Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial …
This week marked the fiery start of a civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing Donald Trump, his two adult sons, the Trump Organization and others of inflating asset values over a decade to secure favorable bank loans and insurance terms, and exaggerating Trump’s own riches by more than $2 billion. Justice Arthur Engoron of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan, who is presiding over the case without a jury, this week imposed a gag order on public statements about court staff after Trump took to social media to lash out at the judge’s top law clerk. Engoron also disciplined Trump’s lawyers for making what he said were “frivolous” arguments. Days after the case went to trial, Trump filed an appeal to the Appellate Division to dismiss the lawsuit.
Also in the Trump litigation universe …
Trump, seeking to dismiss the federal case accusing him of trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election, argued that he cannot be prosecuted because U.S. presidents are immune from criminal charges … A lawyer for Trump asked the 9th Circuit to revive his lawsuit claiming that the social media platform formerly known as Twitter violated his and other users’ free-speech rights when it suspended their accounts … The former president filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss his $500 million lawsuit against his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.
SBF fraud trial …
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers and federal prosecutors clashed in opening statements over whether the former billionaire’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapsed due to “massive” fraud by its founder or errors in business judgment. Defense lawyer Mark Cohen in his opening statement portrayed the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics graduate as a “math nerd” who overlooked risk management in building FTX, but did not steal customer money, noting that “crypto was not for everyone.” Gary Wang, the first of three former close associates of Bankman-Fried to testify at the trial, said that Bankman-Fried demanded special privileges for his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Along the course of the trial, we are likely to hear testimony from Bankman-Fried’s father and brother, as well as Donald Trump’s former spokesman Anthony Scaramucci. The 31-year-old former billionaire, who has been detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since Aug. 11, has pleaded not guilty. Read more about the seven charges Bankman-Fried faces and the key players in the trial. Find out how former customers of FTX are faring nearly a year after its collapse.
At the U.S. Supreme Court …
The U.S. Supreme Court kicked off a new term this week … The high court’s justices raised concerns about lawsuits targeting hotels for omitting details on their websites about accessibility features for people with disabilities and appeared skeptical of a challenge to the CFPB’s funding structure … The court turned away an appeal by David Daleiden and his anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress, to throw out more than $2 million in damages they were ordered to pay Planned Parenthood after secretly recording videos of abortion providers … Plus, SCOTUS spurned a bid by Sony Music, Warner Music and other music publishers to hold the owner of Wolfgang’s Vault directly liable for copyright infringement of concert recordings by rock greats … The top court declined to revisit CareDx’s patent lawsuit over organ-rejection tests made by Natera and Eurofins Viracor … And, the justices rebuffed a case involving whether former President Donald Trump should be disqualified from the 2024 election.
