Judge temporarily halts NY fraud trial against Trump, pending appeal.

According to a representative for the court, on Thursday, a judge on the New York state appeals court temporarily halted the trial that was supposed to begin on October 2 in the complaint that New York Attorney General Letitia James filed against Donald Trump and his family business for committing fraud.

According to a source in the Daily Beast, the order was issued after the former president of the United States filed a complaint against Justice Arthur Engoron, the trial judge handling the case. In the lawsuit, the former president accused Engoron and James of disobeying a court order that might narrow the litigation.
The appeals court Justice David Friedman is said to have granted an interim stay of the trial and forwarded the subject to a five-judge panel, which is expected to decide during the last week of September, according to the court spokeswoman.

Depending on the decision made by the appeals court, also known as the First Department, the trial could start on October 2.

According to a representative for the court, Friedman’s stay does not apply to the hearing before Engoron on both sides’ applications for summary judgment that is set to take place on September 22. The hearing can, therefore, continue as scheduled.
The defendants want the majority or all of the attorney general’s claims dismissed, while James wants a declaration that Trump’s financial statements were dishonest. Engoron has indicated that the experiment may continue until the holiday season.

The legal team representing Trump has not yet responded to our requests for comment.

In a statement, James expressed his conviction that “we are confident in our case and will be ready for trial.”

The attorney general has stated that there is a “mountain of evidence” that indicates how Trump and his colleagues misled over a decade about his assets and net worth, which she claims may have been inflated by as much as $3.6 billion, to secure better terms on loans and insurance. She stated that this may have been done to gain better terms on loans and insurance.

She is asking for a fine of $250 million and the prohibition of Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump from taking over the leadership of the Trump Organization, which is the Trump family’s business. After investigating for three years, James finally submitted her lawsuit in September 2022.

In July, the court of appeals stated that statute limitations may prevent James from suing over claims before July 13, 2014, or February 6, 2016, and that it is up to Engoron to decide which could proceed. The allegations in question arose before either date.

In the campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, Trump has a commanding lead over his competitors.

He has stated that there was no misconduct on his part and has referred to the investigation into James as a “witch hunt.”

In January, Engoron stated that the “witch hunt” argument did not justify a dismissal, and he further stated that certain defense claims were “borderline frivolous even the first time defendants made them.”