Donald Trump criticized the months-long fraud case against him and the attorney general who sued him in a quick and breathless statement from the defense table in the Manhattan courtroom where his lawyers were making closing arguments in the case.
The judge presiding over the civil case in New York County Supreme Court had previously refused to allow the former president to address the court in person; because his lawyers had refused to limit his remarks to the case itself, without lashing out and using the moment for a campaign stunt. .
Judge Arthur Engoron gave him another chance Thursday if he promised to stick to the facts of the case. Hours earlier, police had responded to an attempted coup at the judge’s home after the former president raged against the case at Truth Social.
While the former president is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, he couldn’t help but use a few minutes to link the case to what he sees as a conspiracy against him. The judge never gave him explicit permission to begin speaking. Instead, he launched into a long-winded, unbroken line of familiar complaint while painting himself as the victim of political persecution to whom a debt should be owed for the case against him.
“I think, your honor, I think the case goes beyond the facts. The financial statements were perfect,” Mr. Trump told the judge as he sat at the defense table. “The banks got all their money back.”
He described the case as a “political witch hunt”, claiming that “there is not a single witness who opposes us”.
“We need to get rewarded for what we went through,” he said. “What’s happening here, sir, is a fraud on me.”
He repeated his claim that the case was politically motivated “election interference” and cited the conspiracy theory that the lawsuit and the pile of lawsuits filed against him were Democrat-led threats to keep the Republican presidential nominee out of the White House.
“But specifically the person in the room right now hates Trump and used Trump to get elected,” he said, referring to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
After the judge reminded him that his time was limited, Mr. Trump fired back: “You can’t listen for more than a minute.”
Judge Engoron asked his attorney, Christopher Kise, to maintain control of his client and warned that his time at the microphone was limited.
“This could have gone a lot differently,” the judge told Mr. Kise before the courtroom broke for lunch shortly after 1 p.m., had Mr. Trump agreed to the terms laid out in emails to lawyers.
The former president’s final words on the case, which concluded Thursday after 11 weeks of deposition that first began in October, underscore the growing overlap between his campaign and his long list of criminal and civil cases.
He has repeatedly relied on the hallway outside the courtroom to launch tirades against political rivals and the lawsuits against him, and has used developments in the cases against him to raise millions of dollars for his campaign.
Ms. James’ lawsuit, filed in September 2022, accuses Mr. Trump, his two adult sons and their chief partners in the Trump Organization umbrella of defrauding financial institutions with grossly inflated estimates of his net worth and assets over a decade.
A year later, Judge Engoron found that the defendants were liable for the fraud allegations outlined in the blockbuster lawsuit, leaving a court hearing to determine how much Mr. Trump and his friends should owe and whether the attorney general was successful. About other allegations in his complaint, including insurance fraud and conspiracy.
His office is seeking $370 million in so-called “ill-gotten gains” from fraudulently obtained financing terms that banks could have received if they used rates that reflected Mr. Trump’s true net worth and assets, according to the attorney general’s statement.
In the first of three angry closing statements from the defence, Mr Kise argued that the trial had proven that the banks were satisfied, that the allegations were based on speculation and that nothing had been “wrongfully obtained”.
Lawyers for Mr. Trump and sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have repeatedly claimed the trial was politically motivated, repeatedly lashing out at Ms. James, who sat in the courtroom behind the lawyers and in her office.
They repeatedly used terms that Mr. Trump has used to attack the case and his opponents, describing potential sanctions against him as a “corporate death penalty” and an example of “weaponized” law enforcement.
“These are success stories,” Mr. Kise said, referring to Mr. Trump’s brand-building properties targeted by the attorney general. “Instead of praising Trump for his business success,” they are attacking him or making a “victimless” attack, he said. “This is madness.”
He claimed that a verdict against Mr. Trump and the other defendants would deal a major blow not just to Mr. Trump but to all New York businesses.
“This is a very dangerous road,” he said. “Weaponization… I know this gets thrown around a lot, but that’s what’s really happening.”