Trump ahead of court appearance: ‘A dark day for our Country’

Former President Trump on Monday railed against his fraud case in New York City just hours before he is expected to appear in court and potentially take the stand.

“Got a really Biased, Nasty, Club controlled, but often overturned, Judge, a Racist, Evil, and Corrupt Attorney General, BUT A CASE THAT, ACCORDING TO ALMOST ALL LEGAL SCHOLARS, HAS ZERO MERIT,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “A dark day for our Country. WITCH HUNT!”

Trump’s appearance Monday could mark a pivotal moment in New York Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit against the former president, the Trump organization and Trump’s sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

James’s $250 million suit alleges more than a decade of fraud, accusing Trump, some of his children and their business of falsely inflating and deflating the value of the Trump Organization’s assets in order to receive lower taxes and more insurance coverage.

Trump has long argued his fraud case in New York is part of a Democratic-led effort to weaponize the courts against him ahead of the 2024 election.

Trump currently faces four other criminal cases over alleged election interference, hush money payments in New York and mishandling of classified documents in Florida.

Several polls in recent weeks show Trump and President Biden in a tight match-up, though a poll from The New York Times and Siena College published Sunday shows Biden trailing the former president in five key battleground states.

“This is the first time this method of cheating in an election has been so blatantly used in the USA as a POLITICAL WEAPON!” Trump wrote Monday. “Mostly done in Third World Countries.”

In a series of reposts overnight and into Monday, Trump re-upped his posts from last week that called Judge Arthur Engoron — who is overseeing the trial — “crazy,” “unhinged” and a “political hack” that is “doing the dirty work for the Democrat party.”

Engoron in September ruled that Trump, the Trump Organization and other defendants in the case are liable for fraud in the case.

Trump has maintained his innocence throughout the trial while continually expressing his frustration and anger both online and outside of the courtroom over the investigation into his business.

If Trump takes the stand, he will likely be asked about information on who is responsible for the Trump Organization’s fraud, Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, told The Hill.