By Priscilla DeGregory, Kyle Schnitzer and Ben Kochman | NEW YORK POST
Former President Donald Trump will return to Manhattan court Tuesday morning to attend the ongoing trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million lawsuit against him.
Trump, 77, confirmed in a Truth Social post that he will be showing up at the lower Manhattan courthouse for the third week of trial in James’ case accusing him of exaggerating his net worth on financial documents for years in order to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.
The 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner also attended the first three days of the proceedings in Manhattan Supreme Court two weeks ago – but hadn’t been back since.
The case is civil, and as such, does not require his presence in court like a criminal one would.
Trump Organization accountant Donna Kidder is expected to continue testifying Tuesday about the company’s accounting practices.
Trump’s court appearance had initially been due to correspond with the days that his one-time personal attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen was expected to testify.
But Cohen said Friday he was forced to delay his testimony for medical reasons. The earliest he will now take the stand is next week, Justice Arthur Engoron – who is deciding the outcome of the trial, rather than a jury – said in court Monday.
Trump, in comments on social media and to the press outside court, has continually ripped the case as being a politically motivated witch hunt.
He has gone after the AG, the judge and even the judge’s clerk – prompting Engoron to issue a partial gag order against all parties in the case barring them from making public statements about court staff.
Trump has been slapped with limited gag orders in other criminal cases he faces including the Manhattan District Attorney’s “hush money” case, in which he is barred from talking about evidence – and the federal Washington DC election interference case in which he’s been prohibited from making negative statements against Special Counsel Jack Smith.
During the first three days of the civil fraud trial that Trump attended, his son Eric Trump – who is also a defendant in the case and is the executive vice president of the Trump Org – was also present in court.
Eric Trump, siblings Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump and their dad are all on the AG’s list of witnesses and are expected to testify later in the trial – which is set to last through December.
James has attended the majority of trial so far and has fired back at Trump’s personal attacks of her saying that he “doesn’t care about numbers and facts.”
The AG’s suit accuses Trump of lying on financial statements for a decade claiming he was worth over $3 billion more a year than he was in reality – all so that he could get better loan and insurance terms and climb the Forbes’ list of billionaires.
An embattled Trump – who faces four separate criminal cases in four states – denies the allegations in James’ case as well as the criminal charges.
