By JENNIFER PELTZ and JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was abruptly referred to as to the witness stand after which fined $10,000 on Wednesday after the decide in his civil fraud trial stated the previous president had violated a gag order. It was the second time in lower than per week that Trump was penalized for his out-of-court feedback.
Before imposing the newest superb, Judge Arthur Engoron summoned Trump from the protection desk to testify about his remark to reporters hours earlier about “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the decide.
Engoron had already ordered all contributors within the trial to not remark publicly about his workers. That restriction from Oct. 3 adopted a Trump social media publish that maligned the decide’s principal legislation clerk, who sits subsequent to him.
Trump and his attorneys insisted that his remark Wednesday was not in regards to the clerk. They stated he was referring to Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer who had been testifying.
Engoron stated Trump’s declare was “not credible,” noting that he sat nearer to the clerk than to Cohen.
“The idea that the statement would refer to the witness,” Engoron stated, “doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Five days earlier, Trump had been fined $5,000 after Engoron discovered that the offending social media publish from early October had lingered on Trump’s marketing campaign web site for weeks after being taken down — on the decide’s orders — from Trump’s Truth Social media platform.
Then, on Wednesday, the Republican presidential front-runner complained in a courthouse hallway that Engoron, a Democrat, is “a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
Under oath on the witness stand, Trump advised the decide that the comment was geared toward “you and Cohen.”
But Trump didn’t conceal his frustration with the clerk. “I think she’s very biased against us. I think we’ve made that clear,” Trump stated throughout his roughly two minutes on the stand.
Three of Trump’s attorneys objected to the $10,000 superb, and so they reiterated Trump’s declare that the clerk was partial.
Not lengthy after he was fined and moments after one in all his attorneys completed questioning Cohen, Trump stood up and walked out of the courtroom, trailed by his son Eric. Donald Trump has attended the trial voluntarily, and he can depart at any time when he likes.
The episodes increase questions on whether or not Trump can abide by court docket directives which can be geared toward reining in his rhetoric whereas respecting his free speech rights as he campaigns to return to the White House.
Last week in Washington, the decide in Trump’s federal election interference felony case imposed a gag order barring public statements concentrating on prosecutors, court docket workers and potential witnesses. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s order got here after prosecutors raised issues that Trump’s remarks may encourage his supporters to threaten or harass his targets.
Chutkan quickly lifted the order Friday so she may contemplate a protection request to pause the restrictions whereas Trump appeals it.
In the New York case, Cohen returned to the witness stand on Wednesday because the protection group tried to undermine his credibility and query his motives.
After a decade of working as Trump’s fixer, Cohen got here below federal scrutiny and broke along with his boss in 2018. Cohen quickly pleaded responsible to and went to jail for tax evasion, making false statements on a financial institution mortgage utility, mendacity to Congress and making unlawful contributions to Trump’s marketing campaign. The contributions have been within the type of payouts to girls who stated that they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump, who denied it.
Cohen turned an outspoken Trump foe and a key witness within the New York trial, which stems from a lawsuit introduced by the state’s lawyer basic, Letitia James. She alleges that Trump habitually exaggerated the worth of his actual property holdings on monetary paperwork that helped him get loans and insurance coverage and make offers.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and says James, a Democrat, is concentrating on him for partisan causes.
Cohen testified Tuesday that he and different executives at Trump’s firm labored to inflate the estimated values of their employer’s holdings so his monetary statements would match a internet price that Trump had set “arbitrarily.”
On cross-examination Wednesday, Trump lawyer Alina Habba confronted Cohen with feedback he had made praising Trump, earlier than turning on him, and requested whether or not he had “significant animosity” towards Trump.
“Do I have animosity toward him? Yes, I do,” Cohen replied.
“You have made a career out of publicly attacking President Trump, haven’t you?” Habba requested.
After a protracted pause, Cohen stated, “Yes.”
Trump’s attorneys additionally emphasised Cohen’s federal felony convictions and labored to painting him as a liar. The protection pounced on Cohen’s testimony Tuesday that he had lied when he pleaded responsible to tax evasion and mortgage utility falsehoods — quite, he maintained, his conduct was only a matter of omissions and failure to appropriate paperwork.
Trump lawyer Clifford Robert pressed Wednesday on whether or not Cohen additionally lied in congressional testimony by which he stated he didn’t recall being requested by Trump to inflate Trump’s internet price.
Cohen repeatedly declined to reply, however finally stated he stood by the sooner testimony. Robert stated the state’s key witness was not credible and requested the decide instantly to problem a verdict in Trump’s favor. Engoron denied the request, and shortly Trump left the court docket.
After Cohen’s testimony wrapped up Wednesday, he stated outdoors court docket that he had seen “a defeated man” when taking a look at Trump throughout the courtroom.
Trump, for his half, stated Cohen “was caught lying.”
Trump is predicted to testify later within the trial in regards to the allegations within the lawsuit.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”