On day one of his New York civil trial, Trump went from very angry to somewhat subdued. He started the day by lashing out at AG Letitia James and at Judge Arthur Engoron who he called a “rogue judge” who should be disbarred. But at the very end of the day Trump’s tone changed dramatically. He said that in the last five minutes of the day the judge had agreed the statute of limitations would be respected. “That last five minutes was outstanding because the judge essentially conceded that the statute of limitations is in effect, therefore about 80% of the cases over,” Trump said. He even called one of his lawyers forward to back up this claim.
BREAKING: Donald Trump takes somewhat of a victory lap at the New York courthouse, says the judge was “fair.”
He added that the judge agreed that the statute of limitations is in effect meaning transactions that closed before 2014 should be out of the case, therefore “80% of the… pic.twitter.com/pVThgKdsjZ
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 2, 2023
Today we know a bit more about what led to that change of tone. It came after Trump’s former accountant Donald Bender spent most of the afternoon testifying about documents from 2011:
Late on Monday, Engoron made clear that Bender’s testimony, which continues on Tuesday, must connect to events on or after 2014 in order to be relevant.
“So, I just want to say, after all we have gone through this afternoon, that I trust that — well, that unless the Attorney General can relate all the discussions about 2011 documents to something that happened later, this has all been a waste of time,” Engoron said.
After that line, Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise jumped up and said: “We certainly agree with that, Judge.”
A beaming Trump suddenly shot two thumbs up, and he quickly celebrated his perceived victory outside of court.
So that was where Trump got the idea that the judge had indicated 80% of the case would be thrown out because it was prior to the statute of limitations. However, this morning, Judge Engoron made clear before the start of the second day of trial that he is not throwing out 80% of the case.
Engoron apologized for his comments and stated that any future real estate deals “restart” the statute of limitations — meaning that the attorney general’s office needs to “connect the dots” to include the evidence about a 2011 deal discussed on Monday.
“I understand that the defendants strongly disagree on this and will appeal on this ground,” Engoron said.
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I have no idea if Judge Engoron is right on the law here but he made it clear that that is his decision and he won’t allow it to be relitigated during this trial. So Trump will have to take it up in an appeal.
As he did yesterday, Trump came out during a break in the trial and made some brief comments. This time he was once again focused on AG Letitia James.
“This trial is a rigged trial … You saw what was just put out about [Chuck] Schumer and the principal clerk — that is disgraceful.”
— Donald Trump, seemingly referencing his TruthSocial post calling the judge’s “clerk” in his civil fraud trial “Schumer’s girlfriend” pic.twitter.com/ZrBiEln1T8
— The Recount (@therecount) October 3, 2023
Trump then got in trouble by posting this on his Truth Social site (or someone posted it on his behalf). Alison Greenfield is Judge Engoron’s clerk.
Trump deleted the post but by that point the judge had heard about it and issued a gag rule which applies to everyone involved in the case.
“Personal attacks on members on my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate, and I won’t tolerate it [in my courtroom],” said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
He added later to “consider this a gag order for all parties from posting about any members of my staff.”
The judge rebuked the “untrue and personally identifying posts” about a staff member.
There’s bound to be more to come. I’ll update this later if there are more dramatic events.
