The judge in former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial is acting outrageously because he "just wants the headlines and the attention," said former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Newsmax.
"Trump has been prevented from doing what he wants to do at every turn," Whitaker told "National Report."
He added: "Judge [Arthur Engoron] assigned liability without even hearing the case. He did it on summary judgement.
"This judge just wants to get to the result he wants to get to, hoping it does political damage to Trump, knowing most likely that the [case] will be overturned on appeal. He just wants the headlines and the attention. Not the way our justice system is supposed to work.
"I’ve done a lot of trials in my time, and typically judges want a good record of all the proceedings so they didn’t prevent a defendant from a fair trial and so they don’t get reversed on appeal. But this judge is trying to get to the result."
Engoron on Wednesday nixed an unusual plan by Trump to deliver his own closing remarks in the courtroom, in addition to summations from his legal team, after lawyers for the former president would not agree to the judge’s demand that he stick to "relevant" matters."
Whitaker said Engoron is just "trying to kick Donald Trump out of the state of New York and make him liquidate his assets in New York because, again, they don't like his politics."
New York Attorney General Leticia James, who attends the proceedings, "has staked her initial campaign for election to this role as attorney general of New York on getting Donald Trump," Whitaker added.
"I mean, it's kind of sick. I'm a former prosecutor myself. We don't target individuals. You investigate crimes. You develop the facts. But in this case, this has been a ‘get Trump trial’ and it's been slapdash. The defendant, Donald Trump, has not been given a chance to really defend himself."
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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