Trump arrives in New York court as defense case nears end in fraud trial

Former President Trump is back in the New York courtroom where his civil fraud trial is underway as the defense nears the end of its case. 

The former president was last in court a month ago, when he took the witness stand himself to defend his business practices and lambast those involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters.”

The New York attorney general’s office accused Trump, his business and several executives — including Trump’s adult sons — of falsely adjusting the value of the business’s assets to receive lower taxes and better insurance coverage in a lawsuit filed last year. 

On Thursday, he voluntarily returned to the Manhattan state Supreme Court as a spectator. New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, the defense’s last expert witness, is expected to testify Thursday and Friday. 

Trump is set to take the stand once more Monday as the defense’s final overall witness. 

Before heading to court Thursday morning, the former president called the trial a “Witch Hunt with a Crooked Judge and a Bats..t CRAZY (and Racist!), A.G.” on Truth Social, asserting that the case was “decided against me before it even started.”

Tensions between Trump, his counsel and the trial judge have been bubbling since the start of the trial. But a gag order imposed by the judge has made their relationship increasingly tense in recent weeks. 

The order bars all parties — and Trump’s counsel — from talking about Judge Arthur Engoron’s staff, though not the judge himself or the state’s top prosecutor, New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The gag order was imposed after Trump falsely derided Engoron’s principal law clerk as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) “girlfriend” and included personally identifying information about her. A Schumer spokesperson called the post “ridiculous, absurd, and false” in a statement to The Hill at the time.

An intermediate appeals court upheld the order last month after Trump’s counsel suggested Engoron’s enforcement of it “casts serious doubt” on his ability to serve as an “impartial finder of fact” overseeing Trump’s case. The former president’s legal team sought to appeal the order to the state’s highest court earlier this week.

The gag order, plus Engoron’s interactive role in the case, has placed the judge squarely in Trump’s line of fire both in court and on social media. 

When Trump testified in November, he repeatedly took jabs at Engoron for being purportedly biased against him.

“I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me,” Trump said at one point, his testimony sometimes morphing into makeshift stump speeches from the witness stand.

Engoron lodged repeated objections to Trump’s winding responses.

“Can you control your client?” Engoron asked one of Trump’s lawyers. “This is not a political rally.”

Engoron, who has already found Trump and his business liable for fraud, will decide the verdict in the bench trial after the case concludes with closing arguments in the new year.