Trump's 'fanciful' fraud trial stall tactics never had a chance: former prosecutor

Trump's incendiary stall tactics in the civil fraud trial in New York are not going to work — and in fact, they are going to make the whole affair end up worse for him.

That's the view of former prosecutor Harry Litman, who explained the situation on Friday's edition of MSNBC's "Deadline: White House."

"Judge Engoron ... denied the Trump team motion for a mistrial today, addressed some of the claims in his order," said anchor Alicia Menendez. "Talk us through. What stuck out to you, Harry?"

"Well, look, these are both about the same law clerk," said Litman. "And I do think the idea that somehow there's a mistrial here is fanciful and he gave it short shrift."

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"The gag order has now gone up to the appellate court in New York, and they have imposed a stay, very similar as you pointed out last session to what is happening in D.C. Both of these stays, it is important to note, are not the variety that courts impose when they think they're going to reverse," Litman continued. "They're just administrative, and this is what's called an interim stay in New York. And I gotta wonder, I mean, look at what he did in D.C., to [special counsel Jack] Smith, his family, et cetera, what you just said he did in New York. Will these courts dissolve their administrative stays because of the danger as they exist?"

"What's happened here is they impose a stay, just to let everybody make the decision as they do sometimes at the Supreme Court," added Litman. "And that's fine, that's the status quo. But from here to November 27th, there can be a lot of damage. Not just by Trump, but as you say, lone wolves like [convicted Paul Pelosi attacker] David DePape. I have to imagine each judge here is concerned about the whole impact around the country of his completely improper and incendiary behavior."

Watch the video below or at the link.

Harry Litman on Trump's stall tactics in civil fraud trial www.youtube.com