- Emerging from his secret trial in New York on Friday, Trump said he planned to testify in his own defense.
- It was shortly after he attended a hearing on prior actions that the prosecutor hopes to upset him about.
- Trump would face his history of lying, falsifying documents and ignoring judges.
If Donald Trump keeps his promise to testify in his secret trial, the cross-examination could turn sour.
Manhattan prosecutors said Friday they want to question Trump about the time he lied under oath, as the judge found during his civil fraud trial in October.
Prosecutors want to roast him on the stand for violating court orders, as the same judge in the fraud trial also found, repeatedly citing Trump for violations of the silence order.
And they want to bother Trump about how he apparently couldn’t help but defame his own sexual assault victim, the writer E. Jean Carroll.
Perhaps worse — given that Trump is on trial for falsifying business records — prosecutors also want to ask him about two trials in which he and his executives were convicted of falsifying business records. These were the Trump Organization 2023 payroll tax fraud trial and, again, the civil fraud trial.
“Yes,” Trump told reporters as he left court Friday, when asked if he would testify.
It was at least the second time the Republican candidate has promised to come to his own defense during the trial, in which he is accused of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to interfere with the 2016 election .
The timing was remarkable.
Moments earlier, Trump had attended what’s known as a Sandoval hearing, during which his lawyers and prosecutors argued over what “prior bad acts” might constitute fair game during his cross-examination.
Trump was visibly angry – scowling at the defense table – as his actions were settled.
As he left the courtroom, he hit a wooden railing with his hand.
“We oppose every single one,” defense attorney Emil Bove said of any actions prosecutors want to take in the case.
During Sandoval’s hearing, which lasted nearly two hours, Bove complained about the prosecutor’s plans to the trial judge, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
Bove said the verdicts, judgments and contempt of court orders that prosecutors want to question Trump about are mostly on appeal and “unduly prejudicial,” meaning they would unfairly prejudice the jury against the former president.
The defense attorney fought particularly hard against jurors who heard that a federal jury in Manhattan found Trump responsible for raping Carroll with his hands during an assault in the mid-1990s — an attack which, according to the judge, effectively amounted to rape.
“What is the theory of this trial? » Bove asked angrily. “Are they arguing about sexual misconduct?” he ordered. “This is a matter of documents.”
Trump’s lies about sexual assault “are crucial evidence that the jury should have in assessing his credibility if he testifies,” countered Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor for District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Merchan said he would issue a Sandoval ruling on Monday, which would be followed by opening statements.
Prosecutors will then call their first witness, a person whose name has not yet been made public. Their testimony will not be finished until daylight breaks early on the first day of Passover, prosecutors said.
When defense attorneys asked prosecutors a second time to specify in advance who the first witness would be, their request was again denied. Prosecutors are not required to give notice to their witnesses.
When defense attorney Susan Necheles suggested that not knowing the name now could “delay the trial,” the judge reacted harshly.
“Whether you get the name or not, you’re not going to delay the trial,” the judge said.
“We don’t want to, Your Honor,” Necheles said.
“Really you won’t delay the trial,” retorted the judge.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the matter. He faces a potential sentence of zero to four years in prison if convicted.
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