When Donald Trump takes the stand on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom to testify in his civil fraud trial, it will be an undeniable spectacle: A former president and the leading Republican presidential candidate defending himself against allegations that he dramatically inflated his net worth. The charges cut to the very heart of the brand Trump spent decades carefully crafting and put him at risk of losing control of much of his business empire. But the appearance may also mark the beginning of what will likely be a defining feature of the 2024 election if Trump becomes his party\u2019s nominee: a major candidate, on trial, using the witness stand as a campaign platform as he eyes a return to the White House while facing multiple criminal indictments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a stunning moment. This is dramatic enough if he was simply an ex-president facing these charges. But the fact that he is the overwhelming favourite to run the GOP, it makes this a staggering Monday,\u201d said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. The courtroom at 60 Centre Street has already become a familiar destination for Trump. He has spent hours over the last month voluntarily seated at the defence table, observing the proceedings. Trump once took the stand \u2013 unexpectedly and briefly \u2013 after he was accused of violating a partial gag order.<\/p>\n
Trump denied violating the rules, but Judge Arthur Engoron disagreed and fined him anyway. The vast majority of his speaking has happened outside the courtroom, where he has taken full advantage of the bank of assembled media to voice his outrage and spin the days\u2019 proceedings in the most favourable way. He will also be coming face-to-face again Monday with Engoron, whom he has lambasted on his social media site in recent days as a \u201cwacko\u201d and \u201cRADICAL LEFT, DEMOCRAT OPERATIVE JUDGE\u201d who has already \u201cruled viciously\u201d against him.<\/p>\n
Trump will also be joined by his former fixer and attorney-turned witness, Michal Cohen, who said in an interview he was planning to attend Monday\u2019s proceedings. \u201cMy intent is to attend Donald\u2019s appearance as he was gracious enough to attend my court appearances,\u201d he said. Among the topics likely to be covered: Trump\u2019s role in his company\u2019s decision making, in its valuing of his properties, and in preparing his annual financial statements. Trump is likely to be asked about loans and other deals that were made using the statements and what intent, if any, he had in portraying his wealth to banks and insurers the way the documents did.<\/p>\n
Trump is also likely to be asked about how he views and values his brand \u2013 and the economic impact of his fame and time as president \u2014 and may be asked to explain claims that his financial statements actually undervalued his wealth. Trump has argued that disclaimers on his financial statements should have alerted people relying on the documents to do their own homework and verify the numbers themselves \u2013 an answer that he\u2019s likely to repeat on the witness stand. Trump has said the disclaimer absolved him of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Eric Trump, the former president\u2019s middle son, who testified in the case last week, said his father was eager for his appearance on the stand. \u201cI know he\u2019s very fired up to be here. And he thinks that this is one of the most incredible injustices that he\u2019s ever seen. And it truly is,\u201d the younger Trump told reporters Friday, insisting his family was winning even though the judge has already ruled mostly against them. Unlike most Americans, Trump has ample experience fielding questions from lawyers and has a long history of depositions and courtroom testimony that offer insight into how he might respond.<\/p>\n
But Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than a decade, said nothing in Trump\u2019s past has come close to what he\u2019s facing now since they were largely civil matters \u201cwhere even though the dollar amounts were in the millions of dollars, they were never of any real consequence to him or obviously to his freedom.\u201d \u201cRight now this New York attorney general case is a threat to the extinction of his eponymous company as well as his financial future,\u201d he said. Trump\u2019s forthcoming criminal cases \u2013 accusing him of misclassifying hush money payments, illegally trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election and hoarding documents at his Mar-a-Lago club \u201chave far more significant consequences, most specifically the termination of his freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brinkley, the historian, said there was little precedent for Trump\u2019s appearance, but said it won\u2019t be the first time a past president has taken the stand in a trial accusing him of wrongdoing. He pointed to one case in 1915, when, after unsuccessfully running for a third term as a third-party candidate, former President Theodore Roosevelt was sued for libel for criticising New York Republican Party boss William Barnes. The judge eventually ruled in Roosevelt\u2019s favour after a five week trial, in which the former president spent eight days on the witness stand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were five weeks of great strain,\u201d he wrote in a letter to his son. \u201cBut the result was a great triumph, and I am bound that there shall be no more libel suits as far as I am concerned, and for the present at least no further active participation in politics for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Donald Trump takes the stand on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom to testify in his civil fraud trial, it\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":9877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1508,168,2779,2835,2836,1509,2837,795,295],"class_list":["post-9941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-civil-trial","tag-donald-trump","tag-eric-trump","tag-fraud-case","tag-judge-arthur-engoron","tag-michael-cohen","tag-net-worth","tag-new-york","tag-us-2024-elections"],"reading_time":"5 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9941","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=9941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}