Donald Trump’s NY fraud trial: When is the verdict expected?

Former US President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial finally concluded after more than 40 witnesses walked in and out of the courtroom throughout a period of over 10 weeks. However, this is not the end of the story, as the wait continues to find out the final result of the case. In fact, it will be over a month before the verdict is finally given.

Closing arguments on the trial are set for January 11 and Judge Arthur Engoron commented that he hopes to have decided the case by the end of that month.

New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the lawsuit under a state law that doesn’t allow for a jury, meaning that the verdict is up to the judge himself and nobody else.

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‘I’m gonna miss this trial’ says Judge

“In a strange way, I’m gonna miss this trial,” Engoron (who had already ruled before the trial began that Trump and his codefendants were liable for “persistent and repeated” fraud) said before the closing statements on Wednesday.

It has been a long and drawn-out process that has threatened to spill over at times, with Trump testifying before saying he would not testify. Trump announced via his Truth Social platform that he had, after his first appearance, “already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt. I will not be testifying on Monday” [December 11].

Trump’s lawyer Chris Kise said that the trial confirmed that “there was no fraud, harm, or damage of any kind” to Trump’s bankers, who he supposedly misled banks and insurers, inflating his net worth and the value of assets belonging to the Trump Organization, a group of hundreds of business entities that include real estate, casinos, hotels and construction.

What could happen to Donald Trump if found guilty?

The case, given the dates, may even end up halting the former President’s real estate empire and even stop him from doing business in his native state.

The trial concerns remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. James is seeking penalties of more than $300 million and wants Trump, who is currently the 2024 Republican front-runner, to be banned from doing business in New York. The New York Attorney General said that Trump “engaged in years of significant fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his family, this trial revealed the full extent of that fraud — and the defendants’ inability to disprove it.”