Washington:

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris launched a $50 million advertising blitz on Tuesday, capitalizing on the momentum of a fledgling campaign against Republican rival Donald Trump with a one-minute spot titled “Fearless.”

It was Harris’ first big ad buy since consolidating support for the Democratic nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed her.

In addition to garnering the backing of big-money donors, Harris has sparked newfound energy among groups such as young voters that Biden had been struggling to win over.

Public opinion polls in the last week have shown Harris, 59, closing the gap with 78-year-old Trump, who still leads in some national surveys.

The ads will be rolled out on television as well as streaming and social channels across election battleground states in the weeks before the Democratic National Convention that starts on Aug. 19.

The first ad in the campaign begins with images of Harris as a little girl and follows her progression to a prosecutor, attorney general and U.S. vice president. “The one thing Kamala Harris has always been: fearless,” the ad says.

Since stepping into her new role, Harris has focused on Trump’s felony convictions in a hush-money trial involving a porn star and the other criminal charges he faces, and portrayed him as responsible for a wave of anti-abortion measures in Republican-led states around the country.

The Harris campaign’s ad buy dwarfed the $10 million advertising buy announced by Trump’s campaign on Monday, to be launched in six battleground states this week as it tries to counter a surge of voter enthusiasm and donations for Harris.

That was Trump’s biggest ad buy since January.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on August 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination for vice president Wednesday (August 21, 2024) night, using his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to a U.S. election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re all here tonight for one beautiful, simple, reason: We love this country,” Mr. Walz said as thousands of delegates hoisted vertical placards reading “Coach Walz” in red, white and blue.

Mr. Walz described his upbringing in Nebraska and teaching and coaching football in Minneosta and told the crowd, “Thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.”

“While other States were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said. In a dig at his Republican counterpart, J.D. Vance, he added, “I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale.”

When Mr. Walz talked about the difficulty conceiving his daughter, Hope, she made a heart with her hands and held it over her chest. His son, Gus, wept watching his dad speak and at least once shouted, “That’s my dad!”

“I haven’t given a lot of speeches like this but I’ve given a lot of pep talks,” Mr. Walz said.

Democrats gathered at Chicago’s United Center are hoping to build on the momentum Ms. Harris has brought since taking over the top of the party’s presidential ticket last month.

Many Americans had never heard of Mr. Walz until Ms. Harris made him her running mate. In his first weeks of campaigning, he’s charmed supporters with his background and helped to balance Ms. Harris’ coastal background as a cultural representative of Midwestern States whose voters she needs this fall.

But Mr. Walz also has faced scrutiny, including questions about embellishing his background. His wife this week clarified that she did not undergo in vitro fertilization, as Mr. Walz has repeatedly claimed, but used other fertility treatments. Republicans also have criticised Walz for a 2018 comment he made about carrying weapons in war. Though he served in the National Guard for 24 years, he did not deploy to a war zone.

Bill Clinton denounces Donald Trump

Mr. Walz’s speech followed former President Bill Clinton who returned to a place he knows well, the Democratic National Convention stage, to denounce Donald Trump as selfish and praise Kamala Harris as focused on the needs of Americans — firing up his party with his trademark off-the-cuff flourishes.

Mr. Clinton was meant to add heft to a third DNC night headlined by vice presidential nominee Tim Walz ‘s introduction to a national audience.

“We’ve got a pretty clear choice it seems to me. Kamala Harris, for the people. And the other guy who has proved, even more than the first go-around, that he’s about me, myself and I,” Mr. Clinton said.

The nation’s 42nd president and a veteran of his party’s political convention going back decades, Mr. Clinton was once declared the “secretary of explaining stuff” by Barack Obama, whose reelection bid in 2012 was bolstered by a Mr. Clinton stemwinder at that year’s DNC.

Now 78 — the same age as Mr. Trump — Mr. Clinton’s delivery was sometimes halting, his movements slower and he mispronounced Ms. Harris’ first name twice. His left hand often shook when he wasn’t using it to grip the lectern.

Still, he delivered several memorable, homespun pronouncements including asking. “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the I’s.”

Trump slams DNC

Mr. Trump bashed the convention as a “charade” and noted the fact that he has been a frequent topic of conversation. He also singled out his predecessor, Mr. Obama, for a highly critical convention speech Tuesday night, saying Obama had been “nasty.”

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, on July 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Kamala Harris is smashing fundraising records as the U.S. Democratic Party’s donors — big and small — open their wallets for the vice president in the immediate aftermath of U.S. President Joe Biden’s stunning decision to step aside.

