By Kaelan Deese, Supreme Court Reporter. Media: Washingtonexaminer
Donald Trump’s judge in his civil fraud trial rejected a bid by New York Attorney General Letitia James to block four witnesses from defending the former president next week, saying, “I don’t want a retrial of this.”
The rejection comes in response to James’s motion asking Judge Arthur Engoron to bar Trump from bringing four specific witnesses to testify in his defense beginning next week, arguing it would be “irrelevant” because Engoron already issued a partial ruling against the Trump Organization in September.
“I don’t want a retrial of this case. I don’t want to be reversed,” Engoron said, according to a reporter from the Messenger who was attending the trial.

Mike Segar/AP
James had asked Engoron to bar testimony from Jason Flemmons, a forensic accounting expert, Steve Witkoff, a New York City real estate investor, Steven Laposa of Laposa Realty Advisors, and David Miller, an expert in insurance issues and underwriting.
Engoron later added he would allow the testimony but contended it would be “without prejudice to objecting to anything that may be irrelevant,” indicating requirements that the witnesses must stay on topic and not veer into other subjects when they take the stand.
Trump’s lawyers were also rebuffed from the bench over a request to cease the civil fraud trial immediately. Engoron didn’t rule on the request but said the trial would go on as scheduled on Monday with Donald Trump Jr. returning to the stand as the first defense witness.
Testimony concluded on Thursday for Ivanka Trump, who is not named in James’s lawsuit as a defendant but provided insight into her father’s business management. She denied awareness of “granular” financial details in the documents while undergoing direct questioning from James’s team and cross-examination from her father’s defense counsel.
In September, Engoron found the former president, his sons Eric Trump and Trump Jr., and two Trump Organization executives liable for business fraud, and the trial is now largely intended to assess their penalties.
James seeks $250 million in damages and aims to ban Trump from conducting business in New York, where a concentration of the Trump Organization’s premier properties are located.
Discussion about this post