Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a court filing Wednesday that they plan to ask Donald Trump about the costly verdicts and findings of misconduct in his numerous civil cases if the former president decides to testify in the criminal case – although the admissibility of that questioning remains to be seen.
The prosecutors said they plan to ask Trump about the verdict in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against him and his company, as well as a pair of rulings in lawsuits filed by writer E. Jean Carroll. The verdicts in the three cases total nearly $550 million and include findings that Trump committed fraud in the AG’s case and that he is liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the Carroll case.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office also plans to mention the judge’s findings in the civil fraud case that Trump violated a silence order and “testified untruthfully under oath” during the trial.
Prosecutors said they want to bring up these findings — which Trump is appealing to — “to cast doubt on the defendant’s credibility” if he takes the witness stand.
Trump said last week that he “absolutely” plans to testify, but is under no obligation to do so.
If he takes that stand, prosecutors also want to ask him about the verdict in the district attorney’s successful criminal tax fraud prosecution against the Trump Organization and a settlement his Trump Foundation reached with the AG’s office in 2019. A federal judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million in damages in that case, after the foundation admitted in a settlement that Trump had misused the foundation’s funds to support his 2016 presidential campaign, settle personal legal disputes and portray portraits to buy from himself.
They also want Judge Juan Merchan to allow them to ask questions about a Trump lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others that has resulted in Trump and one of his lawyers being sanctioned and ordered to pay $937,989 in fees for filing a lawsuit. frivolous, bad faith lawsuit. The judge in that case imposed the sentence after finding that “Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigator who repeatedly uses the courts to retaliate against political opponents. He is the mastermind behind strategic abuse of the legal process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following a lawyer’s advice. He knew very well the impact of his actions.”
Prosecutors made the disclosure ahead of a hearing called the Sandoval hearing, tentatively scheduled for Friday. Sandoval hearings are intended to allow suspects to make informed decisions about whether to testify by determining prior to trial the permissible scope of cross-examination by prosecutors.
Trump’s lawyers told the judge this in aleater last month that they will argue that the district attorney’s office should be barred from asking about these items.
The trial, the first criminal trial against a former president, was canceled on Wednesday but will resume on Thursday with jury selection. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying corporate records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn star during the final days of the 2016 presidential election. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
