Offensive comments: Trump fined again for comments in his civil trial

An unusual scene in the civil trial of Donald Trump: The former president of the United States was forced to take the stand Wednesday on new offensive comments outside the courtroom and received a second $10,000 fine, after unsuccessfully pleading a misunderstanding.

• Read also: Trump faces the testimony of a loyalist who became his arch enemy in his civil trial

• Read also: Donald Trump receives a $5,000 fine and severe warning after online insults

Judge Arthur Engoron estimated that the Republican billionaire once again attacked his chief writer, while Donald Trump assured him that he was in fact targeting his arch enemy Michael Cohen, against whom he has been testifying since Tuesday in this fraud case regarding the value of the bond. The Trump Organization’s real estate assets.

The judge ruled that “the witness (Donald Trump) was not credible,” before imposing a fine of $10,000. On Friday, Arthur Engoron already imposed a first fine of $5,000, for a post deemed insulting to his employee, which remained on DonaldJTrump.com for 17 days despite a judge’s request to remove it.

This time, Donald Trump’s words were ambiguous. He announced to the cameras, in the corridor leading to the courtroom, that “this judge is a very partisan judge, and sitting next to him is a very partisan person, perhaps more partisan than him.”

Upon learning of this new outing, the judge noted that he had banned any comments against members of his team since the second day of the trial.

“Mafia”

After his lawyers argued that there had been a misunderstanding – Michael Cohen was sitting to the left of the judge, and his clerk to the right – Arthur Engoron wanted to hear the former president’s version for himself and asked him to sit in the judges’ place, as he asked witnesses, for the first time since the trial began three weeks ago.

Donald Trump, with his face closed, replied, “You and Cohen” when the judge asked him who he was targeting. Without convincing.

The hearing continued with the end of the testimony of Michael Cohen, who was questioned by Donald Trump’s lawyers, who highlighted his “lies” and fluctuations since he worked for the former president.

Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, turned against him after he was arrested by American justice in 2018, and then sentenced to three years in prison on charges of tax evasion, lying to Congress, and violating campaign finance laws on behalf of his former boss. .

Pushed to his limits, he ended up admitting that he did not recall Donald Trump directly intervening to ask him to inflate the value of his real estate assets, which clearly contradicted his testimony the day before.

Donald Trump’s lawyers then asked the judge to immediately issue a ruling and acquit their client, which he refused, prompting the former US president to leave the courtroom, looking angry.

Michael Cohen then explained that Donald Trump was speaking like a “Mafia boss,” without giving an explicit order. He had said on Tuesday that Donald Trump “could tell us: I’m not worth 4.5 billion (dollars). I’m closer to 6 billion.”