Trump to give landmark testimony in New York civil fraud trial: LIVE

The former president faces criminal charges from DC to Palm Beach and Manhattan to Atlanta. The Independent’s Josh Marcus runs down where each one currently stands.

Melania Trump hasn’t spoken publicly about the case, but the former president has told reporters at the courthouse what he thinks she feels about the trial…

I used to resent one of my co-workers who habitually came in late, left early, even helped themselves to other people’s work. There seemed to be no consequences for them, ever. “They’re getting away with murder!” I would sputter in frustration. I understood this to be just a figure of speech; I never really believed things could escalate to actual mayhem.

I thought of this colleague when, in 2016, Donald Trump boasted on tape that he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave and not lose voters. “Figure of speech!” I thought at the time. But then came the next seven years, and the endless cascade of lies and double-dealing from the 45th President. And yet Trump seemed to be correct in his belief that accountability was for suckers.

Until perhaps, at long last, now.

The main focus on Donald Trump’s myriad of legal woes shifted to Lower Manhattan in October as his civil fraud case came to trial at New York state’s Supreme Court.

New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the case against the Trump Organization and maintains that between 2011 and 2021 the company falsified financial statements regarding the development of several real estate projects and artificially inflated Mr Trump’s net worth in order to get better financing terms from banks and insurance companies.

This was done by over-stating valuations of the former president’s most prestigious holdings including his triplex penthouse at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and his current home at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

As the prosecution’s case draws to a close, three of his adult children are taking the stand to testify under oath, which begs the question: how are they wrapped up in all this and why is their testimony important at the trial?

Mr Christie, who’s waging what’s seen by many as a doomed campaign to take down Mr Trump, faced the audience’s wrath immediately after entering the stage, with the booing continuing throughout his 15-minute speech, according to CBS News.

“Your anger against the truth is reprehensible,” he told the crowd. “The problem is you want to shout down any voice that says anything different than what you want to hear.”

“You can go and boo about it as much as you like, but it doesn’t change the truth and the truth is coming,” he added.

“What a shock, you’re for Trump. I’m going to fall over dead. The problem is you fear the truth,” Mr Christie said.

“I assume that you’re yelling for $33 trillion in debt,” he told the audience. “It must be one of the things you’re for. You’re probably for it. Because you won’t be here to pay for it. But our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be here to pay for it.”

Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn a district court order barring him from attacking or disparaging witnesses and other figures connected to the election subversion and conspiracy case pending against him in Washington.

In court papers filed late Thursday with the appellate court, Mr Trump’s legal team argues that the gag order imposed by Judge Tanya Chutkan on 16 October was inappropriate and an infringement on his right to free speech because he is “the leading candidate for President of the United States”.

At the time she entered the order, Judge Chutkan acknowledged Mr Trump’s status as a candidate and said her order would not bar him from “criticising the government generally … or the Justice Department” or statements characterising his prosecution as “politically motivated”.

But she said she would prohibit anyone involved in the case from “targeting” court personnel, prosecutors, or their families.

She also prohibited statements about witnesses or potential witnesses, or about their testimony and noted that the ex-president’s past conduct and the tendency of those targeted by him to receive threats and harassment figured prominently in her decision to impose the order.

An interim appeals court swiftly denied her motion to seek a temporary stay on Thursday night for testimony on 8 November after her attorney said she would encounter “undue hardship” as it was scheduled “in the middle of a school week”.

“Ms Trump, who resides in Florida with her three minor children, will suffer undue hardship if a stay is denied and she is required to testify at trial in New York in the middle of a school week, in a case she has already been dismissed from, before her appeal is heard,” her attorney said in an appeal filed Thursday.

Donald Trump is set to take the stand in his $250m civil fraud trial in New York on Monday.

The former president’s testimony is expected to also conclude on Monday, but it may continue on Wednesday following the court’s election day closure on Tuesday, CNN notes.

The trial may determine the future of Mr Trump’s business empire in New York – state Attorney General Letitia James is seeking damages and to bar the ex-president from doing business in the state.

His daughter Ivanka Trump is set to testify on Wednesday.

At the end of October, Mr Trump filed four motions to dismiss the federal case against him on statutory and constitutional grounds.

Mr Smith first asked Judge Chutkan to allow the prosecution to exceed the 45-page limit before they submit their response to Mr Trump’s motions.

But the ex-president’s team says it is unnecessary and believes Mr Smith should file four separate responses to the motions to dismiss in order to “avoid confusion over the application of any arguments to the parties’ respective briefing.”