success of his company and challenging the claim made by AG James that he overvalued his assets to secure loans.
Previously, Trump has stated publicly that he believes the estimates were conservative. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the banks issuing the loans do their own due diligence and had no problem issuing the loans. The loans were also paid back in full on time. Trump’s defense also featured witnesses that testified the valuations were legitimate and fair.
Trump has repeated this basic line of defense throughout the trial and even noted that before the trial had begun, Judge Engoron had expressed an obvious bias, ruling that Trump and his organization had committed multiple acts of fraud.
Engoron also gagged Trump, which resulted in fines for the former President totaling $15,000. Engoron ordered Trump to avoid disparaging the court or its officers or AG James claiming it could inspire violent retaliation against them and cited threats they had already received.
Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump will also not testify any further, according to their legal team.
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