The former president is leading the race for Republican nomination, but 2024 is likely to see his court and campaign calendars increasingly overlap.
While Donald Trump has made it through 2023 in a stronger position than when he began in some ways, the New Year could see his world come tumbling down.
The former president is still leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination despite his many legal woes, but his campaign and court calendars are set to increasingly overlap in 2024.
Closing arguments are scheduled for early January in Trump’s civil fraud trial, which threatens the future of the real estate empire that brought him fame and later catapulted him to the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron has made his decision on the top claim in the lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively exaggerating his assets and net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing loans. Trump has denied wrongdoing, saying the financial documents actually understated his net worth.
But his claim that he is worth billions could hinder him in a defamation trial scheduled to begin on January 16.
The defamation claim stems from a lawsuit by columnist E. Jean Carroll who said Trump defamed her in 2019 after she first publicly accused him of raping her in the dressing room of a department store.
The lawsuit has been delayed for years by appeals. She is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and substantially more in punitive damages, The Associated Press reported.
