courtesy: CNBC
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Donald Trump took the witness stand at the civil fraud case, that threatens its New York business, and complained of unfair treatment in defiant and rambling testimony on Monday, prompting the judge to cut short his testimony.
Under questioning about his company’s accounting practices, the former U.S. president clearly aggravated Judge Arthur Engoron, who is weighing whether to impose hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and other penalties that could potentially hobble the real estate empire of Trump.
Engoron warned Trump that he would be removed from the witness stand, if he did not answer the questions directly.
“Can you control your client?” asked Engoron to former president’s lawyer, Christopher Kise, adding that this is a courtroom and not a political rally.
Trump’s testimony wrapped up in midafternoon. His daughter Ivanka Trump is due to take stand on Wednesday, though she is not one of the defendants.
Trump, who is the frontrunner of GOP for presidential elections 2024, spent roughly four hours on the stand and often avoided direct answers, instead kept on bragging about his properties and his wealth. He accused New York Attorney General Letitia James, an elected Democrat, of targeting him to further her political career.