Donald Trump's lawyer has told a judge at a court in New York that the former president's civil fraud trial should not exist. Mr. Trump is in court today for the closing arguments, or he was. He's not obliged to be there. Of course, he could be campaigning in Iowa, but he was barred from speaking during the closing argument, which he had intended to do because he'd failed to agree with the judge. The limits on what he could say. Donald Trump and two of his sons are of wildly inflating the value of their properties to secure better loans. Speaking outside court this afternoon, President Trump said a ruling against him would drive other companies from New York.

She's a political hack, the attorney general. The judge is obviously extremely friendly with the group, and we'll see what happens. I think maybe he may surprise people on a positive side. We'll have to see what happens, exactly. But we've proven this case so conclusively. We've asked for directed verdict many times. They don't have any facts, they don't have any evidence against us. Millions and millions of pages, years of litigation, and all politically motivated. She campaigned on. I will get Trump. If you've ever seen any of her clips, they're horrible clips, actually. The anger she's got, serious Trump derangement syndrome. There's no question about Letitia James, the corrupt attorney general of New York.

Let's go live to our correspondent in New York, Ned Ed Torfik. In fact, he did actually speak in court this afternoon. He was allowed to say something despite what the judge had said, and it got quite agitated at one point.

Well, yeah, look, Christian, Donald Trump has tested this judge's patience before, and his lawyer had asked the judge to let Donald Trump speak a last minute appeal again. And as the judge was asking him if he would abide by the restrictions, Trump just themerolled by him and went on this rant. And as you say, it got quite heated as he sat there and insisted he was innocent, insisted that this would never have happened if he wasn't running for office. And the judge at one point had to tell his lawyer to get his client under control. Another interesting kind of exchange in that rant, Christian, was when the judge asked him, by the way you're speaking, it's as if you've never been sued before by saying that he had never been through anything like this in the past. So it was quite an acrimonious kind of final moment there in the defense's closing statements.

Just a quick point. We should make it clear to viewers that a decision in this civil case has already been made. What is at stake here is the level of the fine, correct?

That's right. I mean, the judge is looking at six other counts, looking at intent in terms of conspiracy, falsifying business records. But the real thrust of this case was already decided, as you said, ruling that the Trump Organization committed fraud. What we saw actually, though, after ten weeks of testimony, was the attorney general raising the stakes. Originally, she asked for $250,000,000 in a fine. She now wants $370,000,000 in fines. So we'll see what the judge has to say about that. She's also trying to ban Trump permanently from ever doing business in New York again. But what's been really interesting, Christian, and even today we saw it, is that even though Donald Trump faces some real kind of threats to his business, he's been far more focused, I would say, on his political fortunes. Now, whether that's because he feels he's already lost this case or not, he has been fundraising off these appearances. And so that's why we have seen him take advantage of every appearance in front of camera, us to hammer home and rally his base.

Editor in New York, thank you very much. And in the next hour, we'll focus on another court case in California where the president's son, Hunter, is due to appearance.