Fox News contributor and constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley explained Tuesday the one thing that would be a “huge advance” in former President Donald Trump’s civil case.
During a recent appearance on Fox News, Trump attorney Alina Habba referred to a previous ruling from an appellate division that dismissed Ivanka Trump from the case on the basis of the statute of limitations. Habba then said it was “great” that Judge Arthur Engoron told prosecutors they had wasted his time by presenting evidence from beyond the statute of limitations.
“It’s hard to say how the judge will actually rule, that acknowledgement was important, although it is notable that it’s rather belated. The Trump team had to go to court to force this issue on the statute of limitations. But if the court ruled along those lines, it would be a huge advance for the Trump team,” Turley said. (RELATED: Turley Explains How Hunter Biden’s Legal Team Could End Up Opposing Joe Biden’s Agenda)
“I think that quite frankly yesterday was a success because the former president got what he wanted most, which was an appeal to the court of public opinion,” Turley added. “Every time he is shown being dragged to this court in this long procession, I think it’s going to inflame people in the country who view this as a political prosecution. It will also thrill many. That’s the problem, is that we’re watching the same scene and this country is seeing two vastly different things.”
“I think that he views this as a no-brainer, that everything about this case fulfills his narrative,” he continued. “You have an attorney general who ran on the pledge to bag him on anything. She didn’t even have a specific crime. She just promised that she would get him. You have a case where there’s no real victims in the sense of banks saying that they lost any money. You have an extraordinary prosecution in size and scope. All of that works for Trump, and he knows it.”
Trump appeared in a New York court on Tuesday for his second day in a row in the civil case brought against him by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James. James sued Trump in Sept. 2022, accusing him of committing fraud to secure more favorable terms for loans.