Arthur Engoron

"Businesses are fleeing our country," is what ex-President Donald Trump said during a New York Republican event Saturday, according to The Messenger.

"It's business-unfriendly and they're going to other places," Trump insisted.

Juggling multiple trials in four jurisdictions, Donald Trump and his affiliated PAC are shelling out millions of dollars in legal fees with no end in sight, reports ABC News.

With a racketeering trial ramping up in Georgia, federal cases in both Florida and Washington, D.C., plus a financial fraud civil suit, the E. Jean Carroll defamation case and the hush money trial taking place in Manhattan, the report states that the embattled former president has had to pay legal fees into the tens of millions.

Former President Donald Trump has been facing two separate gag orders — one in New York Attorney General Letitia James' fraud case, the other in special counsel Jack Smith's election interference prosecution.

Trump attorney Alina Habba has been angrily railing against the gag order in James' case, insisting that Trump's First Amendment rights are being violated. But James' office, according to Newsweek, has defended the gag order in a court filing, citing threats against Justice Arthur Engoron's staff as an important reason for it.

Donald Trump has already established a strategy for defying gag orders imposed against him in his criminal and civil trials.

The former president has been attacking judges, prosecutors, court staff and witnesses in social media posts, which prompt gag orders that he then appeals and never takes down the offending posts that then inspire violent threats against his targets – and legal experts predict he'll keep it up, reported The Daily Beast.

Donald Trump's last-minute decision to not appear as a witness for his own defense in the $250 million financial fraud trial being conducted in a Manhattan courtroom was likely due to his fears of having to plead the 5th Amendment while being grilled by prosecutors.

That is the opinion of former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, who suggested the former president and his legal team talked a big game up until it was go-time before pulling the plug on Monday's court appearance.

A former prosecutor is debunking Donald Trump's claim that he can't testify on Monday because of the gag order.

Responding to Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, saying she wouldn't recommend testifying with a gag order in place. But CNN legal analyst Elie Honig called it a fake excuse.

Any question that Donald Trump might take the stand on his own behalf Monday as part of the $250 million financial fraud case being heard in Judge Arthur Engoron's court was put to rest on Sunday afternoon.

Taking to his Truth Social platform, the former president launched into a two-part, all-caps rant about how he is being persecuted and then declared he won't take the stand -- likely to the relief of his legal team which has been trying to talk him out of it.

According to former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman, Donald Trump is putting himself at unnecessary risk if he chooses to testify on Monday in his defense in Judge Arthur Engoron's courtroom.

Speaking with MSNBC host Alex Witt on Sunday afternoon, Litman pointed out that the former president has already lost the $250 million financial fraud case based on an earlier ruling from the judge and the continuing deliberations will be used to arrive at the financial penalties Trump and the Trump Organization will be liable for.

Litman suggested that the former president likely relishes the idea of boasting about his real estate empire and it's worth, but, by taking the stand, he is opening himself up to cross-examination by prosecutors which has the potential to go off the rails.

As he noted, the former president will be pressed by prosecutors to explain away the over-evaluation of his properties and won't have the option of refusing to answer.

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'He might not take the stand because there is little for him to gain," Litman predicted, "Remember, this is a judge trial, the judge is going to decide against him and he will, as his son did, give the sort of rosey infomercial for the public. That would be the reason he would testify."

"But, it means he will have to face cross-examination and it won't be like last time when the AG on direct, let him just go on and on," he continued. "They call cross-examination the greatest legal tool ever invented for the discovery of truth, and they can ask, and they are ready to ask very pointed questions. 'Mr. Trump, you knew this wasn't 30,000 feet. You knew it was ten. Yes or no?' Boom, boom, boom. And the judge will enforce that, right? So he [Trump] doesn't stand much to gain on his direct testimony, and does stand to lose on the cross so we'll see what happens."

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