Trump clashes with judge during civil fraud trial testimony

Former US president Donald Trump testified at his civil fraud trial in New York today Trump is facing a $250 million lawsuit alleging he inflated the value of his assets by billions of dollars to get better terms on loans and insurance policies Trump spoke briefly outside the Manhattan courtroom last

Hour shortly after his testimony wrapped up to think that we’re being sued and spending all this time and money and you have people being killed all over the world that this country could stop with inflation and all of the other problems that this country has I think

It’s a disgrace and when you look at the numbers the phone numbers that came out today from The New York Times and CBS I’m sure the times was not too happy but people are sick and tired of what’s happening this is a sad I think it’s a

Very sad day for America but anyway this is a case that should have never been brought and it’s a case that should be immediately dismissed thank you thank you very now the cbc’s Chris Reyes is outside the Coro so Chris we just heard some of what Trump has been saying

Reiterating his calls for this case to be uh thrown out uh that I don’t think is going to happen we what did we hear uh inside of the court today yeah I’ll tell you more about that in just a second Andrew yeah Trump was on the stand uh for just under four hours

Testifying he didn’t raise his voice in there Andrew but he was very combative and at times it seemed that he was holding like he was holding a press conference more than he was testifying uh he said that his properties were being taken away from him the way uh you

Would in communist China uh he said that he’s his brand is actually worth way more uh than can than what can be stated in those financial documents he called the case very unfair he said I hope the public is watching he referred directly to attorney general Leticia James who

Was sitting right in the front row uh he said that this is a Witch Hunt he said she should be ashamed of herself uh and he repeated those kinds of uh combative statements as he was being asked direct questions that had to do with very specific properties and at one point

Judge engoren said to his lawyer Chris kis please control your client this is not a political rally uh we heard from attorney general uh at Leticia James outside of the courthouse after proceedings wrapped about what she thought about the whole thing have a listen to what she said he rambled he hurled

Insults um but we expected that at the end of the day um the documentary evidence evidence demonstrated that in fact he falsely inflated his assets to basically enrich himself and his family and I should also mention Andrew that he repeatedly dismissed those documents that’s at the heart of this

Case he said said when it comes to borrowing money they just didn’t matter and another anecdote that really stood out to me Andrew uh inside the Overflow room you had members of the public just to give you a sense of how this is being

Uh taken in by uh some uh members uh at large that’s not in the media I asked them why they were there and they said with snacks in hand they were there for theater and so what about talk among Trump’s legal team of asking for a mistra that’s right so Andrew after

Trump’s testimony Trump’s lawyers Alina habba and Chris kis had about a 10-minute conversation with judge Eng gorin about filing a motion for a mistrial this is not new this is something that they also mentioned on Friday but they were trying to get guidance from Judge inoran about how to

File this motion given given that there is a gag order on them not to speak uh about anybody on the judge’s staff and they said that they were uh filing a motion and they wanted to be mind mindful of that and then in a strange light-hearted moment judge Eng Goran

Said about that motion for a mistrial that who knows he might Grant it so obviously details still need to work out about that we’re following exactly how that’s going to unfold the court is not in session tomorrow and then Ivanka Trump is scheduled to take the stand on

Wednesday she is the Final witness on the Attorney General side so we’ll see if this motion uh for a M trial will be filed before Trump’s team starts to call their Witnesses and so far this trial is expected to last still until December I want to bring in Chris Galder

Now he’s a politics professor at St anel college and he’s joining us live in Manchester New Hampshire Chris always good to see you thank you for joining us always glad to be here Andrew all right so let’s just uh what did you make of what we heard in the courtroom the

Sparring between Donald Trump and uh the judge judge and the judge and Donald Trump and his lawyer at least with the judge saying uh this is not a political rally this is a courtroom you need to take control of your client what did you

Make of of of some of that um it was you know sadly unsurprising um I think this is exactly what you get when you put Donald Trump uh on the stand and ask him to testify about his uh business behaviors particularly in this case where uh you know there’s been a lot of

Testimony and evidence offered that his company had uh essentially misrepresented the value of its properties to um get more favorable loan terms and more favorable Insurance uh rates and that sort of thing um you know he is not someone who in the past has been a great witness on his own behalf

