Former President Donald Trump attended the first day of the civil trial against him in the Supreme Court of New York, where he stated that this process is a “witch hunt,” an expression he has used for all judicial proceedings against him.
This civil case, after a lawsuit from the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, puts the former president’s empire at risk, since if he loses he could face a payment of $250 million dollars, in addition to Trump losing control of properties , he would be prevented from running a company in New York, in addition to losing his company licenses.
“I’ve been going through a witch hunt for years, but now this is really getting dirty between Jack Smith and all these people in the Department of Justice who help them,” Trump accused in one of the messages he gave in the New York court. York.
Smith is the special prosecutor of the Department of Justice who leads two investigations that have led to accusations against Trump, one in Washington, DC, for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and one more in Florida for the mishandling of documents classified.
“This is a pure witch hunt for the purpose of interfering with the elections of the United States of America. “It’s totally illegal,” Trump said.
He has repeated that same expression on several occasions at rallies.
“What we have here is an attempt to harm me in an election. […] “I don’t think the people of this country are going to tolerate it,” he said.
The former president even attacked Judge Arthur Engoron, stating that he was a “shame” to the justice system for agreeing to an operation against him.
Trump’s criticism was also against prosecutor James, for pursuing him instead of focusing on the crime.
Prosecutor James began the investigation in 2019, which determined that the former president lied about the true value of several of his properties to obtain tax, insurance and bank credit benefits.
However, Trump stated that the process is a “waste of time,” because from his point of view Judge Engoron has already made a decision.
“They waste their time with this, with banks that were very happy to recover all their money. They were not disappointed. “I have been let down,” she said.
A process without return
It should be remembered that last week, Judge Engoron determined that Trump and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. committed fraud by inflating the price of their companies, but the trial to determine a punishment had not been able to advance until it was endorsed by the Office of the appeals from the state Supreme Court.
This first day of the process advanced with the presentation of the case and will continue with the evidence, but in the first message from Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, she criticized prosecutor James’ motives for persecuting the former president.
Judge Engoron said that the prosecutor’s motives “are not part of the trial,” since even the appeals area endorsed moving forward with the civil trial.
Also included in the lawsuit are Eric and Donald Trump Jr., as well as Allen Weisselberg – who was CFO of the Trump Organization – as well as Jeffrey McConney and several companies, including the Trump Organization.
“With the help of his children and senior Trump Organization executives, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system,” prosecutor James said in 2022 when she filed the lawsuit. “In fact, the basis of his alleged net worth is rooted in incredible fraud and illegality.”
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