Amid the ongoing trial in New York City on claims from New York state Attorney General Letitia James against the Trumps and their family business of fraudulent activity, presiding Judge Arthur Engoron has reiterated his stance that provisions of the relevant statutes of limitations still allow, in general, for much of the case that James and her team brought.
These comments from the judge rebut an extrapolation that former President Donald Trump himself made the prior day (Monday), when he claimed most of the case had been effectively undercut by the judge supposedly overruling himself on a statute of limitations question. As he stares down the potential for half a dozen trials, Trump has also made statute of limitations claims in some of his social media commentary. In reality, Engoron’s earlier comments during the James trial were limited in scope to the need he stated for testimony from a longtime accountant for the Trumps to link to events from 2014 or after. Engoron was not completely dismissing any element to the case that was rooted in earlier years. He was simply stating things couldn’t end there.
Engoron ultimately stated on Tuesday that each utilization of a false statement of financial condition “in business starts the statute of limitations running again,” as relayed by courts journalist Adam Klasfeld.
As highlighted by the same journalist, Engoron previously observed that the Trump team’s theory of the statute of limitations would mean that “if one aspect of fraudulent business conduct falls outside the statute of limitations, then all subsequent aspects of fraudulent conduct also fall outside the statute, no matter how inextricably intertwined.” Engoron already formally found Trump to have perpetrated fraud in his earlier business dealings and directed what’s effectively the shuttering of various business operations associated with the former president and based in New York, but on issues including remaining claims from James, proceedings are continuing this week.
Trump himself will evidently be taking the stand in the course of the ongoing trial, where he will be subjected to requirements for the truth that could land him with serious consequences if he’s in violation — demands, of course, routinely placed on those who testify but notably distinct from how he normally operates, propagating nonsense on Truth Social or in public remarks to his fans.
