Donald Trump and his lawyers privately conceded he would likely lose his $250 million fraud trial so, instead of mounting an actual legal defense, they are pursuing "Fyre Festival strategies," according to a report.
Sources told Rolling Stone the former president and his attorneys appear to be following the infamous festival's founding principle – in the words of its scandal-plagued organizer, "let's just do it and be legends" – and hoping to score political and public-relations points by angering the judge, harassing witnesses and turning the trial into a media circus.
“A lot of this is just begging for sanctions,” said one attorney who’s known Trump for years. “It is not how I’d do it, but … maybe that’s a reason I’m not on the [legal] team.”
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Trump's lawyers for this trial – Chris Kise, Alina Habba and Jesus Suarez – have already been fined $7,500 each for repeatedly bringing up legal arguments that Judge Arthur Engoron had prohibited, and Trump is hoping to make former attorney Michael Cohen "cry" on the witness stand with personal attacks, the report said.
“Fight rough and fight dirty, if you got to," Trump has told his lawyers, according to a person close to him.
That person said Trump becomes especially agitated when Cohen's name comes up, but the former fixer says he's not worried about taking the stand.
“I have provided a hundred hours of testimony before members of Congress, law enforcement agencies and committees whose, on behalf of Donald, primary goal was to denigrate me, discredit me and harass me," Cohen said.
"None of it has worked and it won’t work now when I take the stand in the [New York attorney general’s] case. I am certain Judge Engoron will not allow Donald’s legal team to make a mockery of his court and allow these antics to occur.”
Trump has been telling associates he appeared last week in court to publicly defend his net worth and business skills, sources say, and he has a strong emotional attachment to his recently rescinded status on the Forbes list of the richest Americans.
"In an apparent sign of how much the case has rattled Trump, a person with direct knowledge of the matter tells Rolling Stone that in the last month the former president has repeatedly interjected comments, entirely unprompted, about his wealth in the middle of unrelated conversations," the magazine reported.
"In these sudden outbursts, Trump complains that people are 'lying' about his personal and corporate net worth and the value of his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, the source adds."
That's why he might take the stand himself, sources said, but his attorneys are worried about him incriminating himself under oath.
“Of course that remains an issue, as always,” said a source familiar with the Trump team’s internal discussions. “But we have a while to go before he would even [possibly] take the stand.”
