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Jan. 13, 2024 - Epoch Times
13:08
Trump Makes Shock Courtroom Move
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President Trump's trial in New York really came to a head this week as the presiding judge wrote an all-caps email to Trump's lawyers warning them that if Trump wants to speak in the case, he better not mention the Attorney General or he will be kicked out of the courtroom altogether.
But perhaps what's even wilder than this is how it got to this point as well as what happened afterwards.
So let's go through it all together right after you take a super quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons so that this information can reach ever more people via the YouTube algorithm.
Now, to give you a brief refresher on this particular case, in the lawsuit against President Trump right here in New York, the presiding judge is Judge Arthur Ingram, who, just for reference, recently referred to President Trump as a quote-unquote bad guy.
And wouldn't you know it, before the trial even began, this judge ruled against him.
You see, the case against Trump here in New York is what's known as a bench trial, meaning there's no jury and it's up to the judge to decide the facts.
And several weeks ago, before the actual start of the trial, Judge Engeren ruled against the Trump Organization, saying that they illegally inflated the value of their assets in order to secure more favorable bank loans.
And he ordered that the Trump Organization be dissolved and their business licenses in the state of New York be revoked.
Now, Trump's legal team, they filed an emergency appeal to that decision, urging the New York Appeals Court to reconsider Judge Engren's ruling.
And indeed, the appeals court, they accepted Trump's argument, and they put a stay on Judge Engren's order, meaning that they temporarily paused the decision pending an actual official appeal.
However, despite the fact that this case will very obviously be appealed, it is still playing itself out in the courtroom.
And so, step one was that the judge found Trump guilty.
Step two is the actual trial, wherein the dollar amount of the actual fine is being determined.
Now initially, the Attorney General was pushing for a fine of $250 million, which was later amended to $370 million.
So that's what the actual trial is about, figuring out the dollar amount of the fine.
And after about 11 full weeks, this trial reached its final stretch.
And as the trial was making its way to the end, the question became whether President Trump would be allowed to address the courtroom as a part of his closing remarks, something that is generally and typically very common in a civil trial like this.
However, what is normally a total non-issue became a real sticking point in this case.
That's because, according to these emails right here that were made public, the judge overseeing the case demanded that President Trump must adhere to a strict set of ambiguous rules if he were to allow to address the court.
Specifically, in an email dated January 5th, here is what Judge Arthur Engren sent to the lawyers representing President Trump.
I will consent to let Mr.
Trump make a closing argument if, and only if, through counsel by January 9th of 2024, and by himself personally on the record just before he speaks, he agrees to limit his subjects to what is permissible in a counsel's closing argument, that is, commentary on the relevant material facts that are in evidence and application commentary on the relevant material facts that are in evidence and application of the relevant law to
He may not seek to introduce new evidence, he may not testify, he may not comment on irrelevant matters, and in particular, and without limitation, he may not deliver a campaign speech, and he may not impugn myself, my staff, the plaintiff, plaintiff staff, or the New York State Supreme Court system, none of which is relevant to this case, and all of which, or the New York State Supreme Court system, none of which is relevant to this case, and all of which, except commenting on my staff, If Mr. Trump violates any of these rules, I will not hesitate to cut him off in mid-sentence and admonish him.
If he continues to violate the rules, I will end his closing argument and prevent him from making any further statements in the courtroom.
If he violates the current gag order against him, I will immediately direct court officers to remove him from the courtroom forthwith and will fine him not less than $50,000.
Essentially, the judge was attempting to rein in the topics that President Trump would be allowed to discuss in his closing arguments, and he said that if he went off track for even a second, the judge would, as he wrote there, cut him off in mid-sentence and potentially even kick him out of the courtroom altogether.
Now, shortly after the judge sent this email, President Trump's mother-in-law died, and so his lawyer attempted to delay the closing arguments to accommodate for his mother-in-law's funeral.
However, the judge, citing all the different safety protocols that have to be put in place for President Trump's arrival, said that it would be too much of an inconvenience to delay the actual trial date, and so he denied the request.
Trump's lawyer then responded by writing this, quote, Despite the fact that his mother-in-law, who he was very close to, passed away late last night, President Trump will be speaking tomorrow.
To which the judge responded by saying essentially, hold on a sec, you have to agree to my rules if you wish to speak.
Quote, As I have already indicated to you, if Mr.
Trump wishes to speak, you will have to tell me now that he will agree to the limitations I have imposed, which go without saying and apply to everyone, and he will have to agree to do so tomorrow on the record, which should take no more than a minute or two.
Trump's lawyer then responded by calling this demand very unfair and adding that, quote, To which Judge Ingerin responded by writing this, quote, I won't debate this yet again.
Take it or leave it.
Now or never.
You have until noon, seven minutes from now.
And then, in all caps, I will not grant any further extensions.
Now, from the publicly available email exchange, it appears that Trump's lawyers did not respond to this final request.
However, something interesting happened.
In the end, President Trump did show up to the closing arguments, and when his lawyers asked the judge to give him permission to speak, the judge granted him five full minutes.
And Trump took those five minutes to, among other things, tell the court that the state should actually be paying him damages rather than the other way around.
"Your Honor, the financial statements were perfect.
The banks got all their money back.
The banks are happy as can be.
I spoke to an executive at Zurich Bank.
They said, 'You didn't defraud us.
There wasn't one witness against us.' This entire case is a political witch hunt, and I should be the one receiving damages for what they've taken this company through.
We have millions of pages of documents, They have nothing.
I'm an innocent man.
I've been persecuted by somebody running for office.
The legal scholars talking about this case, they find it disgraceful.
What's happened here, sir, is a fraud on me.
And you know what happens?
Companies leave.
With that last part there implying that there might be an exodus of companies out of New York, which will wind up costing the state significant amounts in lost tax revenue.
He then accused the Attorney General of election interference, at which time the judge actually interrupted President Trump's statement and told Trump's lawyers to control your client, and then President Trump wrapped up his general statement by saying the following, quote, President
Trump and his team then walked out of the courtroom wherein President Trump summarized his remarks to the media who was waiting outside.
Here's a short snippet of what he said.
Witch hunt.
It's election interference at the highest level.
It's a disgrace.
It's in coordination with the White House and Joe Biden because he can't win a campaign fairly.
And we're going through it, but it is indeed a terrible witch hunt.
We're going to have a news conference a little bit later on.
As you know, I want to speak.
I want to make the summation.
At this moment, the judge is not letting me make the summation because I'll bring up things that he doesn't want to hear.
And it's a very unfair trial.
Nobody's seen anything like this.
I don't think they've ever seen anything like this.
We have a situation where a statute was used that doesn't give me a jury, so I have no jury.
I really have no rights, and nobody thinks it's constitutional.
Legal scholars are writing about it like it's something they've never seen before.
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And then two things happen simultaneously.
The court came back into session, and the state prosecutors began to give their closing arguments to the judge, while at the very same time, President Trump and his team, they drove about five minutes to the Trump building at 40 Wall Street in order to give a press conference.
And so essentially, Trump's press conference was taking place at the very same time that you had the Attorney General's office closing arguments.
Now, for their part, the attorney who was representing the state of New York, he closed out the case by saying that, essentially, this case was already decided before the trial even began.
Quote, They cannot argue that unsold units at Trump Park Avenue weren't rent stabilized or that he didn't have appraisers for 40 Wall Street.
Every individual defendant was acting knowingly and intelligently.
There was no suggestion this was a mistake.
To the contrary, Donald Trump says he approves of what they did.
If anything, the valuations they came up with were too low for it.
We certainly do not hear that the numbers they used were accurate.
And ironically, just five minutes away at 40 Wall Street, Trump's lawyer was giving a statement of her own saying, again ironically, the same thing, that because this was a bench trial, the summary judgment was already passed before anyone entered the courtroom.
Quote, Let's remember that before I walked into court, we had already lost.
Before witnesses, before experts, and do I think any of it mattered?
I certainly hope so.
For anyone that has been in the courtroom the last 11 weeks, you heard that there was not one fact against President Trump.
There was not one piece of paper that showed anyone committed fraud.
Subsequently, President Trump got up to the podium as well and added the following.
And perhaps with that last statement there, he is correct.
This case is ultimately being played out not only in the court of law, but also in the court of public opinion.
Regardless, after everything was said and done, Judge Ingerin came out with a statement saying that the earliest that he will issue a judgment in this case will be the end of January.
That's the earliest.
Meaning that over the next three, four, five, or maybe six weeks, we should expect to see a judgment in this particular case in regards to the dollar amount that President Trump and his organization will be fined.
Although, the reality is that whatever the judge ultimately decides upon will be appealed at the New York Court of Appeals.
But again, this is not just about the law and the fine.
Whatever the judge in this case decides will be played up in the media for weeks or perhaps even months, meaning that even if ultimately the entire case gets dismissed on appeal, well, it will still give ample ammunition to the mainstream media outlets going into the 2024 election cycle.
And I would actually love to know your thoughts.
Do you think that that is the real purpose of this whole case?
To generate bad publicity while at the same time potentially ding the Trump Organization by a cool $300 million?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
I'll be reading through them later tonight as well as well into the week.
And then lastly, if you watch this episode and you're just thinking to yourself, man, I like this content, I appreciate this content, I just wish Roman would put out more episodes every single week.
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