Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial gets its start date – and witnesses are getting subpoenas already
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a $250 million or more financial penalty against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization for a years long pattern of financial fraud, and that trial is now officially about to get underway rather swiftly.
The judge in the case has decided that the trial will begin on October 2nd, which is just over three weeks from now. To that end, Michael Cohen announced on Saturday that he’d just been subpoenaed to testify in that trial. Cohen will be a key government witness against Trump.
There are a few key things to point out here. First, while Trump will surely have his attorneys file every desperate attempt at a delay under the sun, none of it will work. Once you’re this close to a trial date, you’re not going to be able to magically delay it by making nonsense filings. The courts will simply reject those filings and keep the same trial date in place. To that end, just days ago the courts rejected Trump’s pointless request for a multi-week delay in the start date. In can’t be stressed enough that there is nothing Trump can do to delay the start of this trial. His upcoming filings will all be for nothing.
Second, this is a civil trial, which means it only involves financial penalties – not criminal penalties such as prison (Trump’s separate criminal trial in Manhattan is set for spring 2024). That said, when Trump’s civil trial begins in three weeks, he’ll be in danger of losing a quarter billion dollars or more. If Trump can’t come up with that kind of cash – and no one thinks he can – the courts will likely allow James to start seizing his assets. This could bring his entire financial house of cards down.
Third, while there are no guarantees, it is extremely likely that Letitia James will win this trial and Donald Trump will lose. The evidence is overwhelming and incontrovertible. Trump supporters can’t just magically sneak through jury screening and nullify the verdict, no matter how much hand-wringing you might see about this kind of thing online. Trump is simply going to lose.
