Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Drake Enterprises, an automotive parts manufacturer, on September 27, 2023 in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Scott Olson | Getty Images
Donald Trump on Friday blasted his upcoming New York civil fraud trial and his four pending criminal cases as he asked supporters to donate to his 2024 presidential campaign ahead of a key finance deadline.
“After four sham arrests, indictments, and even a mugshot failed to break me, a Democrat judge is now trying to destroy my Family Business,” Trump said in an email for his joint fundraising committee.
“Democrats are seeking to bring down the world-famous ‘Trump Tower’ and impose what some are calling ‘the corporate death penalty’ upon me,” the email said. “The trial could begin as early as Monday.”
In other recent fundraising pitches, the former Republican president’s campaign has noted that it seeks to make a show of strength in the face of his mounting legal strife by raising millions of dollars before the Federal Election Commission’s third-quarter deadline Saturday.
The campaign raised $35 million in the second quarter of 2023.
Trump’s latest donor appeal came days after a judge found Trump, two of his sons, and the Trump Organization liable for fraud for overstating the values of multiple real estate properties, including his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Judge Arthur Engoron in the same order canceled the New York state business licenses of multiple Trump corporate entities and said he would appoint a receiver to manage their dissolution. Trump plans to appeal the ruling.
Trump and the other defendants are due to stand trial starting Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court on the remaining claims in a lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The attorney general is seeking $250 million in damages and an order barring Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump from running a business in the state.
Trump is facing criminal indictments in New York and Georgia state courts, and in federal courts in Washington, D.C. and Florida. He has pleaded not guilty in those cases.
In two of those cases, in Georgia and D.C., Trump is charged with felonies related to his attempt to reverse his 2020 re-election loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.
