On Monday, Donald Trump testified before Judge Arthur Engoron in his civil fraud trial, contrary to my expectation and basic common sense. That testimony, which ended with the defense attorneys declining to offer any cross-examination, went even worse for him than even I imagined. Indeed, his appearance contained all of the disastrous predictions of many courtroom veterans, including admissions of misdeeds, false statements, and testimony inconsistent with that given by his sons. As I anticipated, “the only beneficiaries of Trump’s testimony will be the state of New York” and perhaps federal prosecutors.
Two main theories have been articulated in the media to explain this legal self-immolation. The first goes that Trump has given up on the legal battle and is using the trial simply to raise campaign money and echo his blatantly false claims of being a victim. The second is that he is simply making a record for an appeal.
I will leave the first theory to others to explore, but the latter explanation is absurd. Instead of creating a helpful appellate record, Trump has instead made the record of his culpability stronger. Even more consequentially, anyone who thinks that an appellate judge will embrace a litigant who has attacked the legal system, the presiding judge, and that judge’s law clerk has no understanding of the real world. Judges are human beings and will view the Trump attacks against Engoron as an attack against them personally.
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