In total, Ms. Harris’ team raised more than $81 million in the 24-hour period since Mr. Biden’s announcement, campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said Monday.

The massive haul, which includes money raised across the campaign, the Democratic National Committee and joint fundraising committees, represents the largest 24-hour sum reported by either side in the 2024 campaign. Ms. Harris’ campaign said it was the largest single-day total in U.S. history.

ALSO READ: Editorial on Joe Biden bowing out of the presidential race

“The historic outpouring of support for Vice President Harris represents exactly the kind of grassroots energy and enthusiasm that wins elections,” Mr. Munoz said.

Hours earlier, Future Forward, the largest super PAC in Democratic politics, announced it had secured $150 million in commitments over the same period from donors who were “previously stalled, uncertain or uncommitted,” a senior adviser said.

Taken together, the fundraising explosion puts Ms. Harris in a dominant position to secure the Democratic Party’s formal presidential nomination at next month’s national convention — if not sooner. The donor class’s embrace comes as she locks up endorsements from the vast majority of Democratic governors and members of Congress.

The huge haul also ensures that Ms. Harris and her allies can compete with Donald Trump, who has generated stunning fundraising totals of his own in recent weeks as he fights to return to the White House.

“This is the next generation people have been waiting for,” Michael Kempner, a member of Biden’s national finance team, said of Ms. Harris’ emergence. “The donors I’ve spoken to are enthusiastic about supporting her. And even those that may have preferred an open convention have quickly coalesced around her overnight.”

Harris’ initial 24-hour fundraising total easily bested the $50 million Trump raised immediately after felony convictions and the $38 million Mr. Biden secured over the four days that followed last month’s disastrous debate performance. The Trump campaign has not said how much it raised immediately after last weekend’s assassination attempt; a spokesman didn’t respond to a request Monday.

File picture of U.S. President Joe Biden
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign on Sunday after fellow Democrats lost faith in his mental acuity and ability to beat Donald Trump, leaving the presidential race in uncharted territory. He also announced his endorsement of Vice-President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

ALSO READ: U.S. presidential elections LIVE updates: Joe Biden drops out of race

Mr. Biden, in a post on X, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Mr. Biden wrote.

By dropping his reelection bid, he clears the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to run at the top of the ticket, the first Black woman to do so in the country’s history.

Endorses Harris

Mr. Biden, 81, in a separate post on X, said that he would support and endorse Ms. Harris to be the Democratic party nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention.

“My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,” he wrote.

It was unclear whether other senior Democrats would challenge Ms. Harris for the party’s nomination, who was widely seen as the pick for many party officials — or whether the party itself would choose to open the field for nominations.

Pressure to step down

Mr. Biden’s announcement follows a wave of public and private pressure from Democratic lawmakers and party officials to quit the race after his shockingly poor performance in a televised debate against Republican rival Mr. Trump, who is 78.

Mr. Biden’s failure at times to complete clear sentences took the public spotlight away from Mr. Trump’s performance, in which he made a string of false statements, and trained it instead on questions surrounding Mr. Biden’s fitness for another 4-year term.

Days later he raised fresh concerns in an interview, shrugging off Democrats’ worries and a widening gap in opinion polls, and saying he would be fine losing to Mr. Trump if he knew he’d “gave it my all.”

His gaffes at a NATO summit — invoking Russian President Vladimir Putin’s name when he meant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and calling Harris “Vice President Trump” — further stoked anxieties.

Only four days before Sunday’s announcement, Mr. Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19 for a third time, forcing him to cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas. More than one in 10 congressional Democrats had called publicly for him to quit the race.

Mr. Biden’s historic move — the first sitting president to give up his party’s nomination for re-election since President Lyndon Johnson in March 1968 — leaves his replacement with less than four months to wage a campaign. 

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
| Photo Credit: AP

Donald Trump, holding his first campaign rally Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt, dismissed concerns that he is a threat to democracy, triumphantly telling a cheering crowd: “Last week I took a bullet for democracy.”

“I’m not an extremist at all,” he continued at the rally in swing state of Michigan, dismissing his reported links to Project 2025, a radical shadow manifesto led by figures close to him that has been characterised by opponents as an authoritarian, right-wing wish list.

ALSO READ: How the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump unfolded

And he mocked the rival Democratic Party, roiled by unprecedented pressure for President Joe Biden to abandon the White House race amid concerns over his age and fitness to serve, if reelected, until 2029.

“They have no idea who their candidate is… This guy goes and he gets the votes, and now they want to take it away. That’s democracy,” Mr. Trump told the 12,000-strong crowd of passionate supporters.

