'Complete disrespect': Legal experts say Trump’s attacks on judges will tank his appeals

Several former prosecutors, law professors and various legal scholars are in agreement that former President Donald Trump isn't doing himself any favors in appeals pending in court by repeatedly attacking judges and prosecutors involved in his various legal cases.

Trump spent Thursday in a courtroom in Manhattan, where his attorneys dueled with New York Attorney General Letitia James in each side's closing arguments. Following five hours of courtroom proceedings, Trump used his Truth Social account to unleash on Judge Arthur Engoron — who is overseeing the trial — accusing him of "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" and a "WITCH HUNT." He also didn't spare James from his wrath, using a brief recess to launch a spontaneous tirade against the Empire State's chief law enforcement official. In his rambling speech, the 45th president of the United States accused James of being the reason for oil giant Exxon moving its New York headquarters to the Dallas, Texas area in 1989, when James was a public defender working for the Legal Aid Society.

"I think appellate courts don't like the institution of courts and justice and the rule of law impugned the way Trump does," Columbia University law professor John Coffee told The Messenger. "If you keep saying everything in New York is a travesty, even though it's been done under the supervision of the appellate division, I don't think you make them happy."

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Tristan Snell, who is a former assistant New York attorney general, said appeals court judges may very well consider all of Trump's missives against the legal profession to be "fair game."

"All of that is stuff that's definitely going to be considered as part of a pattern and practice of complete disrespect for the law in New York State," Snell said in The Messenger's article.

Because Trump's civil fraud trial is a bench trial, Judge Engoron will ultimately be the one to decide the verdict, which could be handed down as soon as next week. Because Engoron already ruled in a pre-trial decision in September that Trump committed "widespread fraud," he'll likely give James a verdict close to what she's asking for: $370 million in damages from "ill-gotten gains" made by falsely inflating the value of the Trump Organization's real estate assets, and a five-year ban on both Trump and his adult sons from serving as officers in any New York-based corporation. According to The Messenger, this means an appeal is a "virtual certainty.

However, if legal experts' opinions are correct, this means that when the First Department of the New York Appellate Division meets to consider Trump's appeal of Engoron's verdict later this year, their ruling is unlikely to go his way.

READ MORE: Watch: Trump blames Letitia James for Exxon leaving New York for Texas — in 1989