Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial will continue next week after an appeals court rejected the former president’s latest bid to halt proceedings.
Lawyers for Trump had argued that the court should wait for an appeal on a pre-trial ruling before moving forward. The trial started on Monday.
In a ruling last week, New York judge Arthur Engoron found the former president and others working for the Trump Organization guilty of financial fraud. Engoron ordered the dissolution of Trump’s companies in the state, effectively ending his ability to run his real estate business.
Trump is being sued by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, for creating false and misleading financial statements to broker deals.
In their request to halt the trial, Trump’s lawyers had said the dissolution would “unquestionably inflict severe and irreparable harm not only to [Trump and other defendants] but to innocent nonparties and employees who depend on the affected entities for their livelihoods”.
Now that’s an amusing version of reality, ain’t it?