its closing arguments in donald trump s civil fraud trial after a dramatic scene in which the former president himself addressed the court. the judge had only allowed trump to speak on the condition that he focus on the facts but the president quickly veered into other territory claiming he is an innocent man being persecuted d the judge telling defense counsel please control your client. th former president has already been found liable for inflating properties to get loan deals. the judge will attempt to issue his ruling by the end of the month. yasmin vossoughian is reporting for us outside the courtroom in new york. vaughn hillyard is urbandale, iowa, also with us, renato, former federal prosecutor. somebody might argue at least in terms of drama donald trump s a tough act to follow. reporter: yeah, i think that person would likely win that argument. nonetheless, i think lee tee james has a lot in store. she is not likely to offer closing arguments to other attorneys.
Respond in the affirmative about that, and the judge got a little bit bullied by trump here, pushing to, you know, give a statement. it s what you would expect, he s trying to turn this into a circus, and it s crazy to just work, here on msnbc now talking about his statement, and his argument. all of the evidence, and the findings that they re going to be in this case. and really, the remedies that you put up a moment ago that i think are so important, chris. i think he did this as a distraction. he did it as a campaign or pr tactic, and to some extent it has worked. i don t want to get ahead of the prosecution, but the prosecution is going to have a couple of hours, and they will have their say. then renato, what does the judge look at? what are the most important parts of his consideration when he decides how he s going to
Throughout new york it s known as a place where it has big vaults that people store their money and precious jewels and so on, i guess, gold, and those kinds of things. i don t have anything in a vault personally. all of that happening as attorney general letitia james team is giving their closing arguments in the landmark civil fraud case, turning to whether or not trump s business team acted with intent when they manipulated their annual financial statements as part of a conspiracy. they say the answer is yes. there s donald trump who s not waiting for his case to be over. he s making his statements if he takes questions, we ll go to that then. but let s bring back former federal prosecutor renato mariotti. i wonder what you make of where the team started. they re focusing on intent, using the word conspiracy as i understand it inside that courtroom. that s right, you know, one feature of a conspiracy, if you re a member of a conspiracy,
Judge engoron allowed him to make and maybe preparing for the press conference that he says he s going to have a little later on today. let me ask you, paul, as a defense attorney, what about the upcoming statement from the prosecutors would make you most nervous, would make you think that donald trump and the business he built, and i think they are so intertwined, his ego and his actual, you know, as david points out, a pretty strong balance sheet in the real estate market. what s at stake here? so, chris, i think the defense attorneys here have to recognize that this case is over. it s over in as much as judge engoron is going to make a decision, and give the attorney general much, if not all of what she wants. the defense attorneys were arguing and making arguments today for two audiences. first, and i think pretty
The policy of the judge understands that the attorneys before him were not trying to make legal arguments, legal points, i ll say to the viewers, if you re actually a lawyer trying to win a case. you do not try to, you know, stop at his hearings, stop at his rulings, scoff at what he is telling you to do in the courtroom. that to me is just a recognition by the judge that the expert witnesses put forth were not people that he could find credible, and, you know, much may be made of that by trump s team and some fundraising, you know, in the political avenue. from a legal perspective, it s a recognition by the judge he does not find those expert witnesses. we re not talking about the