Donald Trump is expected to take the witness stand in a New York courtroom this Monday in the trial in which he is accused of fraudulently inflating his real estate empire. The former North American president returns to the spotlight (even if the trial is not broadcast live) at a time when, a year before the US presidential elections, he appears in the polls ahead of the current president, Joe Biden, in five of the elections. six states -key.
Trump’s testimony comes after that of his sons – Donald Trump Jr. and Eric. The latter said on Friday that his father was “too excited” to talk – the hearing will start at 3:00 PM (Lisbon time). The former president has already made statements about this case twice, but behind closed doors. In the first statement, according to the revealed excerpts, he called the trial “the largest witch hunt in the history” of the United States, and New York Attorney General Letitia James accused it of having gone “out of control.”
The trial has no jury members and the decision will be made by Judge Arthur Ergoron, with whom Trump has not had an easy relationship. The former president called him “unbalanced” and claimed he is a “Democratic operative of the radical left who hates Trump.” The judge has already imposed two fines, totaling $15,000, because he twice violated the silence order in connection with the case by criticizing a court employee on social media.
Even before the trial began, the judge believed that prosecutors had presented “conclusive evidence” that Trump had exaggerated the size of his fortune in financial documents between 2014 and 2021 — an amount that could range from $812 million to $2.2 billion dollars. And he ordered the liquidation of several assets, including Trump Tower itself. The former president’s lawyers appealed, but Trump could be ordered to pay fines worth up to $250 million.
This civil case isn’t the only court challenge for the former president, who is expected to stand trial in Washington in March for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. There are even more cases in Georgia, Florida or New York. But nothing has affected his popularity so far, with him even taking advantage of the first ‘mug photo’ of a former president to make money.
An opinion poll New York Teams/Siena College, published this Sunday, states Trump ahead of Biden in Nevada (52% vs. 41%), Georgia (49% vs. 43%), Arizona (49% vs. 44%), Michigan (48% vs. 43%) and Pennsylvania (48% vs. 44%). Biden won these states in 2020 and trails Trump only in Wisconsin (47%, compared to the Republican 45%).
The trend of the results is not in favor of the current president 67% of respondents believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, 59% disapprove of the way Biden is playing his role and 71% agree with the idea that at 80 he is “too old to be an effective president.”
Source: DN
