Oct. 2 (UPI) — Former President Donald Trump is expected to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Monday for the opening of his civil fraud trial to determine damages after a judge ruled he grossly inflated the values of his real estate properties in the state.
Trump wrote on social media that he would appear in court while blasting Judge Arthur Engoron, who will oversee the case and New York Attorney General Letitia James who led the investigation into questionable business dealings inside the Trump Organization.
“I’m going to Court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation against a corrupt and racist Attorney General, Letitia James, who campaigned on ‘getting Trump,’ and a Trump-hating judge who is unfair, unhinged, and vicious in his PURSUIT of me,” Trump wrote Sunday on the social media site. “He values Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., at 18 Million Dollars, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount. His valuations are FRAUDULENT in pursuit of Election Interference, and worse. THIS WHOLE CASE IS A SHAM!!! See you in Court — Monday morning.”
Trump was expected to show up for at least the first week of the trial, according to a court filing from his attorneys, but the former president was not required to attend at all since it was not a criminal proceeding.
He is listed as a potential witness in the fraud trial, however, it remained to be seen if the former president would be called to testify.
Last week, Engoron issued a summary ruling that found Trump’s real estate business guilty of enriching itself by inflating the value of his New York properties, including his hotels and golf clubs.
The misleading actions cheated banks and insurance companies out of as much as $2.2 billion.
Engoron’s decision granted part of a summary judgment that was sought by James, with this week’s bench trial needed so the judge can rule on a number of unresolved matters, including the amount of damages Trump will pay.
Under Engoron’s Sept. 26 ruling, all of Trump’s New York business licenses were revoked, as well as those of his co-defendants, including his two sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., his longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg, and his company — the Trump Organization.
Trump last appeared in the New York courtroom in April when he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges related to hush money paid to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, with whom he allegedly had a sexual encounter that threatened to upend his 2016 campaign for president.
That same month, Trump sued his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who turned state’s evidence against Trump following his arrest and conviction in 2018, which sparked the investigation into Trump’s properties.
Trump had been scheduled to appear at an Oct. 3 deposition in a Miami courtroom as part of the lawsuit accusing Cohen of false statements and breach of attorney-client privilege, but defense attorneys were granted a delay until Oct. 9 so Trump could attend the civil trial in New York.
Trump is scheduled to go on trial in New York again on Jan. 15, when he faces a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, who seeks $10 million in damages from Trump, claiming he defamed her in 2019 when he denied raping her in the 1990s, saying she was “not my type.”
Another three criminal cases related to classified documents and election interference, were due to take place during the height of the 2024 campaign, in which Trump was the early frontrunner for the Republican nomination.