New York [US], January 12: The last day of Donald Trump's months-long Manhattan fraud trial started on time Thursday despite an early-morning bogus bomb threat to the presiding judge's house.
Trump entered the 60 Centre St. courthouse by Foley Square shortly before 10am, railing against officials in the case on his way into the courtroom with his Secret Service entourage, defence attorneys, and his son and codefendant Eric.
"This should have never been brought, and it was brought, and it's very unfair," Trump lamented to reporters, calling the trial a "witch hunt."
Proceedings got underway hours after Nassau County police were called out to state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron's Great Neck home in response to a bogus bomb threat.
"This might be one of my last chances to congratulate and thank the attorneys. This case has been going on for years, and everything that really mattered.has been on schedule. I understand and appreciate how hard they all worked," Engoron said before Kise began his closing argument.
Engoron, a regular target of Trump's ire, on Wednesday rejected an unheard-of request from the former president to personally deliver part of the defense's summation. The judge initially said he'd allow it, but Trump's lawyers refused to assure the court their client would stick to the matter at hand and not deliver a campaign-style speech in the courtroom.
AG James, who says Trump and company should have to pay back a staggering $370 million in illegal gains, in a statement noted the fraud by Trump and his confederates was established before the trial began. "Throughout this trial, we revealed the full scale and scope of that fraud. I am proud of the case we presented, and I am confident that the facts and the rule of law are on our side," James said.
Before the trial started, Engoron ruled that Trump, his sons, Eric and Don Jr., and former top executives at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, were liable for the top fraud claim in James' September 2022 lawsuit.
The judge found they engaged in persistent and repeated fraud for years by illegally inflating the value of Trump-owned properties like Mar-a-Lago in Florida and his Fifth Ave skyscraper in paperwork submitted to banks and lenders.
The ruling determined they exaggerated Trump's net worth by at least $2.2 billion between 2014 and the final year of Trump's presidency.
The pretrial ruling ordered Trump and his associates stripped of certificates required to run a New York business, which won't go into effect until they've exhausted their appeals.
Among other penalties, the AG further seeks to permanently bar Trump, Weisselberg, and McConney from New York's real estate industry and bar the Trump sons for five years.
Source: Qatar Tribune