NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York judge on Friday rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James over the practices of the billionaire’s family business empire in the real estate sector.
Manhattan District Court Judge Arthur Engoron said he could not “in good conscience” let Donald Trump file a motion that “had no merit.”
The former US president’s lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
The Trump camp claims that Arthur Engoron and his lawyer Allison Greenfield were biased against the former US president and that the only way to maintain confidence in the legal process was to end the trial.
Judge Arthur Engoron said he acted “fairly, impartially and professionally” for more than three years in the case and planned to do so until the end of this trial, according to court documents.
Donald Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election, is accused of having inflated the value of his assets by several billion dollars in order to obtain better loan and insurance conditions.
More than 150 people, including Donald Trump himself, are on the list of potential witnesses but most of the trial is expected to hinge on a battle of experts who will rule on various financial documents.
Donald Trump denounces this affair as part of a political witch hunt. The businessman, who is the first or former president of the United States to be criminally indicted, is being charged in four separate cases.
(Jonathan Stempel and Ismail Shakil; French version by Zhifan Liu)
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