Trump has ‘no problem’ testifying in hush money trial after win in bond ruling: Live

Today was alleged to be the primary trial date of his hush money case in Manhattan — launching the primary legal trial towards any present or former president. It was additionally the deadline for Mr Trump to submit the $464m bond from the civil fraud judgment towards him.

Neither of these items occurred, nonetheless.

Instead of beginning the trial, the decide within the case held a listening to figuring out a brand new trial date of 15 April.

Part method by means of this morning’s listening to, in a separate court docket, a panel of state Appellate Division judges granted Mr Trump a 10-day interval through which he can safe $175m bond, slashing the value tag.

Mr Trump mentioned at a press convention after the listening to: “We’ll put up securities, cash, or bond, whatever it is, very quickly.”

When requested a reporter requested if he ought to have an acquittal within the hush money trial, he mentioned, “I shouldn’t have a trial.” When the reporter mentioned he was having a trial, he replied, “I don’t know if we’re having one,” including that he plans to attraction.

He additionally added that he would have “no problem testifying” on the trial as a result of he “didn’t do anything wrong.”

Ms James first introduced her civil case towards the Trump Organization in September 2022, suing Donald Trump, his three oldest youngsters Donald Trump Jr, Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump (who was later excluded), former chief monetary officer Allen Weisselberg, former controller Jeffrey McConney and ten associated firms alleging that they’d engaged in monetary fraud by habitually misrepresenting their property values to potential lenders and tax officers for financial achieve.

Judge Engoron duly presided over an 11-week jury trial between October and December after which the defendants had been discovered answerable for fraud and ordered to disgorge their ill-gotten positive factors.

The decide issued a 92-page ruling on 16 February siding with Ms James through which he discovered that the “defendants failed to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences” and accused them of getting “submitted blatantly false financial data” in order to “borrow more and at lower rates”.

In addition to ordering the large reimbursement, he barred Mr Trump from working a business in New York for 3 years and his sons for 2 years.

Donald Trump has known as on Israel to “finish up” its struggle in Gaza as a result of it’s shedding assist world wide.

In an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, the previous president mentioned he had watched photos of bombs being dropped on residential buildings in Gaza each night time, calling it a “big mistake”.

“You have to finish up your war … You gotta get it done. And I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can’t have this going on. And I will say, Israel has to be very careful, because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support,” he informed the newspaper.

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Donald Trump has been granted a sudden reprieve from his wrestle to safe the $464m bond wanted for his civil fraud judgement in New York after a panel of state Appellate Division judges gave him a 10-day extension to pay simply $175m of the entire judgement.

Last month, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Mr Trump to pay round $354m in fines and an additional $110m plus in curiosity for misrepresenting the worth of Trump Organization belongings between 2011 and 2021 to be able to acquire beneficial loans from banks and insurers.

The luxurious property tycoon turned Republican president then had till Monday 25 March to seek out the money if he wished to attraction the ruling, inspiring actual fears he could possibly be about to lose a few of his most prized actual property belongings.

Mr Trump, little doubt respiratory an enormous sigh of aid, has since pledged to pay up and “post either a bond, equivalent securities or cash” however, if he fails to take action, New York legal professional normal Letitia James is entitled to begin freezing his financial institution accounts and seizing his actual property belongings.

One on her checklist could possibly be Mr Trump’s famed Trump Tower – the Fifth Avenue skyscraper that has been integral to the businessman’s glitzy private model for a number of a long time.

Joe Sommerlad breaks down the all of the historic moments that Trump Tower has seen…

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed that he’s price a number of billions of {dollars}, with a lot of that worth tied up within the Trump Organization and his brand-building actual property holdings.

Before immediately’s deadline to submit a mammoth appeals bond to forestall the state from implementing an almost half a billion greenback judgment, the previous president declared in an all-caps submit on his Truth Social that he obtained “almost” $500m “through hard work, talent and luck.”

That “substantial amount” was meant for his presidential marketing campaign, he mentioned on Friday.

In actuality, the Republican Party’s nominee for the presidency – who now seems to be going through a monetary disaster whereas counting on political motion committees and the occasion itself to pay his mounting authorized payments – doubtless has far much less money available to him.

Mr Trump amended this declare on 25 Monday after the hush money trial date was set and an appeals court docket granted him 10 days to pay a lowered $175m. He informed a crowd at 40 Wall Street, “I would also like to use some of my cash to get elected.”

“Now that the bonds have been reduced, will you start putting money into your campaign,” one reporter requested, to which Mr Trump replied, “Yeah, yeah. I mean first of all, it’s none of your business, frankly.”

He added that if he has to pay $500m on a bond, “I wouldn’t have that option, I’d have to start selling things.”

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New York Justice Juan Merchan grew more and more annoyed by his attorneys’ misconduct allegations towards the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for the manufacturing of hundreds of pages of paperwork surrounding Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s former legal professional and a key witness within the case.

“What I’m seeing is, to me, what has become a pattern,” the decide informed Mr Trump’s legal professional Todd Blanche earlier than a morning break.

“I hear certain information, I see certain information … Your interpretation of that is really different from my interpretation,” he added. “It’s frankly been going on for months. You just heard one set of facts and interpreted that as the People not doing anything … It’s really… it’s odd that we’re even here.”

Earlier, the decide scolded Mr Blanche for apparently failing to quote any prior instances to elucidate how, precisely, the district legal professional’s workplace failed its discovery obligations underneath state legislation.

Alex Woodward stories from the courtroom…

Should Mr Trump come up quick immediately, Ms James has the authority to begin seizing his belongings, together with a few of his properties, with a view to promoting them on to make up the entire owed.

The state legal professional normal had the ability underneath New York to implement the judgement as quickly because it was issued in February however Mr Trump was granted a 30-day grace interval, which is now about to run out.

Should she search to grab his financial institution accounts, the method will first contain her sending out restraining notices to banks and brokerage corporations ordering the freezing of his accounts. She would additionally want a court docket order to have the ability to accesss the money.

Ms James might additionally seize his property together with his namesake Trump Tower.

Her workplace has already began taking steps towards recovering a few of the former president’s belongings. In filings dated 7 March, her workplace entered the judgement with the county clerk’s workplace in New York’s Westchester County – home to Mr Trump’s Seven Springs property and his Trump National Golf Club Westchester. Entering a judgement signifies that her workplace is starting the method of taking possession of Mr Trump’s properties.

When requested about whether or not he would testify within the hush money trial, Mr Trump first mentioned, “I don’t know if you’re going to have a trial. I don’t know if you’ll be able to have a trial in the middle of an election,” he mentioned.

He added that he would have “no problem testifying.” He mentioned, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

The former president famous that it might make him “more popular” if he’s convicted as a result of the folks know that the “Biden trial” is a “scam.”