Donald Trump has been raging against the New York judge who will decide his financial fate, but his attorneys botched a crucial deadline that could have put the case in a jury's hands.
The former president has raged about not getting a jury trial while launching regular tirades against "Democrat judge" Arthur Engoron, who has already ruled that Trump and his two adult sons have committed fraud.
But it turns out that his attorneys botched the process for requesting a jury trial, according to a detailed account by The Daily Beast.
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“I wish I’d had a jury trial,” Trump grumbled to his lawyers in court, after Engoron reminded him that he alone would decide his fate.
A Daily Beast reporter was present in court when Trump attorney Alina Habba requested a jury trial, but neither she or anyone else on the former president's defense team ever followed up, and they blew a 15-day deadline to respond when New York attorney general Letitia James' office alerted the court they were ready for trial.
It's possible Trump's attorneys simply forgot to respond, but they might also have figured they wouldn't get a jury and determined it wasn't worth the effort to formally request one, and they may have decided to cast their lot with a bench trial in hopes of setting up an appeal.
"The third possible reason is more Machiavellian," wrote investigative reporter Jose Pagliery. "His lawyers may have wanted to poison the well — appearing to get stuck with a judge they dislike, using the battle as a fundraising tactic and appealing every decision he makes to cast their lot with the appellate court."
