Lawyer Tells Us The Times Donald Trump Hurt Himself Most During His Fraud Trial
The $250 million fraud case brought against Donald Trump, and his two sons Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump, has been a contentious trial filled with outrageous moments. Before the trial started, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that there was evidence that Donald and his various companies had committed fraud in an effort to overvalue various companies and real estate holdings. The former president and his team took issue with the judge from the beginning. No jury was chosen for the case, and Judge Engoron would be the sole person making a ruling. There was speculation that members of the Trump legal team simply did not "check a box" to ask for a jury. "It would not have helped to make a motion. Nobody forgot to check off a box," Engoron said in October in order to clarify the matter, per CBS News. "It is unfortunate that a jury won't be able to hear how absurd the merits of this case are," a spokesperson for Donald told CNN at the time.
While on the stand, the former "The Apprentice" host was often combative. "He rambled, he hurled insults, but we expected that," state Attorney General Letitia James said in November, per NBC News. Meanwhile, Donald was pleased with his performance on the stand. "I think it went very well," he said. Donald had also called the trial a "witch hunt," as he prepared to take the stand again December 11, per the Associated Press.
Nicki Swift spoke to a lawyer who outlined missteps Donald took during the trial.
Donald Trump feuds with judge's wife
In typical Donald Trump fashion, he did not hide his displeasure for the judge presiding over the case, Judge Arthur Engoron. There was a gag order placed on Trump, as he trashed the judge and his clerk, but that gag order was lifted temporarily. Almost immediately, Trump took to social media to air grieveances. "His ridiculous and Unconstitutional Gag Order, not allowing me to defend myself," Trump wrote on Truth Social on November 16.
Later, Trump took shots at the judge's wife, Dawn Engoron. "Judge Engoron's Trump Hating wife, together with his very disturbed and angry law clerk, have taken over control of the New York State Witch Hunt Trial aimed at me," Donald wrote on Truth Social (via The Hill). He claimed Dawn was using a burner account on X, formerly Twitter, to disparage him. She denied those claims. In late November, the gag order was reinstated. According to a Nicki Swift expert, that could be good for Trump in the long run.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, President of West Coast Trial Lawyers, spoke to Nicki Swift about how Trump's attacks against the judge and his wife could cost him. "[I]n a jury trial, be polite to jurors, because they are deciding your fate. That applies here as well," Rahmani said about the trial which has no jury. "Consistently insulting the family, wife, and longtime clerk of the judge who is deciding your fate is not the way to do things," Rahmani added. That was not the only way Trump hindered his chances.
Donald Trump's children's testimonies did not help
Not only did Donald Trump take the stand during the fraud trial, but so did members of his family, including his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. Both of Donald's children chose to distance themselves from the valuations that were under scrutiny. While on the stand, Donald Jr. denied working on financial statements in 2017 that could have embellished the worth of Trump companies. "I did not. The accountants worked on it. That's what we pay them for," he said in November when asked about preparing the documents, per The New York Times. In later testimony, the eldest of the Trump sons complimented his father's real estate projects. "He was really a visionary," Donald Jr. said about his dad, per Reuters.
Unlike her father and siblings, Ivanka Trump was cool and collected while taking the stand in November. Ivanka mentioned she had not been part of the family business since 2017, and was asked about working on documents from that year. "I don't recall," she replied, per The Guardian. "There were many emails, many conversations," Ivanka said during her testimony.
As former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Nicki Swift, the Trump children missed a golden opportunity to defend their father. "Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka took the stand but tried to distance themselves from the valuations, and blamed everything on the accountants," Rahmani told us. "They should have instead defended the valuations, and said they believed they were accurate. They weren't good witnesses," Rahmani added.