Letitia James found rare common ground with Donald Trump this week.
The state attorney general signaled support for the court-ordered pause on canceling the former president’s business certificates, ABC News reported. The support was disclosed in a filing late Monday.
The cancellation of the Trump Organization’s certificates was a key part of the summary judgment issued by Judge Arthur Engoron ahead of Trump’s ongoing civil fraud trial. Trump quickly appealed the judgment and earned a stay of that particular decision.
The agreement between the two warring sides is only temporary. James’ office said it was willing to “stay enforcement … pending the end of trial and entry of final judgment.”
On other parts of Trump’s appeal, James was less sympathetic. The attorney general said it would be disastrous to delay the trial as Trump’s team requested, asserting it would “sow chaos and result in an inordinate waste of both public resources and the time and resources of witnesses.”
Trump’s team has until Nov. 9 to respond to James’ filing.
Trump’s civil fraud trial appears to be nearing a critical juncture. Members of his family are expected to start taking the stand on Wednesday, beginning with Donald Trump Jr.
The former president briefly took the stand last week as he was fined $10,000 for violating a gag order.
Last week also brought the controversial testimony of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. Trump’s legal team got Cohen to reverse much of his testimony from the previous day, when Cohen said he and Allen Weisselberg were instructed directly by Trump to “reverse engineer” valuations.
Trump and his company are accused of fraudulently inflating the value of real estate assets on loan and insurance applications.
— Holden Walter-Warner
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