Letitia James

"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.

The New York attorney general's office argued that Donald Trump was not entitled to appeal a gag order that prevents him from attacking his fraud trial judge's clerk — along with other court staff.

Attorneys working for attorney general Letitia James filed a motion late Sunday asking the state appeals court to deny Trump's request to take up his case, arguing that the order was necessary to protect the clerk's safety, reported The Messenger.

The two top officials heading up Donald Trump's third campaign for the presidency are being placed in the unenviable position of having to issue statements clarifying his planned policies because he can't stop talking about being a "dictator," according to a columnist Monday.

What started as comments by some of the ex-president's former aides about plans to use the power of the presidency to go after his perceived enemies in Congress and in the press has taken on a life of its own, wrote Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton.

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 decided against testifying in his own defense at his New York fraud trial, and CNN's Elie Honig said he made the right decision.

The former president had planned to take the stand again Monday in the $250 million fraud trial that threatens his real estate empire, but Honig said Trump faced mostly bad options in the case filed by attorney general Letitia James.

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.

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."

Watch below or at the link.

She may have wronged The Don.

Tim Parlatore, who opted out of the ex-president's legal team in May, shortly before Trump was indicted in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, accused Donald Trump's attorney, Alina Habba of making reckless public disclosures that he claims might have breached the coveted attorney-client privilege.