Former President Trump plans to retake the witness stand in his civil fraud trial next month as the final witness in the defense’s case.
Trump will testify Dec. 11, this time under questioning by his legal team, attorney Chris Kise said Monday.
With his own team at the helm, Trump could have a wider latitude to set the narrative and espouse his thoughts. But he’ll also face cross-examination by New York Attorney General Letitia James’s (D) office over what he says.
Trump’s last stint as a witness in the sweeping case accusing him, his business and several executives — including his adult sons — of decades of fraud was nothing short of bombastic.
The former president’s testimony oscillated between defending his business practices and decrying people involved in the case as politically motivated “Trump haters” — namely Judge Arthur Engoron.
“I’m sure the judge will rule against me, because he always rules against me,” Trump said at one point during his Nov. 6 testimony.
Trump’s attacks against the judge — and other political statements — persisted throughout the day, causing Engoron to repeatedly object to the former president’s makeshift stump speeches from the witness stand.
“Mr. Kise, can you control your client? This is not a political rally,” Engoron said.
Trump’s status as the undisputed front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary ensured that grievances tied to his legal troubles and the purported political forces behind them remained center stage throughout his testimony.
Unprompted, the former president testified that “Democrat” prosecutors and state attorney generals — “all Trump haters,” he said — began to “come after” him.
“Weaponization, they call it,” Trump said.
As state lawyer Kevin Wallace questioned Trump about whether he believed his properties were undervalued on his statements of financial condition — documents at the heart of the New York attorney general’s case — Trump ignored him and ranted against Engoron and James, calling them “frauds” and “political hacks.”
Trump’s second son, Eric Trump, will also take the witness stand for a second time Dec. 6. He testified earlier this month that he “never had anything to do with the statement of financial condition.”
A Trump Organization executive testified Monday that the company no longer produces such statements.
Donald Trump Jr. — Trump’s eldest son — already took the witness stand a second time and painted an idyllic picture of the Trump Organization and its real estate ventures, lauding its many “great, iconic projects” and his father’s “vision … to do things differently.”
With Trump expected to be the last witness in the defense case, the fraud trial threatening his business empire is expected to conclude mid-December.
The New York attorney general’s office has requested some $300 million in financial penalties and to ban Trump and his sons from operating businesses in New York.
Engoron, who will decide the verdict in the bench trial, has already found Trump and his business liable for fraud.
The Associated Press contributed.