Donald Trump Warned His Plan Against Letitia James Will Fail

New York Attorney General Letitia James warned Donald Trump his "taunts, threats and name calling" won't work when he gives evidence at his New York fraud trial next week.

Trump is expected to give evidence on Monday, in what is expected to be a fiery showdown between the former president and James' legal team. She has been a frequent target of Trump's fury. He previously denounced the trial as a "witch hunt" and called James, the first black person elected as New York attorney general, a "racist" as well as "biased and corrupt."

In a video statement she released on X, formerly Twitter, James said on Thursday that Trump's insults from the witness stand will not hide the truth.

"Next week, Donald Trump himself will take the stand," she said. "And while I am sure he will try to hide his wrongdoing behind taunts, threats, name calling, we will not be bullied out of uncovering the truth."

On Wednesday, Trump denounced the trial on the social media site Truth Social. In a 2:28 a.m. post, he dismissed it as a "rigged trial" brought by a "racist" attorney general before a "Trump and developer Hating Judge."

"Judge [Arthur] Engoron is a political hack who ruled against me before the trial even started. He is doing the dirty work for the Democrat Party. I was not even given the option of a jury, This Rigged Case should have never been brought," Trump wrote in another post at 7:43 a.m. on Wednesday, claiming "this is his [Engoron's] big chance, and he was not going to let it go."

Trump briefly took the stand last week to defend comments he made to reporters. Judge Engoron later ruled the comments were in violation of an established gag order and fined him $10,000.

During next week's testimony, Trump will be subjected to detailed questioning under oath by prosecutors from James' office, not just the judge.

James' lawyers have claimed in court that Trump Organization financial statements from 2011-2021 included a large number of inflated valuations of Donald Trump's assets used to get better rates on insurance and loans.

Trump and his adult sons, as well as the Trump Organization, were found liable for fraud in the New York case on September 26, when Judge Engoron sided with James to find that the former president had inflated the value of his assets by as much as $2.2 billion. According to the judge, there was "conclusive evidence" that Trump had overvalued many of his properties, including Mar-a-Lago and his Trump Tower penthouse.

Trump, who has denied any wrongdoing, is appealing the refusal to dismiss the civil lawsuit altogether. His lawyers wrote in their appeal submissions that they were contesting "each and every part" of Judge Engoron's September 26 ruling.

Trump is the frontrunner in the Republican primary and has accused James of launching the case against him to weaken his position at the 2024 presidential election.

Engoron rescinded the corporate certifications of the New York corporations at the center of the case, limiting Trump's ability to run his real estate business. An appeal court has agreed to indefinitely delay the implementation of that decision.