that s a bus in new york city and behind that is trump tower. there we go. former president trump about to depart for closing arguments today in his civil fraud trial. the judge has barred him from speaking in court. he wanted to make his own closing argument. the judge said forget about it. so he has been known to talk to reporters on the way in. we re watching that. no buses or trucks, good morning, i m bill hemmer. dana: just us. that s all you get for right now. i m dana perino and this is america s newsroom. we had a wild day yesterday. see how this one turns out. the fraud trial culminating as iowa casts the first votes in the presidential election. the former president was there last night for a fox news town hall and tried to assure voters his second term would not be focused on revenge. i m not going to have time for retribution. we ll make the country so successful i won t have time for retribution. our ultimate retribution is success. dana: bill melugin is
to be at his civil fraud case today, so why did he show up? the lead starts right now. if the microphone was on the former president repeatedly found that claiming his civil fraud cases in the way of his 2024 campaign. plus, this jamie is here to talk about not just trump, not just kevin mccarthy, but house speaker mike johnston, and her fears for what the u.s. might look like in 2025. plus, the one thing she agrees with donald trump about. it has to do with his assessment of kevin mccarty. and that shocking new investigation. the threats to public officials, lawmakers and election workers. who is making them and why? welcome to the lead. we start this hour with former president donald trump attended his new york civil fraud trial today while his rivals are out on the campaign trail. this is just a witch-hunt. i should be in iowa and new hampshire, i shouldn t be sitting at a courthouse. i don t have to sit here. actually doesn t have to be there. for trump this is a camp
trump testified earlier in the trial he, his adult sons and several trump organization executives are accused of defrauding banks and insurance companies by inflating assets. trump argues all the loans were paid back and no victim in the case. he calls it a political witch hunt brought by new york attorney general james. she wants to ban trump and his family from doing business in new york as well as a large fine. his defamation lawsuit trial is set to start next week. trump separately faces the new york hush money case, georgia election interference case and federal cases involving january 6th and his alleged retention of classified documents. the civil fraud case today is a bench trial which means justice arthur engoron has sole discretion in deciding trump s punishment. keep in mind, engoron ruled before this trial even start