In depositions and other uh in other in other uh legal matters he tends to Bluster he tends to get angry at being questioned if he thinks the questions are hostile and in this case he uh clearly takes this entire matter very personally so it’s not at all surprising

To me uh that he got into a verbal sparring match with the judge who’s deciding the fate of him and his company in this case what about the politics of this uh this is the kind of language the kind of rhetoric that he uses he’s using

It uh now in a courtroom but this is getting out to uh to voters who are going to decide whether he uh becomes president again that’s correct and I I think there’s a level on which uh Trump’s strategy here and to the extent that he has one is to try to muddy the

Waters try to depict this as a political persecution rather than a legitimate uh legal inquiry um and hope that his uh fighting with the judge and that sort of thing signals to his supporters that they should stick with him they shouldn’t think of this as a uh legitimate inquiry into his business

Practices but rather see this as a politically motivated uh I think he’s used words like Witch Hunt against himself uh the New York Times uh Chris recently put out a poll showing that Trump is ahead of Biden in some key swing States in about five key swing

States so how much stock can we put in a poll this far out from the election and and what does it say that he is leading in these key swing States well I think you know there’s there’s uh reason to be skeptical skeptical of any poll whether it shows

Something you like or not uh when you are a full year out from an election um historically you know you shouldn’t take uh head-to-head polling in a presidential election uh that seriously until the nominees are decided usually around April or May that said um I think this shows that uh you

Know President Biden has a lot on his plate right now uh and uh voters are not really giving him credit for the things he’s done as president and I think they are blaming him uh for things like the crisis in the Middle East and the war in

Ukraine and so on um and I think a lot is going to come down to um the the types of campaigns that each C candidate wages once the general election begins next year okay I appreciate you saying you know we shouldn’t take too much sh

Into this poll but it is a moment in time and the election is exactly uh one one year away from today so people are kind of thinking about it there were some uh Chris interesting numbers in the polls especially around voters perceptions of Trump’s impact on democracy and 2third of the swing state

Voters said Trump has either a good or a neutral impact on American uh democracy what did you make of of that finding well I think you know a lot of trump supporters uh to this day uh believe that he won the 20 election believe that he did nothing wrong uh in

The wake of that election uh that his actions on regarding January 6th and fake electors and that sort of thing uh were all entirely Justified and if you’re somebody who believes that then uh you do probably think he had a a neutral to good impact on Democracy um

That said I think uh to the extent that Democrats want to run against January 6 against Trump’s uh impact on American democracy they’re going to have to affirmatively make that case uh in much the way uh that we saw Democrats do uh in 2022 for instance when President

Biden spoke in Philadelphia um but this is not you know this is something where um you know Democrats who want voters to care about this are going to have to make them care about this by reminding of this throughout their campaigns and then just finally Chris what’s your

Sense today I know I’ve asked you this before but I have to keep checking in what’s your sense uh today uh if Donald Trump is convicted in either well this is this is a Civil Trial but if he if he does face some kind of you know penalty

At the end or conviction at the end of one of these hous well yeah in in this particular case um what I find interesting is that it directly addresses uh what Trump has always presented as his core strength the idea that he is some sort of a business Titan

Uh who would bring his business skills to work in Washington um if this case goes against him I think that would you know really undercut that argument it would essentially be saying actually this was not some sort of worldclass organization it was this you know sort

Of you know family business that cut a lot of corners and broke the law and uh that led to penalties for Trump so it’s possible that that might um cut into some of his support I think the greater danger for him uh is in the criminal trials we have never had a former

President uh stand trial for a criminal offense uh if he’s convicted of one we we honestly just don’t know how the Public’s going to react um that New York Times poll you mentioned suggested that it would have a big impact on a a fair number of Voters opinions uh going into

The election uh it might not be enough to deny him the Republican nomination but could lead to a situation where he has to uh you know fight essentially political trench warfare to get nom ated and then be weakened going into the general election um you know but uh

Again we are someplace we’ve never been before so it’s really tough to say to predict what’s going to happen that’s why it’s always important to chat with you about these things thank you very much Chris Chris Gary professor of politics at St anel College

Former U.S. president Donald Trump testified at his civil fraud trial in New York on Monday, complaining of unfair treatment in a defiant and rambling performance on the witness stand. Trump is accused of inflating the value of his assets to secure loans and insurance policies.

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