#Trump’s #Trial in #NewYork #Civil #Fraud Case Begins
The trial is scheduled to last until the end of Dec but is expected to end sooner.
Trump arrived in the courtroom & strode past AG #LetitiaJames, seated in the first row, w/o making eye contact & immediately took a seat at the defense table.
While pool photographers took his picture at the defense table, looking solemn, in camera-ready way, Judge #Engoron looked amused.
Pool photographers were allowed in the #court room for a few minutes to take #Trump’s photo. Reporter Susanne Craig (whose Pulitzer winning NYT articles exposed the extent of Trump’s #tax #fraud) is in the overflow room of the courthouse watching a live feed, which has a camera trained on Trump & his legal team. As soon as the cameras were in front of Trump, he clenched his jaw & cocked his head up & to the side. His face looked like the mug shot that resulted after his arrest in Atlanta.
Kevin Wallace, a #lawyer for the AG, will deliver his side’s opening . Wallace has led the AG’s case from the beginning & has been the central lawyer at most of these proceedings, often clashing w/lawyers for #Trump.
Wallace, answers the question that everyone has asked since #Engoron ruled Trump #liable for #fraud: What remains for the AG’s office to prove? His team, he says, “will establish that the defendants engaged in repeated, persistent #illegal acts in the conduct of business.”
Which acts? The #falsification of #business #records & a #conspiracy to make those #false entries. The issuing of false #financial statements, & a conspiracy to issue those statements. And finally, #InsuranceFraud & the conspiracy to commit #insurance #fraud.
Before the proceedings began, a group of #demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse, carrying signs that read “No one is above the #law” & chanting, “#Trump #lies all the time.”
“We are here to uphold #democracy & make sure that it works,” said Jamie Bauer, 64.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/02/trump-fraud-trial-ny-2/
Jonah Bromwich NYT:
As I write these posts about “generally accepted accounting principles” & “materiality” it occurs to me that this opening statement is already deep in the #legal & #financial weeds where most of this #trial will take place. Were this a #jury trial, we might be getting a glossier, more exciting… opening statement. But perhaps because #Engoron is the arbiter of fact here, #Wallace seems to feel no qualms about a far more detailed, less flashy presentation.
Nonilex
Antonio Páez 🇲🇽🇨🇦