Trump claims he wasn’t referring to clerk when he violated fraud trial gag order
On a dramatic day in court in Lower Manhattan, Donald Trump appeared on the witness stand for the first time in his multitude of civil and criminal trials.
The former president was called to testify after remarks he made outside the courtroom in a break from his civil fraud trial in New York were reported by the Associated Press and broke the gag order imposed by Justice Arthur Engoron.
Those involved in the trial were forbidden from speaking or posting about members of the court staff after a post by Mr Trump in the first week of the trial. Having already violated that order once, the defendant was called to testify by the judge after he said: “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps more partisan than he is.”
The former president claimed he had been speaking about witness Michael Cohen, his former lawyer. Judge Engoron found this testimony “not credible” and fined him $10,000.
Later, when a move for a directed verdict by his legal team was denied by the judge, a clearly frustrated Mr Trump stood and left the courtroom mumbling: “Unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
