Donald Trump will not testify at his civil trial for financial fraud

The trial of the former president of the United States for financial fraud opens Monday. Unlike the criminal trials that await him in 2024, Donald Trump does not risk prison time in this civil case.

He changed his mind. Donald Trump will ultimately not testify to defend himself during his civil trial for financial fraud. He has not “nothing more to say”he declared Sunday, December 10 on his Truth Social network, ensuring that he had “already testified to everything” in the ongoing trial against him (as well as his eldest sons Donald Jr and Eric and other executives of the Trump Organization) which opens on Monday.

The 77-year-old former president and the other defendants are accused of having colossally inflated during the 2010s the value of skyscrapers, luxury hotels or golf courses at the heart of the Trump empire, to obtain more favorable loans banks and better insurance conditions.

Since the start of the trial on October 2, the Republican billionaire has railed against justice each time he comes to court, denouncing a “witch hunt” or one “trial worthy of banana republics”. After attacks on his clerk, the judge banned Donald Trump from speaking about his team and imposed two fines totaling $15,000 for violating the order.

“Conclusive evidence”

Unlike the criminal trials that await him in 2024, including that for his alleged maneuvers aimed at reversing the result of the November 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump does not risk prison time in this civil case.

Judge Arthur Engoron estimated at the end of September that the prosecution presented “conclusive evidence that between 2014 and 2021, the defendants overvalued the assets” from the group of “812 million (to) 2.2 billion dollars” depending on the year, in the figures recorded on Donald Trump’s annual financial statements.

The trial concerns several other offenses, such as insurance fraud, and financial penalties sought by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, which is seeking $250 million. Donald Trump’s lawyers denounce an empty file.