CNN urged their viewers to “brace yourself” as they conducted a lengthy fact check into Donald Trump’s long and breathless rant in a Manhattan courtroom after his attorneys delivered closing arguments in his civil fraud case.
An angry Mr Trump lashed out at the months-long fraud case against him, at which New York state prosecutors are seeking more than $370m in damages and for him to be banned from owning property in the state.
Mr Trump clashed with judge Arthur Engoron, who at one point asked the former president’s attorney to “please control” his client as he claimed he did nothing wrong and painted himself as the victim of political persecution who should be owed money for the litigation against him.
After airing footage of Mr Trump speaking, CNN anchor Brianna Keilar and co-host Boris Sanchez dug into the details of his conspiracy-laden speech point by point.
Mr Trump, in his speech, claimed that New York Attorney General Letitia James was engaged in a politically motivated investigation orchestrated by president Joe Biden.
Mr Trump said: “My legal issues, every one of them, civil and the criminal ones, are all set up by Joe Biden … they’re doing it for election interference.”
Keilar said “it is not” Mr Biden’s indictment. "It’s a civil fraud trial in New York, Joe Biden did not set this up,” she said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (C, top) sits in New York State Supreme Court during the civil fraud trial against the Trump Organization— (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Mr Biden’s closest link to a Trump-related case is that he appointed Attorney General Merrick Garland. Mr Garland, in turn, appointed the special counsel responsible for indicting Mr Trump in two federal criminal cases related to the 2020 election and classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
She said Mr Trump also went after Ms James, calling her a “hack” and saying she was “corrupt”.
“Keep in mind there was someone else there who went out for her for an investigation she did and that was Andrew Cuomo, the former democratic governor of New York,” Keilar said, referring to her investigation on allegedly manipulated Covid-19 death data.
Co-host Sanchez said that Mr Trump misrepresented the facts when he claimed his argument won in the court of appeals and that judge Engoron was ignoring it because it was not favourable to him.
Sanchez clarified that the court of appeals had merely reduced the scope of Ms James’ initial case.
"It’s false," CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams confirmed of this particular Trump claim. "And it’s almost sad."
It was a contentious final day of the trial in Manhattan that began in October and saw 11 weeks of witness testimony.
In its concluding statement, the attorney general’s office asserted that the former president “acted with intent” by inflating the value of his assets in his financial statements through fraudulent means.
The judge ruled that Mr Trump and the defendants are liable for the allegations of fraud outlined, leaving a bench trial to determine how much Mr Trump and his associates should owe, and whether the attorney general is successful on other claims in her complaint, including insurance fraud and conspiracy.
The judge said a ruling could be issued before the end of January in the case.
