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A grumpy-faced Donald Trump sat in a Manhattan court room Monday as his civil fraud trial began. The 45th President contends the charges brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James that he inflated the values of his companies as a scheme to swindle banks and investors are nothing more than an excuse to keep him off the campaign trail. Law and Crime Network anchor Jesse Weber appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to describe what’s at stake for Trump as the non-jury trial is carried out over the coming weeks.
“This is, I would say, Trump’s most personal case,” Webber explained to Berman and Riedel. “It’s the one that really, really means the most to him… [because] this is about his brand. This is about his business empire. This is about his image… He’s making what I would say would have been really good arguments if he hadn’t already lost that fraud part of this case. Having said that, there are still elements that are left to be decided by this judge that are not so simple for Letitia James’ team to prove.”
Weber did point out that the element of politics in this case, compared to the handling of Trump’s other legal woes, creates a bad look for the prosecution. “You may disagree with the prosecution put forward by Jack Smith, but he’s been tight-lipped about this case. [Atlanta DA] Fani Willis out in Georgia couldn’t be teasing more, uh, ‘Well, something’s coming, be on the lookout.’ One of the grand jurors spoke out in that case, and for me that’s a problem, because when you infect the legal system with politics, that’s why people lose faith in it, and I don’t want to see that. You have to have faith in the legal system.”
Conversely, Weber doesn’t feel Trump’s bluster outside the court room is a wise strategy. “If I was his attorney, I’d say be very careful. You never really want to go after a judge, particularly the judge that’s going to decide this case… In terms of the politics of it, sure. You know, he can lump the judge in with Fani Willis and Merrick Garland and Biden and say they’re all out to get him and people would believe it… he’s got a point, I just, from a legal point of view I wouldn’t go after a judge. I just wouldn’t do it.”
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