Donald Trump turned heads by exhibiting rare behavior outside a New York City courtroom after giving testimony in his $250 million civil fraud trial, prompting Mary Trump, the ex-president’s estranged niece, to say: “Somebody check on Hell—I think it froze over.”
The trial stems from a lawsuit filed last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleging that Trump and top executives at his family company, The Trump Organization, conspired to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans.
Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has denied any wrongdoing and has called the trial politically motivated.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr., senior executives of The Trump Organization, are also accused of assisting the former president and have testified in the trial. On Monday, the former president began testifying, pressed about the values of his properties—and his role in their appraisals.
In the first hour of testimony, New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron repeatedly told Trump to not give speeches in court and warned his attorney to control him or he may be removed from the witness stand. The admonishment followed Trump attacking the Attorney General’s Office as “haters,” sidestepping questions and repeatedly going off on tangents.
Shortly after Engoron’s remarks, outside the courtroom a reporter asked the ex-president, “How’s it going in there?” while Trump responded by motioning that he is keeping his mouth zipped.
The rare behavior from Trump, who generally speaks to reporters after court proceedings to reiterate his stance while claiming his legal tumult is nothing but a “witch hunt,” led Mary Trump, a staunch critic of her uncle, to chime in.
“That is the first time Donald EVER lumbered away from a bunch of cameras and microphones in his life. Somebody check on Hell—I think it froze over,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump via email for comment on Monday.
Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images
The court imposed a limited gag order on Trump October 3, the second day of the trial, barring him and other defendants from publicly discussing members of Engoron’s staff. The order was prompted by a derogatory post on Trump’s Truth Social account.
Engoron also issued a gag order on Friday, prohibiting all lawyers working on the trial from “from making any public statements, in or out of court, that refer to any confidential communications, in any form, between my staff and me.”
The order was issued after a long-simmering clash between Trump’s lawyers and Engoron escalated on the same day when they engaged in nearly 30 minutes of debate about the judge’s principal law clerk, who has been a target of the former president since the start of the trial.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.