Former President Donald Trump’s Thursday courtroom tirade could backfire, legal experts warn.

Trump attorney Chris Kise asked Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing Trump’s New York fraud trial, to allow Trump to speak on his own behalf during closing arguments. Engoron asked Trump if he would agree to stick to the facts and relevant law but the former president launched into a lengthy diatribe, accusing the judge and New York Attorney General Letitia James of waging a “political witch hunt” and demanding “damages” because the real “fraud is on me.”

During one portion of his rant, Trump referred to a key allegation in James’ lawsuit alleging that the former president’s Trump Tower penthouse was valued at three times larger than it actually is.

“They made a mistake. It was an honest mistake,” Trump said.

James’ team allowed Trump to speak until the judge ultimately shut him down and pleaded for Kise to “control your client.”

“There may be a reason that James’ staff didn’t interrupt,” wrote NBC News legal analyst Lisa Rubin. “The AG’s office may have struck gold because some of what Trump said was so damaging to him, especially his explanation of the triplex square footage ‘error.’”

  • jonne@infosec.pub
    31·
    10 months ago

    The thing is, he could’ve just put that stuff in a trust fund and lived off interest/dividends/whatever. But he just had to go into business, screw people over, and then do the same in politics.

    • btaf45@lemmy.world
      22·
      10 months ago

      And then become a very disloyal American neofascist, who is also a megolomaniac who craves power and attention, and a convicted sex offender.

      • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
        8·
        10 months ago

        Have to wonder what the motive is. If I didn’t need food, water, shelter, etc. getting out of bed before noon would be a hard sell.

      • BeerMedic@lemmy.world
        11·
        10 months ago

        I hate Cheeto chimp … but, for the record, he’s not convicted. It wasn’t a criminal case, it was civil.

    • squiblet@kbin.social
      12·
      10 months ago

      Sure. He could have even just hired competent people to run it and stayed out of their way, even entered politics earlier. I assume probably he wanted the chance to be an asshole to people in person, since he clearly has this huge angst. Also he’s a poster child for Dunning-Kreuger - he has absolutely no idea how dumb he is, so he thought he would be the best and only choice to run his businesses.