A last-minute legal challenge by Donald Trump\u2019s lawyers could disrupt a trial scheduled for next month in the New York attorney general\u2019s business fraud lawsuit against the former president and his company. A state appeals court judge on Thursday ordered a potential postponement of the non-jury trial, scheduled to start October 2, after Trump\u2019s lawyers filed a lawsuit accusing the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, of repeatedly abusing his authority. Justice David Friedman, a judge on the state\u2019s intermediate appellate court, granted an interim stay of the trial and ordered the full appeals court to consider the lawsuit on an expedited basis. The court indicated it would issue a decision the week of September 25, meaning the trial could still start on schedule depending on how it rules.<\/p>\n
Among the issues raised by Trump\u2019s lawyers were Engoron\u2019s terse refusal to grant their recent request for a three-week trial delay, which he ruled as \u201ccompletely without merit,\u201d and lingering uncertainty about the trial\u2019s scope because he has yet to comply with a June, appeals court\u2019s order that he determine which claims in the fraud lawsuit are barred by the statute of limitations. Other proceedings in Attorney General Letitia James\u2019 lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organisation will proceed as scheduled, Friedman said. They include oral arguments slated for Sept. 22 on requests from James\u2019 office and Trump\u2019s lawyers that Engoron decide on some or all of the case before the trial starts. Engoron declined comment through a court spokesperson.<\/p>\n
In a statement, James said: \u201cWe are confident in our case and will be ready for trial.\u201d James\u2019 lawsuit alleges Trump defrauded banks, insurers and others with annual financial statements that inflated the value of his skyscrapers, golf courses and other assets and boosted his net worth by as much as USD 3.6 billion. Her lawsuit seeks USD 250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump doing business in New York. Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in next year\u2019s presidential election, has denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
In sworn testimony given for the lawsuit in April, Trump said he didn\u2019t think his financial statements would be taken seriously because they have a disclaimer that says they shouldn\u2019t be trusted. He told James, a Democrat, \u201cYou don\u2019t have a case and you should drop this case.\u201d \u201cDo you know the banks were fully paid? Do you know the banks made a lot of money?\u201d Trump testified. \u201cDo you know I don\u2019t believe I ever got even a default notice, and even during COVID, the banks were all paid? And yet you\u2019re suing on behalf of banks, I guess. It\u2019s crazy. The whole case is crazy.\u201d The lawsuit against Engoron, filed under a provision of state law known as Article 78, is Trump\u2019s latest attack on judges presiding over his many legal cases.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump\u2019s lawyers asked the federal judge presiding over his election subversion case in Washington to recuse herself, saying US District Judge Tanya Chutkan \u2018s past public statements about him and his connection to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol call into question whether she can be fair. That request is pending. Before that, Trump also sought to remove the judge in his Manhattan hush-money criminal case. Trump\u2019s lawyers argued Judge Juan Manuel Merchan is biased because he\u2019s given money to Democrats and his daughter is a party consultant, but Merchan last month rejected their request to recuse himself, saying he is certain of his \u201cability to be fair and impartial.\u201d Trump has shown enmity for Engoron in the past, lashing out at him on social media as \u201cvicious, biased, and mean\u201d after a series of unfavorable rulings from the judge, including a contempt order that cost Trump USD 110,000 for not turning over evidence to James\u2019 office in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawyers fought unsuccessfully last year to have James\u2019 lawsuit moved from Engoron\u2019s courtroom to the court\u2019s Commercial Division, which is set up to handle complex corporate litigation. Engoron has said the trial could take up to three months. Trump\u2019s lawyers have asked Engoron to grant summary judgment dismissing the case entirely before the trial starts. They argue that many of the lawsuit\u2019s allegations are barred by the statute of limitations and that James has no standing to sue because the entities Trump supposedly defrauded \u201chave never complained, and indeed have profited from their business dealings\u201d with him.<\/p>\n
James\u2019 office has asked Engoron to grant summary judgment in its favour on one of seven claims in her lawsuit \u2013 that Trump and his company committed fraud. To rule, Engoron needs only to answer two questions, James\u2019 office argued: whether Trump\u2019s annual financial statements were false or misleading, and whether he and the Trump Organization used those statements while conducting business transactions. Trump is not expected to testify in court if the case goes to trial, but video recordings of his depositions could be played.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A last-minute legal challenge by Donald Trump\u2019s lawyers could disrupt a trial scheduled for next month in the New York\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":3241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,765,766,764,112,763],"class_list":["post-3240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-subversion","tag-finances","tag-fraud-trial","tag-indictment","tag-litigation"],"reading_time":"5 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}