Donald Trump shared a bizarre court sketch on social media that shows him sitting next to Jesus Christ during his fraud case in Manhattan.
The former US president arrived for the first day of his civil fraud trial on Monday to hear that he had repeatedly lied to secure better loan and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is accusing the ex-president of inflating his assets by as much as £3billion.
🔥🚨BREAKING: President Trump just posted me on Truth Social! pic.twitter.com/CdQWdtFJUl
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) October 2, 2023
If he loses the case, he could be forced to pay $250m (£206m) in penalties.
Among the allegations is that he claimed his Trump Tower penthouse was nearly three times its actual size, and worth £270m.
Following the first day of the trial, Mr Trump, the Republican front-runner for next year’s election, shared a drawing on Truth Social of him sitting in court alongside Jesus.
Dom Lucre, a pro-Trump political commentator with over 700,000 followers on Twitter, captioned the image: ‘This is the most accurate court sketch of all time. Because nobody could have made it this far alone.’
Speaking from inside the building, Mr Trump said that his finances were "perfect" and dismissed the case as "election interference".
He added: “We have a racist attorney general who’s a horror show and ran on the basis that she was gonna get Trump before she knew anything about me.
“It all comes down from the DOJ [Department of Justice]. They totally co-ordinate this in Washington because I’m leading. I’m the leading candidate and I’m leading by 10 points.
“And I’m leading the Republicans by 50 and 60 points... So this has to do with election interference, plain and simple.
“We have a great company. I built a great company. It’s tremendous. It’s got some of the greatest real estate assets in the world. And now I have to go in before a rogue judge.”
Before she entered the courtroom, Ms James said: “The law is both powerful and fragile. And today in court will prove our case.”
Mr Trump watched with his arms crossed as Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in Ms James’s office, told the Manhattan courtroom that the tycoon had described his finances to banks and insurers in a “materially inaccurate way” for a decade.
Mr Wallace said Mr Trump did this to get better loan terms and lower insurance premiums, illegally generating more than $1bn (£820m) of financial benefits.
“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other," Mr Wallace said. "These are not victimless crimes.”
Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Mr Trump, countered in his opening statement that the financial information provided for the real estate mogul and his Trump Organisation were entirely legal.
