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In a last-minute change of plans, former President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will not be testifying in the $250 million civil fraud trial against him and his company.
“I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt,” so “I will not be testifying on Monday,” Trump said in an all-caps, two-part post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Resumption of the trial had been scheduled for Monday, but the Office of Court Administration, the administrative arm of the New York State Unified Court System, said late Sunday that it would instead resume Tuesday.
Trump had been scheduled to testify as one of the final defense witnesses in a trial that has lasted two months and is entering its final week of testimony.
He had been expected to tout his company’s success and push back on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ claims that he vastly overvalued his properties and his net worth in financial statements that he used to get favorable loans from banks that he otherwise would not have been entitled to.
Called as a witness by James’ team on Nov. 6, a combative Trump made similar claims while also launching attacks on the AG and the judge who will decide the case, Arthur Engoron. He called James a “political hack” who “should be ashamed of herself” and referred to Engoron as a “very hostile judge.” “He ruled against me, and he said I was a fraud before he knew anything about me, nothing about me,” Trump said, referring to the judge’s pretrial finding that Trump and his company had engaged in repeated acts of fraud.
“It’s a terrible thing you did,” Trump told the judge of the order, which he is appealing.
James shrugged off Trump’s change of heart in a statement. “Whether or not Trump testifies again tomorrow, we have already proven that he committed years of financial fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his family. No matter how much he tries to distract from reality, the facts don’t lie,” she said.
Donald Trump during his trial at New York State Supreme Court on Oct. 2.Seth Wenig / AP Pool
Trump was under no obligation to testify, because it’s his own defense case. His son Eric Trump similarly backed out of testifying this past Wednesday, which the elder Trump said in a social media post Tuesday night he’d directed him to do.
Like his father, Eric Trump had testified as a witness in the AG’s case. “Eric has already testified, PERFECTLY,” Trump wrote, “so there is no reason to waste any more of this Crooked Court’s time on having him say the same thing, over and over again, as a witness for the defense.”
Trump used a similar rationale in his Truth Social posts Sunday,