Donald Trump defies judge to unleash six-minute courtroom diatribe before being cut off
Donald Trump defied a judge and launched into a six-minute speech on being an “innocent man” as his civil fraud trial in New York came to an end today.
Mr Trump had been barred from giving a formal closing argument at the trial but after two of his lawyers delivered the traditional speeches, one asked if the former US president could speak.
The judge then asked Trump if he would keep his remarks focused on the trial – which is when he launched into a speech on being “persecuted” and accused the judge of not listening to him.
“We have a situation where I am an innocent man,” Mr Trump said.
“I’m being persecuted by someone running for office and I think you have to go outside the bounds.”
“This is a fraud on me. What’s happened here, Sir, is a fraud on me,” he later said, before telling Judge Arthur Engoron: “I know this is boring you.”
One of Mr Trump’s lawyers was then told to “control your client”.
Trump attending the closing arguments in his civil trial at the New York State Supreme Court
The judge let Mr Trump speak almost entirely uninterrupted for six minutes, then cut him off and recessed for lunch.
Hours before the closing arguments, Mr Engoron was subject to a bomb threat, Sky News’s US partner network NBC News reported.
Police in Nassau County – east of New York City – responded to the threat at his home on Thursday morning, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
It is not known the judge was in the house at the time.
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Judge Arthur Engoron was the subject of a bomb threat before the final day of the trial
The threat caused a delay in processing lawyers and members of the media through security gate queues at the court on Thursday morning.
Mr Engoron will issue a verdict at a later date without a jury, after he found Mr Trump liable for fraud in September – leaving the trial to focus on how much money he should surrender as ill-gotten gains.
The lawsuit, brought forward by New York attorney general Letitia James, alleges Mr Trump and his associates inflated the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure better loan terms.
The state of New York is seeking nearly $370m (£291m) from the former president in penalties.
Mr Trump has decried the case as a political witch hunt and denied wrongdoing.
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The lawsuit is just one of many legal troubles Mr Trump faces as he campaigns to challenge President Joe Biden in the November 2024 election.
Mr Trump has pleaded not guilty in four criminal prosecutions, including two that charge him with unlawfully trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Mr Biden.
All could go to trial before this year’s election.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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