Donald Trump took the stand on Monday in Judge Arthur Engoron’s New York courtroom and almost immediately began to respond to questions with long, wandering rants. Much of Trump’s performance seemed intended to rile Engoron into taking action that might justify a motion for mistrial. That notion was confirmed during the lunch break, when both Trump and attorney Alina Habba attacked the judge to push Engoron into some kind of definitive action. That didn’t happen.
Instead, Trump took the stand after the lunch break and gave a more subdued performance in which the main problem was that he, like both Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump did in their testimonies, insisted that signing off on financial documents—thereby saying you’re legally responsible for their accuracy—does not make you legally responsible for their accuracy.
But that’s only the quick and short of it. For more, here’s the deep dive.
