Donald Trump Faces 'Inevitable Defeat' in New York Trial, Lawyer Predicts

Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Renato Mariotti said on Sunday that Donald Trump faces "inevitable defeat" in his $250 million New York civil fraud trial.

In New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit that she filed last year, James alleges that Trump, his adult sons, and top executives at The Trump Organization, conspired to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans. Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied any wrongdoing and has said the trial is politically motivated.

During the course of the trial, Trump has made repeated attacks on judges and court staff, often taking to Truth Social, his social media platform, to voice his stance, which caused him to be issued gag orders. The former president attacked Judge Arthur Engoron's, who is overseeing the case, longtime law clerk, Alison Greenfield, on social media, which made Engoron fine him twice after the insults. More recently, Engoron's wife has also been at the center of Trump's attacks after she was accused of posting derogatory claims about the former president. She has denied these allegations.

In early November, a state appellate court judge temporarily froze two gag orders that Engoron imposed on Trump. The appellate court lifted them until it heard a full appeal from Trump's lawyers, who wanted the gag orders removed.

On Thursday, Engoron commented on the ruling that he intends to enforce it "rigorously and vigorously," according to the Associated Press. Trump's attorney, Chris Kise, said he was aware of the ruling on Thursday, adding, it's "a tragic day for the rule of law," according to the AP.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump via email for comment.

After the gag order was reinstated, in a Sunday interview with MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin, Mariotti explained how Trump may continue to make repeated attacks on the judge and court staff in order to distract from his "inevitable defeat."

"You mentioned a moment ago, Ayman, he is losing in court. In fact, I would call this basically a long slow defeat for Trump. You know when we [are] prosecuting we used the term 'slow plea,' where somebody essentially is either pleading guilty and the defendant couldn't get their head around that and they would just essentially force the defense attorney to go through the motions, but it would be a foregone conclusion. I think that is what is happening here. Trump is trying to get us talking about something else other than his pretty much inevitable defeat in this trial," Mariotti said.

He added: "Now Trump is trying to test the waters, trying to see if he can get the judge to provoke some sort of fight with him over trying to protect his wife, something that makes it seem a little more personal. Trump is trying to distract us all from his losses with Engoron."

In addition, Michael McAuliffe, former federal prosecutor and ex-elected state attorney, previously told Newsweek via email on Thursday, "The New York appellate court reviewed the recent filings and made the decision to reinstate the limited gag order in the state civil fraud case. The move is unambiguous and the trial judge put the parties on notice that he'll enforce the revived gag order."

He added: "It certainly should impact how the defendants make statements that arguably fall under the order, but there is a high likelihood of a violation occurring. The big, open issue may be what penalties, if any, can be effective if and when Trump violates the order."

In an interview with MSNBC last week, former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a staunch Trump critic, spoke about the former president's repeated attacks while explaining that the judges in Trump's cases have a responsibility to pay attention to the ongoing "witness threatening conduct" Trump incites, warning that his "luck may run out."

"I think it would be irresponsible for one jurisdiction to decline to pay attention to the potentially witness threatening conduct by the same pretrial defendant in another jurisdiction and we have seen some cross pollination between and among the judges. I can only wonder if at some point Donald Trump's luck will run out and the judges will say enough, we are going to impose these gag orders, we are going to keep them in place," he said.