Former President Donald Trump declared that he won’t be testifying again in his New York fraud case after being forced to do so by the court.
Trump was due to take the stand on Monday and be questioned by his own defense team as the nearly two-month-long trial comes to an end.
During his previous testimony last month, the former president was unexpectedly called to the witness stand by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James to address the judge’s claim that he had broken a gag order.
“As everyone knows, I have very successfully & conclusively testified in the corrupt, Biden directed, New York state attorney general’s rigged trial against me,” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.
“Based on the above, and the fact that our unassailable final expert witness has been so strong and irrefutable in his testimony, which will conclude on Tuesday, & that I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than that this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt, that will do nothing but keep businesses out of New York, I will not be testifying on Monday,” he said in a separate post.
Shortly after, Chris Kise, one of Trump’s attorneys in the case, reiterated the idea in a statement and mentioned James’ gag order, which restricted the former president’s ability to discuss the people overseeing the trial.
“President Trump has already testified. There is really nothing more to say to a Judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored President Trump’s testimony and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in the case,” Kise said.
James’s $250 million lawsuit alleges that Trump, the Trump Organization, and his two adult sons sought lower taxes and better insurance coverage by falsely inflating and deflating the value of the organization’s assets. The former president and his sons have denied the claims.
“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,” the AG said.
