Trump backtracked on testifying to avoid a perjury trap like in past cases: Forbes reporter

Former president Donald Trump won’t testify in his own defense at his New York civil fraud trial, in a last-minute reversal announced Sunday. 

“I will not be testifying on Monday,” Trump wrote in an all-caps statement posted on his social-media platform, Truth Social. “I have already testified to everything & have nothing more to say other than this is a complete & total election interference (Biden campaign!) witch hunt, that will do nothing but keep businesses out of New York” he added, while also spouting off claims the New York Attorney General Letitia James’s case was illegitimate. “I have very successfully & conclusively testified” in James’s “rigged trial against me,” the ex-president added.

James is seeking $250 million in damages after accusing Trump and his family of grossly overvaluing his New York properties as a means of securing more advantageous loans and insurance deals. 

“Whether or not Trump testifies again tomorrow, we have already proven that he committed years of financial fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his family. No matter how much he tries to distract from reality, the facts don’t lie,” the AG said of Trump’s decision to not take the witness stand. Trump lawyer Alina Habba observed on Thursday that she had advised the former president to not testify as he would have been doing so under a gag order imposed by New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron. 

“He still wants to take the stand even though my advice is at this point you should never take the stand with a gag order. But he is so firmly against what is happening in this court,” Habba said. “President Trump has already testified,” noted MAGA attorney Chris Kise said in a statement Sunday.

But Forbes editor Dan Alexander has a different theory on Trump’s sudden absence, drawing from his past reporting on Trump’s previous trials.