Keeping up with Donald Trump’s court schedule is a dizzying task, since he faces two federal trials, a criminal trial in Georgia, and a separate civil trial and criminal trial in New York. (Oh, and he’s running for president.) To make things easier, we’ll be recapping the biggest Trump trial news at the end of each week.
It was a dramatic week for the former president. Donald Trump was on the witness stand in his New York civil fraud trial, closely followed by his daughter Ivanka (the third Trump child to testify). All the while, the Department of Justice was hard at work countering Trump’s attempts to dismiss charges in the federal election interference case.
1. Trump Takes the Witness Stand
The moment the former president assumed the witness stand on Monday, the theatrics began. When prosecutors for the New York attorney general’s office tried questioning Trump about his knowledge about and involvement in preparing Trump Organization financial documents, he chose to distract and deflect with irrelevant monologues, jabs at Judge Arthur Engoron, and angry quips about New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the civil fraud case.
For instance, when asked about the valuation of his New York Trump Tower apartment—financial documents in 2016 valued it at $327 million, but it was later lowered to $116.8 million in 2017 after Forbes magazine outed Trump for incorrectly reporting its size—Trump offered a long-winded response that didn’t actually answer the question. “Probably, I said I thought it was too high,” said Trump. “I don’t know what’s too high anymore because I’m seeing things sold at numbers that are very high.”
Then he added that the apartment’s valuation could have simply been a mistake, and that that’s what a disclaimer clause—a warning attached to financial documents like the one in question—is for. “There’s a disclaimer clause where you don’t have to get sued by the attorney general of New York,” Trump said.
The hourslong testimony continued with unrelated asides and lots of antagonistic comments. At one point the distractions compelled Engoron to demand Trump attorney Chris Kise rein in his client—or else. “I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can,” said Engoron.
By the end of it, prosecutors were able to get Trump to confirm his role in preparing his company’s financial documents. “I would look at them, I would see them, and I would maybe on occasion have some suggestions,” said Trump.
2. Ivanka Trump Reluctantly Testifies
When Trump’s eldest daughter took the witness stand, she had a markedly different approach than the former president. “Ivanka Trump was cordial, she was disciplined, she was controlled, and she was very courteous,” said the New York attorney general.
Her strategy was much like that of her two brothers, Don Jr. and Eric, who had earlier testified at their father’s New York civil fraud trial and mostly deflected any responsibility related to preparing and influencing financial statements. Throughout her testimony, Ivanka maintained she didn’t remember discussing any specific company financials while she was executive vice president at the Trump Organization. (She left the role at the end of 2016 to join her father’s White House as a senior adviser.)
But prosecutors tried to dig deeper by pinpointing her role in Trump’s Park Avenue apartment building, where Ivanka had leased two apartments and had the option to buy. That property was valued at more than $20.8 million on the former president’s financial statement, while Ivanka was given a purchase option to buy it for only $8.5 million—a discrepancy she said she had nothing to do with.
Ivanka has also been pinned as the alleged point person for the Trump Organization’s long-standing relationship with Deutsche Bank. The AG’s office pressed upon this allegation by showing a 2011 email where she discussed the terms of a deal with Deutsche Bank that was contingent on the Trump Organization maintaining a net worth of $3 billion. “It doesn’t get better than this. Let’s discuss ASAP,” wrote Ivanka.
The former president’s daughter was initially a co-defendant in the AG’s lawsuit but was later removed after a judge decided the claims against her were blocked by New York’s statute of limitations. But she was still required to testify at trial, which she tried dearly to prevent.
With three of Trump’s children and the former president himself having now testified, the AG’s office rested its case on Wednesday. The defense is up next and will present their case starting next week.
3. Jack Smith Does Not Want Trump’s Trial Televised
All eyes are on the former president as he awaits four criminal trials next year, and the DOJ’s special counsel believes that’s exactly why his federal election interference case should not be televised or photographed.
Special counsel Jack Smith submitted a new filing to Judge Tanya Chutkan that argued that televising a criminal trial is not a constitutional right and that media outlets’ requests to do so could be dangerous. “Paired with the ever-increasing acrimony in public discourse, witnesses and others who appear on video may be subjected to threats and harassment,” wrote DOJ prosecutors. They also noted that if jurors know the trial will be televised, they may be “unwilling to serve.”
The filing also cited federal criminal procedure that says a “court must not permit the taking of photographs in the courtroom during judicial proceedings or the broadcasting of judicial proceedings from the courtroom.”
Media outlets have been eager to broadcast and photograph Trump’s highly anticipated criminal trials, banding together and filing a formal motion to allow them access. They argued the election interference case is critically important in “stemming false conspiracy theories across the entire spectrum of public opinion, regardless of the outcome of the trial.”
Even House Democrats tried in their own way to get the trial televised, asking the Judicial Conference to change its established rules and allow for an exception in Trump’s D.C. trial. Their request was essentially denied after the federal judicial panel determined it doesn’t have the ability to change the ban on broadcasting federal criminal trials.
4. Jack Smith Rails Against Trump’s Appeal to Dismiss Case
Trump’s lawyers filed a series of lengthy motions to have his federal election interference charges thrown out on the claim that President Joe Biden was pushing the DOJ to take on a “nakedly political” case against Trump, that he should be absolutely immune for actions taken during his presidency, and that the case had various statutory flaws. They also argued the indictment was an attack on Trump’s protected First Amendment rights. “Countless millions believe, as President Trump consistently has and currently does, that fraud and irregularities pervaded the 2020 presidential election,” wrote John Lauro, a Trump attorney. “As the indictment itself alleges, President Trump gave voice to these concerns and demanded that politicians in a position to restore integrity to our elections not just talk about the problems, but investigate and resolve it.”
The DOJ had some choice words about that argument, with James Pearce, assistant special counsel, writing in response to Judge Chutkan that Trump was trying to “sanitize” his conduct. Pearce also poked at Trump’s attempt to pin his actions on First Amendment rights and the notion that he was acting in good faith on behalf of Americans who doubted the 2020 election results. “Knowing lies are neither opinions nor ‘pure advocacy,’ ” Pearce wrote. “Were it otherwise, defendants captured en route to a bank robbery could not be charged with conspiracy because their crime did not succeed.”
Ultimately, Chutkan will decide if any or all charges against Trump in the DOJ’s federal election interference case should be dismissed and appeals courts will be asked to weigh in, likely up to the Supreme Court.
