Jan. 10 (UPI) — Judge Arthur Engoron on Wednesday told Donald Trump’s lawyers that the former president won’t be allowed to personally make a closing argument in his New York civil business fraud trial due to not agreeing to limits imposed by the court.
Contentious emails between Engoron and Trump attorney Chris Kise indicated Kise was resisting the terms.
So Engoron said in an 11:54 a.m. Wednesday email, “I won’t debate this again. Take it or leave it. Now or never. You have until noon, seven minutes from now. I WILL NOT GRANT ANY FURTHER EXTENSIONS.”
Engoron barred Trump from the closing argument because the judge had no confirmation Trump would abide by closing argument terms he imposed.
Trump lawyers still will deliver closing arguments in the case.
Engoron’s emails said he had given Trump’s legal team three extended deadlines to agree to “reasonable, lawful limits” before deciding Trump would not be speaking during final arguments set for Thursday.
In one of the email replies Kise wrote, “This is very unfair, your Honor. You are not allowing President Trump, who has been wrongly demeaned and belittled by an out of control, politically motivated Attorney General, to speak about things that must be spoken about.”
Engoron’s conditions, as expressed in the emails, said, “Closing arguments are for an advocate to comment on the evidence presented, on the relevant law, and on how the latter applies to the former to justify the result sought. Such arguments may not be used to testify, to introduce new evidence, to make a campaign speech, or to comment on irrelevant matters.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James is asking for $370 million in civil fines and a permanent ban on Trump doing retail business in New York.
She brought evidence that convinced the judge Trump’s businesses had committed sytematic fraud for many years.
Engoron already has ruled that the Trump businesses did, in fact, commit fraud.
He said in New York’s Trump Tower alone, the property value was fraudulently inflated by as much as $207 million.
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote in his legal finding.