Even as he veered into his typical, rambling campaign speech, the rally represented a moment remarkable by any measure, with Mr. Trump back on stage exactly one week since a gunman tried to kill him.

The Republican presidential nominee appeared wearing a new, smaller, flesh-coloured bandage over his right ear, bloodied in the attack by a 20-year-old gunman at a rally in Pennsylvania that killed one bystander.

Security was reportedly tight inside the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, amid questions over Secret Service lapses at the Pennsylvania rally — though there were few visible signs of any greater law enforcement presence.

Meanwhile, Mr. Biden loyalists continued to defend the embattled president as the drumbeat of calls for him to abandon his campaign grows louder.

The 81-year-old and his team have remained publicly adamant that he is staying in the race, though some reports suggest discussions have begun in his inner circle about how exactly he might step aside.

Biden’s ‘big decision’

There has been massive speculation over who could replace him. As vice president, Ms. Harris appears best positioned to do so.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive who sought the party’s presidential nod in 2020, gave Ms. Harris a boost Saturday without turning her back on the president.

“Joe Biden is our nominee,” she said on MSNBC. “He has a really big decision to make.

“But what gives me a lot of hope right now is that if President Biden decides to step back, we have Vice President Kamala Harris, who is ready to step up, to unite the party, to take on Donald Trump, and to win in November.”

Some Democrats, however, fear that such a late switch could trigger chaos, dooming the party at the polls.

Team Trump, for its part, is effervescent after an exceptional streak of luck — from the failed assassination bid to favorable court rulings and Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month.

“I had God on my side,” he told the Republican National Convention Thursday, at which he demonstrated his absolute control over the party, firing supporters up to a rare pitch.

Saturday was Mr. Trump’s debut campaign appearance with running mate J.D. Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio who at age 39 could help win over critical swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Ahead of Mr. Trump’s speech, Mr. Vance warmed up the crowd, taking a swipe at Ms. Harris.

“I did serve in the United States Marine Corps and build a business. What the hell have you done, other than collect a check?” he said of the former U.S. senator and California attorney general.

Mr. Trump’s supporters had begun lining up in their dozens in Grand Rapids on Friday, nearly a full day before the rally began.

Edward Young, 64, preparing for his 81st Trump rally, was wearing a T-shirt showing the already iconic photo of Mr. Trump pumping his fist immediately after being shot.

“They have turned him into a martyr and left him alive,” he said. “Now he’s more powerful than ever.”

President Joe Biden walks on stage to speak during the NAACP national convention Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Las Vegas.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. President Joe Biden is preparing to propose a major Supreme Court overhaul in the coming week that would include term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday citing two sources familiar with the plans.

Mr. Biden is also weighing whether to call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate broad presidential immunity, the Post reported, adding that Mr. Biden discussed at the move in a video conference with the Congressional Progressive Caucus on Saturday.

ALSO READ | Gun control, the Second Amendment and the judges of the U.S. Supreme Court | Explained 

Mr. Biden has previously shunned calls to overhaul the top court with term limits or by expanding the number of seats on the bench. Some Democrats have made calls for the changes following former President Donald Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices.

In October, a bipartisan group of legal experts expressed their support for 18-year term limits for Supreme Court justices as a way to deter partisanship and improve the judiciary’s reputation.

File picture of Dr. Sampat S. Shivangi
| Photo Credit: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Eminent Indian-American physician Dr. Sampat Shivangi has been elected as an official delegate to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this month that would formally nominate former U.S. president Donald Trump as the party’s presidential candidate.

Mr. Trump, 78, is the presumptive Republican Party candidate for the presidential election.

An influential Indian-American community leader, Dr. Shivangi, has been elected as a National Delegate at the convention for the sixth time.

“It is a great pleasure and honour to share the news that I have been nominated and elected as (an) official delegate at the upcoming Republican National Convention to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from July 13 to July 19, 2024,” Dr. Shivangi said.

The four-day Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, would formally nominate Mr. Trump as the party’s candidate for the November 5 presidential election.

The nomination process would be completed by Republican delegates from across the country.

Dr. Shivangi, a lifelong member of the Republican Party and a founding member of the Republican Indian Council and the Republican Indian National Council, has been nominated as RNC delegate six consecutive times.

“This will be my sixth time serving as a National Delegate at the Republican National Convention to nominate the Republican Party nominee to contest the national presidential election,” he said.

“My nomination began as early as when President George W. Bush was nominated in New York, then-Senator George McCain, Governor Mitt Romney, (and) President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Now again to re-elect President Donald Trump in 2024 in Milwaukee,” he said.

He is the national president of the Indian American Forum for Political Education, one of the oldest Indian American Associations.

