Closing arguments in New York’s civil fraud trial against Donald Trump took place on Thursday, and despite having been officially barred from personally delivering his defense’s closing statements, the former president launched into an unauthorized rant before the court and Judge Arthur Engoron.
Sources told Rolling Stone that Trump had been rehearsing what he thought would be a blistering, dramatic conclusion to the case that will determine the fate of his business empire.
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Based on what the two sources relay to Rolling Stone this week, it appears Engoron’s assumption that Trump would use the forum to rave about his own grievances was right on the money. The former president’s private “rehearsing” of what he planned to say included haranguing the judge’s staff, railing against the New York attorney general as “racist” and soft on crime, claiming that the trial was an example of the Democratic Party and Biden administration supposedly trying to “rig” the 2024 election, and gratuitously boasting of the values of his sprawling business and real-estate empire, among other jabs and bluster.
Ok, but like… the first two points you raised have nothing to do with the legal system and are just about metagaming and cowardice. And the third… Judge Engoron has already determined that Trump is liable in this case, like a couple of months ago. So this is just about figuring out the punishment. And as long as he doesn’t give some outrageously absurd fine or penalty, then this won’t really have an impact on an appeal. The appeal would be for the original decision finding him guilty of engaging in fraud. So I’m not sure what actual legal reason he’d have for treating him with kid gloves here. I mean, Trump’s going to appeal one way or the other, and he’s well within his rights to hit him with contempt of court. Hell, he even said as much to Trump’s lawyers the other day in an email exchange where he said if Trump does what he just did, he’d hit him with a $50,000 fine.