Trump cancels plans to testify in NY fraud trial

Former President Donald Trump changed his mind about testifying this week as the final witness for his defense in his New York civil fraud trial.

In an all-caps post on his Truth Social platform, the former president declared Sunday afternoon that he had “ALREADY TESTIFIED TO EVERYTHING & HAVE NOTHING MORE TO SAY.” He also, without evidence, called the trial election interference against his reelection bid.

The former president’s attorneys previously said he would testify Monday as they fight a case from the New York Attorney General’s Office accusing Trump and others of engaging in various forms of fraud in his real estate empire.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets on financial statements, and his companies will lose state business certificates.

The judge is now determining whether Trump and others, including his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, engaged in other forms of fraud, as well as potential punishments. The Attorney General’s Office has asked the judge to ban Trump and his adult sons from running a New York company and to order the defendants to pay an estimated $250 million in allegedly ill-gotten gains.

On Nov. 30, a New York appeals court reinstated a gag order that prohibited Donald Trump from commenting on court personnel. Engoron fined the former president a combined $15,000 after concluding he violated the order multiple times.

There were some signs Trump’s testimony was uncertain before Sunday: His lawyers had previously indicated his son Eric would testify last week, but he failed to take the stand.

The former president did testify Nov. 6, and made it a raucous show of defiance.

“This is a very unfair trial,” he said in the New York courtroom. “I hope the public is watching.”

For the first hour of that testimony, Engoron tried to rein Trump in, saying to the defense bench, “I beseech you to control him if you can.” The judge warned that if Trump didn’t restrict himself to the questions, he could be excused from the courtroom. Legal analysts said the former president might turn all his trials into campaign rallies.

However, after the start of the day, the judge largely refrained from taking action as Trump boasted about his assets and lashed out at previous rulings. More substantively, the former president said that he believed he had met the requirements for bank loans, and said he paid back the loans.

When asked if he was making changes in his business organizations, Trump deferred to his sons.

During breaks in the testimony, Trump posted on Truth Social, “THIS TRIAL IS RIDICULOUS, ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!” His team sent an email solicitation to supporters, arguing he shouldn’t have to spend a day in court for a “sham trial” during the presidential campaign.

Leaving the courtroom in November, he told reporters, “Everything we did was absolutely right.”

ELIZABETH WILLIAMS/AP Former President Donald Trump answers questions at the New York Supreme Court on Nov. 6. On Sunday, he characterized the trial as election interference.