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Donald J. Trump backed down from delivering his own closing argument in his civil fraud trial after refusing to abide by a judge’s restrictions — including that he not give “a campaign speech” — in the latest clash between Mr. Trump’s political aims and American legal norms.
Mr. Trump, who considers himself his own best spokesman, had planned to address the court during closing arguments on Thursday. But one of his lawyers called limits imposed by the judge, Arthur F. Engoron, unacceptable.
The judge said in a recent email exchange with Mr. Trump’s lawyers that while he was predisposed to allow Mr. Trump to speak, the former president would be limited to discussing the facts of the case and the relevant law, and barred from attacking the judge, the judge’s staff members or New York’s attorney general, whose suit against Mr. Trump led to the trial.
Those conditions may have nullified Mr. Trump’s purpose in speaking. As he mounts another run for the White House while facing the civil trial and four criminal indictments, Mr. Trump has sought to transform his legal liabilities into political assets, casting his accusers as enemies of democracy and their cases as a coordinated witch hunt.
Sensing that Mr. Trump wanted to bring his campaign to the courtroom, Justice Engoron — whom the former president has repeatedly attacked — warned that he would promptly shut Mr. Trump down if he attempted to do so again.
“If Mr. Trump violates any of these rules, I will not hesitate to cut him off in midsentence and admonish him,” Justice Engoron, a Democrat, wrote in an email late last week. “If he continues to violate the rules, I will end his closing argument and prevent him from making any further statements in the courtroom.”
Justice Engoron, who has already imposed a limited gag order preventing Mr. Trump and his lawyers from attacking court employees, threatened a fine of at least $50,000 if the former president violated it. The judge also warned that he would “remove him from the courtroom forthwith.”
A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, declined to agree, saying the conditions were “fraught with ambiguities” and that barring Mr. Trump from attacking the Democratic attorney general, Letitia James, was “simply untenable.”
After several more exchanges, Justice Engoron wrote in an email Wednesday that he assumed that Mr. Trump would not agree to the limits, “and that, therefore, he will not be speaking in court tomorrow.”
Mr. Trump, who had planned to testify in his own defense last month but canceled the day before, is still expected to attend the closing arguments on Thursday. Justice Engoron’s decision may inject considerable tension into the proceedings, during which lawyers for Mr. Trump and Ms. James will give an overview of their respective cases.
Ms. James has argued that Mr. Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth to receive favorable treatment from banks and insurers, and is asking that the former president be fined $370 million and permanently barred from doing business in New York. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the evidence failed to connect the former president to the annual financial statements in which his net worth was listed, and that the banks profited from their relationship with him.
This week, Mr. Trump, who is leading the race to become the Republican nominee for president, has sought to turn his legal appearances into de facto campaign stops. But both attempts seem to have fallen short.
On Tuesday, when Mr. Trump appeared at arguments before a federal appeals court over whether he is immune from prosecution, he was unable to attract the kind of attention to which he has become accustomed. And Justice Engoron’s proposed limits seem to have stopped him from turning the closing arguments in Ms. James’s case into the type of spectacle he was hoping for.
On Tuesday, Mr. Kise alerted the court to the death of Mr. Trump’s mother-in-law, and asked that the closing arguments be postponed until Jan. 29 or later. But Justice Engoron, while expressing his condolences, denied the request.
The following day, Mr. Kise told the judge that Mr. Trump still planned to speak, despite his mother-in-law’s death. When the judge asked whether the former president would abide by his proposed limits, Mr. Kise responded, “This is very unfair, Your Honor,” adding that the order would bar Mr. Trump from speaking “about the things that must be spoken about.”
In the penultimate email in the publicly posted exchange, Justice Engoron said he would not debate the matter again.
“Take it or leave it,” he wrote in an email at 11:54 a.m., imposing a noon deadline.
Mr. Kise missed the deadline.
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