Judge Refuses To Postpone Ex-President’s Testimony Until After Gag Order Appeal

Topline

Former President Donald Trump is still slated to testify Monday as the ongoing civil fraud trial against him and his company nears an end, after Judge Arthur Engoron slapped down an effort by Trump’s lawyers Tuesday to postpone the testimony until after the gag order against Trump can potentially be lifted.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom during his civil fraud trial at New York … [+] State Supreme Court on November 6 in New York City.

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Key Facts

Trump attorney Christopher Kise asked Engoron to delay Trump’s testimony, multiple outlets report, to which the judge responded, “Absolutely not. No way. No how. It’s a nonstarter.”

Attorneys were asking for the testimony to be delayed because Trump is trying to appeal his gag order in the case — which bars him and other parties from speaking publicly about court staff — to New York’s highest court, after an appeals court reinstated the gag order last week.

As it stands now, there won’t be a ruling on Trump’s appeal request before he testifies Monday — meaning the gag order will remain in place and stands no chance of being lifted.

Trump — who already testified once in November — is slated to be the final defense witness in the fraud trial, which has been ongoing since early October, with both sides expected to rest their case next week.

Before he testifies Monday, the ex-president is also widely expected to attend the trial on Thursday.

Crucial Quote

“You tried,” Engoron told Trump attorney Christopher Kise after rejecting his delay request, as quoted by The Messenger. “And I gave it a deep thought as well.”

What To Watch For

While both sides are expected to rest their cases next week, the case still won’t be fully resolved until early next year. Closing arguments in the trial won’t take place until January 11, with a verdict set to come sometime before the end of that month. Trump and his co-defendants — including his sons — stand to face serious consequences should Engoron rule against them in the case, including a $250 million fine and a prohibition on Trump and his sons running any New York businesses. Engoron has already found the defendants liable for fraud by misstating the value of assets on financial documents — the trial is still moving forward on other charges — and has ordered Trump’s business certificates to be canceled, though an appeals court has put that part of the order on hold.

What We Don’t Know

Whether Trump will violate the gag order against him again, and what will happen if he does. The gag order was put in place after Trump made a disparaging post about Engoron’s law clerk — whom he and his allies have accused of being politically biased against him — and has already been fined a combined $15,000 for two violations of the order. The ex-president repeatedly attacked the law clerk while the gag order was briefly lifted before the appeals court reimposed it, and if he does it again with the gag order in place, Engoron has said Trump could face such punishments as even higher fines, being held in contempt or possible prison time.

Tangent

In addition to the back-and-forth over the former president’s testimony, defense attorneys also announced Tuesday Eric Trump will not testify on Wednesday at the trial as initially scheduled. Eric Trump, who assumed leadership of the Trump Organization after his father took office and is one of the defendants in the case, has already testified once at the trial. The ex-president’s son strongly denied having any role in preparing the statements of financial condition that are at issue in the trial, despite evidence suggesting otherwise.

Key Background

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, his business associates and the Trump Organization in September 2022, alleging the ex-president and his associates fraudulently misstated the value of assets on financial documents in order to obtain more favorable business deals and reflect a higher net worth for Trump. The state alleges Trump and his associates misstated valuations more than 200 times between 2011 and 2021, including regarding the value of Trump’s Mar-A-Lago estate and the square footage of Trump’s Manhattan penthouse. Trump has strongly denied the allegations and defended the valuations of his properties — arguing that, if anything, they were too low rather than too high — and his attorneys have argued the valuations were subjective figures based on Trump’s real estate expertise. Throughout the fraud trial, the Trumps and their associates have sought to distance the ex-president and his sons from the statements of financial condition and any knowledge of alleged fraud, though ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified Trump had asked him and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg to inflate valuations in order to reach Trump’s arbitrary desired net worth. Though Engoron has already ruled the defendants fraudulently misstated the value of their assets — calling their legal arguments out of a “fantasy world” — the trial is still moving forward to determine whether the fraud was intentional, along with separate claims like insurance fraud and falsification of records.