Judge blocks Trump from making his own closing statement in NYC civil fraud trial
By Social Links for Priscilla DeGregory and
Social Links for Ben Kochman
Published Jan. 10, 2024
Updated Jan. 10, 2024, 1:39 p.m. ET
Donald Trump won’t deliver his own closing statement at his New York civil fraud trial after all — after the judge said he needed to stick to “relevant, material facts.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron emailed Trump attorney Christopher Kise Wednesday saying he was assuming the 77year-old former president wouldn’t agree to the “lawful limits” and “therefore, he will not be speaking in court tomorrow.”
Kise first notified the judge in a January 4 email that after the lawyers give their arguments in the $370 million on Thursday, “President Trump plans to present argument at closing as well,” court records show.
Andrew Amer, a lawyer with the New York Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, opposed allowing Trump the chance to speak, warning that he “is prone to giving irrelevant speeches, lacks self-control, is evasive in responding to questions and has repeatedly violated court order for which he has been sanctioned.”
But Engoron said he would allow the unusual move — only if Trump agreed “to limit his subject to what is permissible in a counsel’s closing argument, that is, commentary on the relevant, material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts.”
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https://nypost.com/2024/01/10/news/judge-rescinds-permission-for-former-trump-to-give-his-own-closing-argument-at-civil-fraud-trial/