Former President Donald Trump just got slapped with a $10,000 fine after the judge who is overseeing the civil fraud case found that he violated a gag order in the case for the second time now. Justice Arthur Engoron fined Trump $5,000 last week after he discovered that a post on social media the former president was supposed to take down criticizing the judge’s law clerk, was still up on his profile, which has well over 6 million followers. With each day that passes, this whole mess looks more and more politically motivated, doesn’t it?
According to Newsmax, during a break in the trial on Wednesday — which concerns a lawsuit brought against Trump by New York Attorney General Letitia James over Trump’s business practices, he took a moment to speak with reporters where he said, “this judge is a very partisan judge, with a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.”
“Engoron, surmising that Trump was referring to his clerk, called the comments a ‘blatant’ violation of the gag order. The judge imposed the fine after Trump briefly took the witness stand to take questions. Also on Wednesday, Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen acknowledged under questioning by an attorney for the former president that he has a financial incentive to criticize his ex-boss but defended his credibility as he testified in the trial,” the report said.
“Cohen, who came face-to-face with Trump for the first time in five years on Tuesday, underwent cross-examination during his second straight day of testimony in a case in which Trump’s family business is accused of unlawfully manipulating its financials to dupe lenders and insurers,” Newsmax continued.
On Tuesday, Cohen offered up testimony in Manhattan, stating that the former president “arbitrarily” increased the value of the real estate assets owned by the Trump Organization in order to get better insurance premiums. He then went on to confess he himself cooked the financial statements so the property values matched “whatever number Mr. Trump told us.”
Alina Habba, Trump’s legal representative went on to ask Cohen Wednesday about how much cash he brought in from his political podcast and the two books he penned since severing his relationship with Trump.
“You have a financial incentive to criticize Mr. Trump, yes or no?” Habba asked him.
“Yes,” Cohen replied.
Here’s more on the trial from Newsmax:
Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2024 U.S. election, has denied wrongdoing in the case and defended the valuations of his properties. Trump separately has pleaded not guilty in four criminal cases this year.
Cohen’s testimony could bolster the attorney general’s argument that Trump, his company and several of its executives unlawfully inflated property values. The case could break up Trump’s business empire. But Cohen’s admitted record of deceit could undermine his credibility before Justice Arthur Engoron, who alone will decide the outcome of the bench trial. Cohen pleaded guilty to tax fraud, campaign violence violations and perjury in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in prison. He has defended his credibility and said some of his crimes were done at Trump’s direction.
Just before the trial kicked off at the beginning of October, Engoron said Trump fraudulently spiked his net worth and then ordered that the dissolution of companies that control the so-called “crown jewels” of his real estate portfolio, which includes the famous Trump Tower located in Manhattan.
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