(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Not Live Coverage: Donald Trump chickens out on testifying [1]

['Daily Kos Staff']

Date: 2023-12-11  

On Monday, Daily Kos had planned to provide live coverage as Donald Trump took the stand for the final day of defense testimony in his New York civil trial for fraud. Trump’s attorneys claimed he was looking forward to giving his testimony. However, that’s not going to happen.

x Trump chickened out of testifying tomorrow. Alina Habba a few days ago: “He will take that stand on Monday. He will open himself up to whatever they want because he’s not afraid. People who are afraid cower. Trump doesn’t cower.” pic.twitter.com/4P4OgRVpYh — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 10, 2023

If anyone is looking for Trump on Monday, they’ll need to check under the beds at Mar-a-Lago. Trump is cowering after all.

In her complete statement on the courthouse steps following defense testimony on Thursday, Habba said that she had warned Trump about testifying because he was still under a gag order. Meaning that he couldn’t use the stand as a pulpit to attack court staff and would have to restrict himself to attacking Judge Arthur Engoron, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and lying about the Engoron’s wife . Apparently, Habba felt that this would be a huge constraint on Trump and he would have to be “so careful” about what he said. Even so, she claimed that he insisted on appearing.

But on Sunday evening, Trump announced he would not be taking the stand with a pair of lengthy all-caps posts on his Truth Social platform.

In these posts:

Trump defended himself with the testimony of the expert witness he paid $900,000 to say good things about him

Complained about a lack of jury when his attorneys never requested a jury

Repeated lies that the court had valued Mar-a-Lago at $18 million, which never happened

Repeated his claim that he won in the appeals court, which also did not happen .

Trump also accused President Joe Biden of using the trial as election interference, even though Biden has nothing to do with this trial. However, Trump is still facing a federal trial for interfering in the 2020 election. That trial is currently scheduled to begin on March 4, 2024.

Trump concludes that he has “nothing more to say.” America only wishes that were true.

Engoron has already concluded that Trump, his sons, and his company committed fraud in manipulating the value of their properties. This phase of the trial is only about determining the penalty. Trump faces up to $250 million in fines and potential sanctions against doing further business in New York state.

The trial is expected to end on Tuesday with final statements from the prosecution and defense. Engoron will then consider all evidence presented before determining the penalties.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/11/2210985/-Not-Live-Coverage-Donald-Trump-chickens-out-on-testifying?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_7&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/