NEW YORK: Donald Trump was fined US$10,000 on Wednesday (Oct 25) after the decide overseeing his civil fraud trial discovered that the previous US president violated a gag order within the case for a second time.
Justice Arthur Engoron last week fined Trump US$5,000 after finding that he had not taken down a post disparaging the judge’s law clerk. Engoron had earlier barred Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination, from making feedback attacking courtroom employees.
On Wednesday, throughout a break within the trial over a lawsuit introduced by New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James over Trump’s enterprise practices, Trump advised reporters, “this decide is a really partisan decide, with an individual who’s very partisan sitting alongside of him, even perhaps far more partisan than he’s.”
Engoron, surmising that Trump was referring to his clerk, known as the feedback a “blatant” violation of the gag order. The decide imposed the effective after Trump briefly took the witness stand to take questions.
Additionally on Wednesday, Trump’s onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen acknowledged below questioning by an legal professional for the previous president that he has a monetary incentive to criticise his ex-boss however defended his credibility as he testified within the trial.
Cohen, who got here face-to-face with Trump for the primary time in 5 years on Tuesday, underwent cross-examination throughout his second straight day of testimony in a case by which Trump’s household enterprise is accused of unlawfully manipulating its financials to dupe lenders and insurers.
Cohen testified in Manhattan on Tuesday that Trump “arbitrarily” inflated the worth of the Trump Group’s actual property belongings to safe beneficial insurance coverage premiums. Cohen stated he doctored monetary statements so the property values matched “no matter quantity Mr. Trump advised us.”
Trump lawyer Alina Habba on Wednesday requested Cohen about how a lot cash he comprised of his political podcast and two books he wrote since bitterly chopping ties with Trump and changing into one among his fiercest critics.
“You might have a monetary incentive to criticize Mr. Trump, sure or no?” Habba requested.
“Sure,” Cohen responded.