Former President Donald Trumpā€™s Thursday courtroom tirade could backfire, legal experts warn.

Trump attorney Chris Kise asked Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing Trumpā€™s New York fraud trial, to allow Trump to speak on his own behalf during closing arguments. Engoron asked Trump if he would agree to stick to the facts and relevant law but the former president launched into a lengthy diatribe, accusing the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James of waging a ā€œpolitical witch huntā€ and demanding ā€œdamagesā€ because the real ā€œfraud is on me.ā€

During one portion of his rant, Trump referred to a key allegation in Jamesā€™ lawsuit alleging that the former presidentā€™s Trump Tower penthouse was valued at three times larger than it actually is.

ā€œThey made a mistake. It was an honest mistake,ā€ Trump said.

Jamesā€™ team allowed Trump to speak until the judge ultimately shut him down and pleaded for Kise to ā€œcontrol your client.ā€

ā€œThere may be a reason that Jamesā€™ staff didnā€™t interrupt,ā€ wrote NBC News legal analyst Lisa Rubin. ā€œThe AGā€™s office may have struck gold because some of what Trump said was so damaging to him, especially his explanation of the triplex square footage ā€˜error.ā€™ā€

    • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Itā€™s just a witch hunt. They have ulterior motives. They are deep state setting me up. They canā€™t see the real truth. Only I do.

      Am I missing anything else?

    • Fleamo@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The nihilism of legal consequences has so far come from the lack of charging him with anything, mostly when he was president and the policy was not to charge him with anything. He hasnā€™t actually gotten away with anything that has gone to court.

      He lost the E Jean Carroll suit and the Trump Corp fraud case. The other stuff is still ongoing.