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Trump Cancels Planned Testimony in NY Civil Fraud Case

Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
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Trump Cancels Planned Testimony in NY Civil Fraud Case

Former US President Donald Trump (AP)
Former US President Donald Trump (AP)

Former US President Donald Trump changed his mind about testifying in his defense in his New York fraud case on Monday, announcing that he did not take the stand as expected because he has already testified to everything.
“I have already testified to everything and have nothing more to say," Trump wrote in an all-capital-letters, multipart statement on his Truth Social platform less than 20 hours before the trial, that he described as “corrupt.”
Trump's lawyers were scheduled to present their final defense on Monday. The trial began last October.
The former president is accused of exaggerating the value of his real estate assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who filed the lawsuit, showed that Trump had overstated his net worth on financial documents by millions of dollars.
Why Trump Cancelled his Testimony
Trump’s surprise decision not to attend the trial on Monday came as an "unusual and sudden turnaround.” For the past two months, he has been keen to attend the trial where he criticized the judge and court staff, describing the case as politically motivated to threaten his business empire.
Trump’s attorneys had recommended the former President not testify in the trial. They have expressed concerns about Trump testifying again, especially with the prospect of him criticizing the judge and going off script.
At one point during his previous testimony, Judge Arthur Engoron told Trump's lawyer, Christopher Kise, to “control your client.”
Judges have already fined Trump two times after he appeared to violate a gag order barring the former US president from speaking publicly about court staff during his civil fraud trial.
Engoron, the judge overseeing the trial, has already ruled that Trump and his adult sons manipulated financial statements to dupe banks and insurers into providing better loan and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in damages and a permanent ban on Trump and his sons Donald Jr. and Eric running businesses in New York.
Trump Ahead of All his Competitors
Trump faces four unrelated federal and state criminal indictments, including two stemming from his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Still, neither the civil proceedings, nor the former president's criminal cases, have hurt him politically so far.
A new national Wall Street Journal poll found Trump at 59% among potential Republican primary voters nationally, with Haley and DeSantis effectively tied for a distant second place, at 15% and 14% respectively.
Also, the latest NBC News, Des Moines Register and Mediacom poll finds a whopping 73% of likely Republican party members believing Trump can win a general election against President Joe Biden despite the legal challenges Trump is facing — up from 65% who said this in October.

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Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Bangladesh Says Student Leaders Held for Their Own Safety

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

"They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them," he said.

"That's why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action."

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

- 'Carried out raids' -

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.

"We've carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested," Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.

"We're not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire."