The real reason Donald Trump is forfeiting his civil cases

| 12:01 pm EDT October 6, 2023
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On Wednesday Donald Trump basically forfeited his New York civil fraud trial by packing up and leaving instead of sticking around to testify in his defense. Trump has already lost the trial one way or the other, but his testimony was supposed to be his opportunity to convince the judge to keep the financial penalties to a minimum. Instead he simply gave up.

Then on Thursday, Trump withdrew his civil suit against Michael Cohen, just before Trump was due to testify in the case. For the second day in a row, Trump forfeited a civil case in order to avoid taking the stand. It’s not surprising.

When someone’s life is being ripped to pieces by civil and criminal cases at the same time, it’s common for them to start forfeiting the civil cases. If Trump had testified in any of his civil cases, he’d have risked handing criminal prosecutors something to use against him. So the rationale is to not testify no matter how expensive it might get, because it’s better to go broke than go to prison.

The trouble for Donald Trump is that the various criminal prosecutors putting him on trial already have more than enough evidence to put him away. So Trump’s approach is going to land him in the poor house and the big house. It’s a dumb approach. But when you’re as thoroughly cornered as Trump is, there is no smart approach.