Former President Donald Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, to speak to auto workers, Sept. 27, 2023.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters
The New York civil fraud trial of former President Donald Trump and his company is back on track to begin Monday after an appeals panel lifted a temporary stay at the commencement of the trial.
Thursday’s order came hours after New York Attorney General Letitia James said she plans to call Trump and three of his adult children as witnesses at the trial of his lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The five-judge appeals panel rejected Trump’s request to block the start of the trial as it considered his argument to dismiss some of the claims in James’ lawsuit because they fell within the statute of limitations.
Trump, the Trump Organization, his two grown children, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and other defendants are accused in the lawsuit of misrepresenting the values of multiple real estate properties, and other claims.
On Tuesday, trial court judge Arthur Engoron found the defendants liable for fraudulently inflating properties and other properties.
Engoron in that decision also stripped the defendants of their business certificates and ordered the appointment of an independent receiver to oversee the dissolution of those businesses.
The trial will address the six remaining claims in James’ suit, which seeks about $250 million in damages, and a ban on the defendants from doing business in New York state.
Earlier this month, an appellate judge halted the trial to give a five-judge panel time to decide whether to impose a longer delay as it weighed Trump’s argument to dismiss some claims.
That argument was based on a separate appeals court decision in June, which removed Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, as a defendant in the case.
The appeals court in the earlier ruling said the claims involving Ivanka exceeded the six-year statute of limitations.
But the same decision left it to Engoron to decide “the entire range of defendants” who would be affected by the statute of limitations.
Trump’s latest appeal challenged Engoron to proceed with the trial without first making a determination.
The five-judge panel, in its decision Thursday to reject Trump’s appeal, did not explain its reasons for doing so.