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The usual team of lawyers from the AG's office was here early. Trump's attorneys just showed up. Chris Kise of FL seems to be leading. Michael Madaio of NJ here too. Also seems they recruited an insider to help: Armen Morian, 13-year veteran of AG's Investor Protection Bureau.

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Notable absence: Alina Habba, the fiery lawyer who seems to always get into verbal fights with the judge, Justice Arthur F. Engoron. There are now 13 lawyers in front of the bench, if you're wondering how much is on the line. AG Letitia James is suing for $250 million+.

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Justice Engoron is in. Starts with a joke, as usual. Everyone laughs. He welcomes the press, thanking us for being "the eyes and ears of the public" and promises to be "as transparent as possible." And... this immediately turns serious.

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Trump in Even More Legal Hot Water After Lying to Judge

For background: AG has asked for an emergency hearing to punish Trump for lying in court documents.

@thedailybeast

story here:

thedailybeast.com

Trump’s lies were exposed after he was caught talking out of both sides of his mouth.

4:08 PM · Feb 1, 2023

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"Sanctions are messy, controversial, and I'm hoping we can just reach a resolution," judge says. But he says he's shocked at how the Trumps have responded to AG Letitia James' lawsuit.

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He warns the Trump team against trying to slow this down. "Whatever we do today, I am determined to start the trial on Oct. 2, 2023, come hell or high water. And pardon my French," judge says. Now he's ripping into Trumps' lawyers for wasting everyone's time—again.

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"In my 35 years practicing law, I have never, never... seen a pleading with such excess verbiage as the 300-page or so answers of the 15 or so answers to the complaint," he says. If you need to see what he's talking about, see here: iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentD

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Assistant AG Kevin Wallace is now listing how the Trump team has lied on sworn court documents. This is... quite serious. You're not supposed to do this. This isn't a Fox News interview. It's a court. You lie, you fry.

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Judge says he's not ready to conclude Trump outright lied yet. He wants to go over the evidence first.

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Trump lawyer Chris Kise is now trying to bring down the temperature in the room. He says lawyers don't need to attack each other as badly as their clients, AG Letitia James and ex-President Trump, go at each other.

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Kise is asking to take this behind closed doors and meet with AG's office directly. "Maybe if we get how you want to address what seem to be obvious discrepancies," judge says.

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Perfect example: AG lawsuit says Trump Org subsidiary Seven Springs LLC bought a forested estate north of NYC for $7.5m in 1995. Trumps deny that in docs. Now, Eric Trump lawyer Clifford S. Robert says technically, Seven Springs is "not a subsidiary" but "part of" Trump Org.

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"There's been no bad faith," Eric Trump's lawyer says. AG's Kevin Wallace is up. He reminds everyone the context here. Trump has defied every subpoena & filed BS lawsuits in NY & FL to slow this down. Trump lawyer Kise says, "I don't think there have been any delays." LOL

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... interesting. Kise seems to hint at what trial would look like. "No entities called the 'Trump Organization' are actually a party to any of those transactions." Their play here seems to be that Trump used a zillion LLCs, and the AG can't go after the firm at the top.

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Now we know why Trump hired an AG insider. This just became theatrical. Morian says he worked these same kinds of cases until 2019. AG can't keep asking for sanctions at every turn. "I would implore you to reconsider that approach, because it's not a good look for OUR OFFICE."

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"Our office!" I can't get over how cheeky that is. The AG's lawyers are now whispering and passing along notes to one another.

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Court's taking a break. Judge says he'll resume "at high noon." Laughter ensues. Everyone's well aware this is basically a duel at this point.

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With the judge out of the courtroom, lawyers are now cutting a deal to give each other a few days to fix this.

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