Donald Trump is facing off against the New York attorney general – someone he has called a “political hack” for her plan to further her career off of this trial. 

Trump took the stand in his own defense in a New York court room on Monday and vigorously defended his business empire and slammed the case against him as politically motivated. 

The proceedings served as both a legal defense and campaign platform for Trump who is not afraid to call out the political motivations fueling the case. 

This courtroom performance not only paints a picture of what’s in store for us in the 2024 election, but what could happen in the federal trial covering the 2020 election interference case. In this upcoming case, Trump plans to introduce classified information showing how foreign governments tried to influence the election and his efforts to stop it.

Find out what’s happening in this trial and what’s in store in the next one when Trump shares shocking revelations about foreign interference in our elections.   

The courtroom in New York witnessed a sparring session with the judge as Donald Trump took the witness stand. With his usual bravado and blunt style, the former president vigorously defended his business empire against allegations of financial fraud. 

Trump also seems to view the trial as a political platform to raise concerns of political bias. On the stand, Trump told a state lawyer, “You go around and try and demean me and try and hurt me, probably for political reasons.”

While the judge warned Trump not to politicize the matter saying, “This is not a political rally.” Trump insisted that the case was biased against him and described the Attorney General Letitia James as a “political hack” and that “she used this case to try and become governor”. 

As usual, Trump is not afraid to call out the political intentions of those trying to defame him. With court cases regarding classified documents and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election still ahead of him, it’s clear that Trump is the target of Washington’s political machinery. Why else is a presidential candidate under a gag order?

Tensions between Trump and the judge were obvious from the start. Trump had already been fined  $15,000 for outside-of-court comments last week. And the judge said on Monday “I do not want to hear everything this witness has to say. He has a lot to say that has nothing to do with the case or the questions,”. It sounds like Justice Arthur Engoron does not like everything that Trump has to say. 

Although it’s a civil trial that cannot not lead to his imprisonment, Trump is taking this seriously – trying to show Americans what’s really going on here.  

During the trial he said past comments about his business and Florida estate were misquoted or taken too literally. He claimed he had never intended to defraud any financial institutions. Trump insisted that no one was victimized, though lawyers argue he received benefits from the wealth stated on his forms.

The ongoing non-jury trial encompasses broader aspects of the lawsuit brought by Attorney General James against Trump, his Trump Organization, and other top executives such as his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump. 

Echoing his sons’ testimony, Trump downplayed his direct role in creating and reviewing the financial statements that are at the heart of this case. He stated that he only authorized providing necessary information to accountants and may have occasionally suggested changes to the results.

Trump even pointed out that the 2014 statements shouldn’t be part of the lawsuit at all since the statute of limitations had passed. The fact that the judge allowed their inclusion in this case is just another sign of the Judge’s obvious bias. 

In addition to addressing the allegations of financial statement inflation, Attorney General Letitia James is pursuing claims that together would require the defendants to pay over $300 million in alleged improper profits if found liable. On top of all of this, she is seeking to prohibit the Trump entities from conducting any future business operations within the state of New York.

While this civil court case is just another attempt to weigh down Trump’s re-election campaign, an even bigger obstacle is brewing. The 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump will no doubt be even more heated then the civil case making headlines now. 

Recently, Trump took a stand against the gag order which prohibited him from making certain statements about the special counsel’s team, potential witnesses, and court personnel. Obviously this gag order will impede his defense, but Trump is not letting this stop his quest for justice. 

Now he and his legal team are preparing to introduce classified information about how foreign governments tried to influence the election and his efforts to stop it.

According to the legal team’s submission to Judge Tanya Chutkan, Trump “will offer classified information at trial relating to foreign influence activities that impacted the 2016 and 2020 elections, as well as efforts by his administration to combat those activities.”

He “will also present classified information relating to the biased and politicized nature of the intelligence assessments that he and others rejected during the events in question,”

Trump’s legal team believes that the evidence will undercut central theories of the prosecution and establish that Donald Trump acted at all times in good faith and on the belief that he was doing what he had been elected to do.

This evidence could not only severely damage the case against him but also unearth the attempts to keep him from running for president. After all, there is very little legal precedent for putting a gag order on defendants running for public office which is why this issue alone may end up going to the Supreme Court. 

Besides the gag order, Judge Chutkan has made it clear that she intends to keep the court case as scheduled to begin in March 2024. Already Trump is hampered by the four cases against him and the litany of legal proceedings that come with him. 

By scheduling such a huge case in the lead up to the election, Trump is forced to face attacks from all sides no doubt hurting his chances at re-election. It seems obvious that the timing of this whole process is meant to give even someone as old and played out as Biden a fighting chance.