Tracking the criminal and civil cases against Donald Trump
key developments:
JANUARY 11, 2024:
Donald Trump attends closing arguments. He defies the judge and gives a six-minute diatribe after his lawyers speak. Proclaiming “I am an innocent man,” Trump accused Attorney General Letitia James because of a political vendetta. The case “is a fraud on me,” he said. State lawyers, meanwhile, argued that they had presented ample evidence and that “fraud was central to the operation” of Trump’s business.
December 12, 2023:
Trump’s lawyers rest their case after Trump decides against testifying for a second time. “I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. The defense called 17 witnesses in all, including real estate developers and brokers, accounting experts and a former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission official. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also returned to the witness stand to present “The Trump Story,” a slideshow of golf course fairways, skyscrapers and gilded interiors.
NOVEMBER 30, 2023:
A New York appeals court reinstates Trump’s limited gag order, again barring him from criticizing court staff. The decision came two weeks after an individual appellate judge put the gag order on hold while the appeals process played out. Judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a disparaging social media post about his chief law clerk, says he plans to enforce the reinstated gag order “rigorously and vigorously.”
NOVEMBER 16, 2023:
A state appeals court judge temporarily lifts Trump’s limited gag order, allowing him to again criticize court staff. Judge Arthur Engoron imposed the gag order on Oct. 3 after Trump made a disparaging social media post about his chief law clerk. Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court raised free speech concerns in suspending the order.
NOVEMBER 8, 2023:
State lawyers rest their civil fraud case against Trump after calling 25 witnesses. They include the former president, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and daughter Ivanka. The state says it may call rebuttal witnesses after Trump’s lawyers finish calling witnesses of their own.
NOVEMBER 6, 2023:
Trump testifies at his civil fraud trial. He spends about 3½ hours on the stand. He denies allegations that he duped lenders by exaggerating his wealth on financial statements and repeatedly complains about what he deems a “very unfair trial.” He gripes Judge Arthur Engoron ruled “against me without knowing anything about me and labels New York Attorney General Letitia James “a political hack,” saying the Democrat “should be ashamed of herself” for going after him.
A courtroom sketch shows former President Donald Trump testifying in his New York civil fraud trial on Nov. 6, 2023.
october 26, 2023:
Donald Trump is fined $10,000 for again violating a limited gag order barring attacks on court staff, this time for a comment to reporters outside the courtroom about “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the judge. In an extraordinary moment, Judge Arthur Engoron abruptly called Trump to the witness stand and questioned him about the comment before issuing the fine. Trump said he was talking about his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who was testifying at the time, but Engoron deemed that claim “not credible,” noting that the clerk is closer to him than is the witness stand.
OCTOBER 20, 2023:
Judge Arthur Engoron fines Donald Trump $5,000 after his disparaging social media post about a key court staffer was found to have lingered on his campaign website for weeks after the judge ordered it deleted. Engoron stops short of holding Trump in contempt but says he reserves the right to do so. He raises the possibly of even putting Trump in jail if he again violates a limited gag order barring attacks on court staff.
OCTOBER 3, 2023:
Judge Arthur Engoron imposes a limited gag order and commands Donald Trump to delete a social media post that publicly maligned a key court staffer. The order, issued after a series of closed-door courtroom discussions involving Trump and lawyers for both sides, bars parties in the case from smearing court staff.
OCTOBER 2, 2023:
A trial begins on six remaining claims in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit. They include allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. Though not required to attend, Donald Trump voluntarily goes to the courthouse and sits with his lawyers at the table for opening statements and the start of testimony. Judge Arthur Engoron is presiding over what’s known as a bench trial, meaning he will decide the verdict. That’s because New York law doesn’t allow a jury for this type of lawsuit.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2023:
In a pretrial decision, Judge Arthur Engoron rules that Trump and other defendants committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House. The ruling, in a phase of the case known as summary judgment, resolves the key claim in James’ lawsuit. He orders some of Trump’s companies removed from his control and dissolved, but an appeals court pauses enforcement.
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023:
New York Attorney General Letitia James sues Trump, his company and top executives including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. She alleges Trump padded his net worth by billions of dollars and habitually misled banks and others about the value of prized assets like golf courses, hotels and his Mar-a-Lago estate. James dubs the alleged scheme “The art of the steal,” a reference to Trump’s 1987 memoir, “The Art of the Deal.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James siting in the courtroom during the trial in her civil fraud lawsuit against former President Donald Trump.
March 2019:
New York Attorney General Letitia James starts investigating then-President Donald Trump after his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen testified to Congress that Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits. Cohen gave copies of three of Trump’s financial statements to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. He said Trump gave the statements to Deutsche Bank to inquire about a loan to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in 2014 and to Forbes magazine to substantiate his claim to a spot on its list of the world’s wealthiest people.
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