- Donald Trump has returned to his civil fraud trial in New York.
- Two limited gag orders didn’t stop him from addressing reporters in true Trumpian fashion.
- “Letitia” has been “ranting and raving like a lunatic,” he complained of state AG Letitia James.
A pair of limited gag orders didn’t stop Donald Trump on Tuesday from holding court in the hallway outside his Manhattan civil fraud trial, where he regaled the cameras with criticism of the New York attorney general who’s trying to run him out of her state.
“This is an attorney general, Letitia, that went out and campaigned on ‘I will get Trump, I will get Trump no matter what,'” the former president told reporters before going inside the courtroom.
“People took tapes of her because they couldn’t believe her ranting and raving like a lunatic,” he said angrily, in what could fairly be described as a rant of his own.
“This is the attorney general of New York state, Leticia James, and she shouldn’t be allowed to be attorney general, she’s defrauded the public with this trial.”
Trump, his real estate company, and four of its longstanding executives – including Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump – are on trial over civil allegations, brought by the state attorney general’s office, that they conspired to defraud banks and insurers by grossly exaggerating Trump Org’s worth.
James and Eric Trump are also attending the trial on Tuesday, after taking about a week off themselves.
Trump currently has two gag orders against him, one imposed Monday by the federal judge in his Washington, DC, election interference case and one in the civil trial.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, Trump called the Manhattan trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, a “Radical Left Democrat Judge WHO IS HIGHLY POLITICAL.”
Trump’s civil fraud trial gag order is limited in scope. It bars him only from making “personal attacks on members of my court staff.”
Crowds outside the courthouse on this second day of the third week of trial were sparse, despite Trump’s appearance, and his morning Truth Social posting that urged, “America cannot let this happen.”
America, at least throughout the morning, largely stayed away from the courthouse.