Former President Donald Trump has been banned from personally making a closing argument at his New York civil fraud trial on Thursday because he would not agree to limitations on what he could say, a judge told the former president’s lawyer in a new letter via CNBC.
Judge Arthur Engoron has told Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise on Wednesday that because he had not heard back from Kise agreeing to terms the judge imposed on Trump, Engoron assumed Trump would not comply. Engoron also denied a bid by Trump to postpone closing arguments by nearly three weeks because Trump’s mother-in-law died Tuesday.
Engoron issued an order following a heated exchange of emails between him and Kise regarding a rare proposal by Trump to present some of the defense’s closing arguments in Manhattan Supreme Court on Thursday.
The judge had imposed certain restrictions on Trump’s statements, but Kise had initially opposed those conditions despite being given multiple deadline extensions to make a decision.
Engoron said Trump would be allowed to speak only about “material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts,” just as lawyers are likewise restrained.
The judge had said he would not allow Trump to make “a campaign” speech, or to attack the judge, his staff, or Attorney General Letitia James, whose business fraud lawsuit is the basis of the trial.
“I won’t debate this again,” Engoron wrote to Kise in an email at 11:54 a.m. ET on Wednesday, which appeared in a filing on the case’s docket.
“Take it or leave it. Now or never,” the judge added. “You have until noon, seven minutes from now. I WILL NOT GRANT ANY FURTHER EXTENSIONS.”
At 12:12 p.m., Engoron wrote to Kise again.
“Not having heard from you by the third extended deadline (noon today) I assume that Mr. Trump will not agree to the reasonable, lawful limits as a precondition to giving a closing argument above and beyond those given by his attorneys, and that, therefore, he will not be speaking in court tomorrow,” Engoron wrote.
Another lawyer for Trump, Alina Habba, in an email statement to CNBC about the judge’s order, said, “Is anyone surprised anymore?”
