I was at court again on Wednesday watching Day 3 of Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York, and at least until the lunch break, Trump was in attendance again. But with his former accountant Donald Bender still on the stand for a fairly weedy cross-examination, the question is: why?
One possibility is that he had promises to keep. Specifically, he told a Florida court last week that he could not attend his Oct. 3 deposition in a lawsuit he filed against his former lawyer Michael Cohen because he intended to be in court for the fraud trial. (That deposition was initially scheduled for early September, then rescheduled for Oct. 3, and now is set for this coming Monday.) Skipping out early, therefore, could cost him with the Florida judge. And it’s not lost on me that Trump stayed just long enough during this trial in New York, attending roughly half of the trial week (or slightly more since Judge Arthur Engoron will adjourn the trial each Friday at 1 p.m. ET), to avoid penalties in that case.
But the more likely explanation, I think, is that Trump believed he could achieve a number of other, short-term goals simply by showing up.
First, he was able to physically show his contempt for — and potentially rattle — witnesses, the judge, prosecutors and New York Attorney General Letitia James herself just by being there.
As Bloomberg Opinion editor Tim O’Brien, a longtime chronicler of Trump, noted on “Deadline: White House” on Tuesday, Trump has been a bully for most of his life — and his trial attendance has been no exception. Yes, he is now subject to a gag order, but it solely concerns judicial staff. Indeed, the gag order did not deter the former president from ranting on Truth Social on Wednesday, including in a post before the trial started for the day that took aim at James and was filled with words and phrases ripped from a veritable Trump legal bingo card.
More importantly, posting on Truth Social, his social media platform, could be wholly unnecessary if his objective is to intimidate. Who needs social media if, through your presence alone, you can scare the full range of trial participants in person and without saying a word? (James, for her part, told reporters this afternoon, after Trump left the courthouse, that she would not and could not be “bullied” by Trump.)
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Second, Trump would have demeaned the trial as a “disgrace” or a “witch hunt” wherever he was. But by attending for a few days, Trump was also able to more credibly spin reporters that all has been going beautifully — whether or not his own lawyers or outside legal experts would concur — because he has been an eyewitness.
Civil trials do not require the presence of a defendant, period. Trump knows this.
Third, by showing up, Trump was able to distract from what actually happened in the courtroom, collapsing the usual split screen of Trump legal coverage, on one hand, and political reporting, on the other, into a single stream. Indeed, he held several impromptu press conferences each trial day where he further attacked his perceived enemies, including James and Engoron, as if a shabby, dimly-lit courthouse hallway were his runway or the White House lawn.
But perhaps most importantly, Trump came to court to play victim and raise money. The leading GOP presidential candidate told reporters that he was “stuck here” defending himself when he’d rather be campaigning in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina. But he was not stuck in a Manhattan state courtroom any more than he was stuck literally around the corner in the federal courthouse for the E. Jean Carroll trial he never attended. Civil trials do not require the presence of a defendant, period. Trump knows this, which is why, after the lunch break began, he left the trial — which James noted he treated as “a fundraising stop” — in the rearview mirror.
Like clockwork, the Trump campaign sent another fundraising email within the hour of Trump’s departure, accusing James of “inventing crimes out of thin air,” weaponizing the justice system against Trump, and conspiring with other “Marxists” to prevent his return to power.
And while it remains to be seen how lucrative his two-and-a-half day courtroom stint will be, something tells me that what motivated Trump to watch hours of testimony about accounting standards was — what else? — the money.
Lisa Rubin is MS NOW's senior legal reporter and a former litigator.
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