The highly anticipated testimony of former President Trump in his New York civil fraud trial Monday heaved chaotically between defending his business practices and decrying those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”
Months of bubbling tensions between Trump and New York Judge Arthur Engoron reached a boiling point in the courtroom almost as soon as the real estate mogul took the witness stand, with the judge at one point asking Trump’s lawyer to control his client.
Trump on numerous occasions used his day in court to attack Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), often drawing the judge’s ire and admonition.
Before the trial even began last month, Engoron found Trump, the Trump Organization and other defendants, including some of his adult children, liable for fraud. Engoron ruled that James had proved the crux of her case that claims the Trumps falsely inflated and deflated the value of the business’ assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage.
