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Lawyers for Donald Trump may have reached a breaking point on Wednesday amid ongoing disagreements with the judge in the former president's civil fraud trial in New York.
Trump and his legal team appeared in court on Wednesday following a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who alleged that the former President and the Trump Organization committed business fraud. Trump has also been accused of increasing his net worth and the value of several of his own properties.
However, in a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, Adam Klasfeld of The Messenger detailed numerous incidents in court where Trump's legal team went back and forth with Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the former president's case.
During one portion of the trial on Wednesday, one of Trump's lawyers, Jesus Suarez was questioning Donald Bender, a former accountant for Trump. Suarez was questioning Bender about Trump's properties and their values when he was interrupted by Engoron who told Trump's lawyer to combine the properties together when asking his questions.
"Suarez keeps going line by line, and Engoron curtly cuts him off, telling him to streamline. Trump's lawyer keeps insisting it's necessary in light of the witness's testimony," Klasfeld wrote. "Engoron asks how much longer cross-ex will be. Suarez says it's end today."
Both Engoron and the lawyers for James asked why Suarez was questioning Bender for so long.
"That was quite a scene: Engoron got visibly frustrated by what he believed to be a performative style of questioning that dragged out proceedings too much, pounding the bench at one point and saying: 'This is ridiculous,'" Klasfeld wrote on X.
According to Jose Pagliery of the Daily Beast, Engoron said, "I'm just being logical here. I'm not going to let you ask every single line. You're not going to get away with this," prompting Trump's other lawyer, Cristopher Kise to say, "For the record, I object to this."
This comes just a day after Trump attacked Engroron's clerk Allison Greenfield in a social media post that has since been deleted. The post on TruthSocial showed Greenfield with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Trump wrote, "Schumer's girlfriend, Alison R. Greenfield, is running this case against me. How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!" He's now been issued an order to refrain from mentioning the court or its staff again.
"Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable and inappropriate, and I won't tolerate it," Engoron said. "Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff."
Prior to arriving in court on Wednesday, Trump spoke out against the trial on TruthSocial writing, "Corrupt Attorney General, Letitia James, is a big reason for this. Statute 63(12) is meant to be used for Consumer Fraud. It has never been used before on a 'case' such as this, especially since I did absolutely nothing wrong. I borrowed money, paid it back, in full, and got sued, years later, with a trial RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF MY CAMPAIGN. I am not even entitled, under any circumstances, to a JURY. This Witch Hunt cannot be allowed to continue. It is Election Interference and the start of Communism right here in America!"
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more