Donald Trump arrived in court in New York to defend himself in a civil fraud case that threatens his real estate empire, the first in a long series of court hearings that shake up his path to a possible return to the White House, AFP reported.
At 10:00 a.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT), the temperamental 77-year-old billionaire entered the Manhattan courthouse and immediately lashed out in front of a forest of cameras at New York State Attorney Letitia James, who is seeking damages of on 250 million dollars.
Trump, a leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, denounced the case as "very unfair" when he took the stand, calling it "political warfare" and "election interference."
"This is a very sad situation for our country," he said. "Usually this happens in third world countries."
Trump and his two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, as well as other executives of the Trump Organization, are accused of exaggerating the value of their real estate assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Leticia James, who spoke to reporters before Trump's arrival, said the real estate mogul "has consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets."
"Before he gets on the stand, I'm sure he's going to engage in name-calling and taunting and racial slurs and call it a witch hunt," James said. "But at the end of the day, the only things that matter are the facts and the numbers.
"And the numbers, my friends, don't lie."
Trump has repeatedly attacked James, who is black, and the judge overseeing the case, calling him "crazy" and a "Trump-hating radical leftist, Democratic operative."
In response, the judge slapped Trump with two fines, one for $5,000 and the other for $10,000, when he ruled that the former TV star partially violated a gag order imposed after he insulted the judge's clerk on social media .
Trump's testimony follows that of his sons, Don Jr. and Eric, who appeared in court last week and blamed accountants for the company's financial statements.
According to the Washington Post, the last former president to testify publicly as a defendant was Theodore Roosevelt, who testified during a 1915 libel trial.
Trump has already testified twice in connection with the case, both times in camera.
In excerpts from initial testimony, he called the proceedings "the biggest witch hunt in the history of our country" and called the Democratic attorney general "an out-of-control prosecutor."
During the second testimony, he said the whole case was "crazy" because "all the banks were paid off" and "they made a lot of money" from his business.
Trump and his sons face no jail time, but face fines of up to $250 million and potential removal from the family company.
Even before opening arguments, the judge ruled that James' office had already shown "compelling evidence" that Trump overstated his net worth in financial filings by between $812 million and $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.
As a result, he ordered the liquidation of the companies managing the assets in question, such as Trump Tower and the 40 skyscrapers on Wall Street in Manhattan and the lavish private estate Seven Springs in the suburbs.
That order has been stayed pending an appeal, but its potentially far-reaching implications underscore the high stakes for the former president.
The mogul's daughter, Ivanka Trump, who left the Trump Organization in 2017 to become her father's White House adviser, is not a co-defendant in the case but has also been ordered to testify, possibly as early as Wednesday.
The civil fraud trial is one of several legal battles Trump faces as he tries to regain the presidency.
In March, Trump - who was impeached twice while in the White House, although he was never convicted - is expected in federal court in Washington for the start of his trial on charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. , which he lost to President Joe Biden.
So far, the media circus surrounding his legal troubles has not dampened his popularity in polls. /BGNES
