Just yesterday we reported that New York Attorney General Letitia James was successful in finally forcing Donald Trump to adhere to the law he’s beholden to when she went to court to force the ex-president and his eldest two children, Ivanka and Don Jr., to comply with the subpoenas she issued back in December and give their deposition under oath in no more than 21 days from yesterday’s ruling.
Now, we knew right off the bat that Donald Trump was not going to react well to this news in any conceivable way. However, what we weren’t quite expecting was the news that the ex-president’s lawyers apparently behaved just as unhinged and ridiculous during the court appearance as we’ve come to expect from Trump himself.
According to a staggering new report from the New York Times, the legal team representing former President Donald Trump in Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation into the ex-president and his company, The Trump Organization, got so heated during yesterday’s court hearing that the judge was forced to call multiple time-outs in an effort to bring down the tension.
In the brutal ruling yesterday (for Trump, anyway) Judge Engoron ruled that Trump, Ivanka, and Donald Trump Jr. had 21 days, max, to submit to questioning, stating that Attorney General James “uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities’ principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
The Times reports that on multiple different occasions during the virtual hearing that preceded the order, Trump’s team of attorneys grew extremely agitated as they tried (and failed) to argue against the case James was making.
The lawyers grew so heated, in fact, that the report claims Engoron and his clerk were forced to call time-outs numerous times throughout the hearing, “raising their hands in the shape of a T,” on multiple occasions.
Trump’s attorneys also launched an attack against Letitia James personally, according to a report from Business Insider, with Trump attorney Alina Habba reportedly accusing AG James, who’s a Democrat, of “prosecutorial misconduct.”
“The only reason she is doing this is because he is a former president, and on the other side of the fence,” Habba fumed during the hearing.
Another attorney for the ex-president, Ron Fischetti, spoke with Insider and confirmed that they would be appealing the judge’s ruling.
Attorney General James has since released a statement saying, “No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”
Trump himself, of course, also released a statement of his own on the same day accusing the New York Attorney General’s office of “doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process.”
“It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!”
Read the full report from the New York Times here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