Over the past three decades, he has lobbied for several bills in the U.S. Congress on behalf of India through his enormous contacts with U.S. Senators and Congressmen.

“I feel this is a unique honour and an opportunity for an Indian American to represent the community at the national level,” he said.

Dr. Shivangi said he would be part of the luncheon hosted by Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi in honour of the delegates at Northern Lights in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16, for the Mississippi delegates.

A Police Department vehicle blocks a road after a fatal shooting on June 16, 2024, in Round Rock, Texas, U.S.A. Multiple people were shot at the park during a Juneteenth celebration.
| Photo Credit: AP

A weekend shooting in a Texas park in the U.S. left two people dead and six wounded, including two children, authorities said.

The victims were shot shortly before 11 pm Saturday during a Juneteenth celebration at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) north of Austin.

An altercation began between two groups during a concert at the event and someone started shooting, Round Rock Police Chief Allen Banks said during a news conference at the scene.

The two victims who were pronounced dead at the scene were not involved in the argument, Mr. Banks said. The shooting occurred near a vendor area away from the stage set up for the concert, he added.

Police officers and fire department personnel present at the event immediately began providing emergency medical care to the wounded, who were then taken to hospitals, said Mr. Banks.

Six people — four adults and two children — were taken to local trauma facilities, all with potentially serious injuries, according to a post on X by Austin-Travis County EMS.

Police said Sunday they did not have a suspect in custody and investigators did not know how many shooters were involved.

“It breaks your heart for a family that was coming out to enjoy their evening and now their life is forever changed as a result of somebody who could care less about somebody else’s life,” Mr. Allen said.

Representational image of the seal of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System
| Photo Credit: AP

United States Federal Reserve officials will likely make official what’s been clear for many weeks: With inflation sticking at a level above their 2% target, they are downgrading their outlook for interest rate cuts.

In a set of quarterly economic forecasts they will issue after their latest meeting ends, the policymakers are expected to project that they will cut their benchmark rate just once or twice by year’s end, rather than the three times they had envisioned in March.

The Fed’s rate policies typically have a significant impact on the costs of mortgages, auto loans, credit card rates and other forms of consumer and business borrowing. The downgrade in their outlook for rate cuts would mean that such borrowing costs would likely stay higher for longer, a disappointment for potential homebuyers and others.

ALSO READ | Recalcitrant jumbo: Editorial on inflation

Still, the Fed’s quarterly projections of future interest rate cuts are by no means fixed in time. The policymakers frequently revise their plans for rate cuts — or hikes — depending on how economic growth and inflation measures evolve over time.

But if borrowing costs remain high in the coming months, they could also have consequences for the presidential race. Though the unemployment rate is a low 4%, hiring is robust and consumers continue to spend, voters have taken a generally sour view of the economy under President Joe Biden. In large part, that’s because prices remain much higher than they were before the pandemic struck. High borrowing rates impose a further financial burden.

The Fed’s updated economic forecasts, which it will issue Wednesday afternoon, will likely be influenced by the government’s May inflation data being released in the morning. The inflation report is expected to show that consumer prices excluding volatile food and energy costs — so-called core inflation — rose 0.3% from April to May. That would be the same as in the previous month and higher than Fed officials would prefer to see.

ALSO READ | Rationale behind raising interest rates

Overall inflation, held down by falling gas prices, is thought to have edged up just 0.1%. Measured from a year earlier, consumer prices are projected to have risen 3.4% in May, the same as in April.

Inflation had fallen steadily in the second half of last year, raising hopes that the Fed could achieve a “soft landing,” whereby it would manage to conquer inflation through rate hikes without causing a recession. Such an outcome is difficult and rare.

But inflation came in unexpectedly high in the first three months of this year, delaying hoped-for Fed rate cuts and potentially imperiling a soft landing.

In early May, Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank needed more confidence that inflation was returning to its target before it would reduce its benchmark rate. Powell noted that it would likely take more time to gain that confidence than Fed officials had previously thought.

Last month, Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, said he needed to see “several more months of good inflation data” before he would consider supporting rate cuts. Though Mr. Waller didn’t spell out what would constitute good data, economists think it would have to be core inflation of 0.2% or less each month.

Mr. Powell and other Fed policymakers have also said that as long as the economy stays healthy, they see no need to cut rates soon.

“Fed officials have clearly signaled that they are in a wait-and-see mode with respect to the timing and magnitude of rate cuts,” Matthew Luzzetti, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank, said in a note to clients.

The Fed’s approach to its rate policies relies heavily on the latest turn in economic data. In the past, the central bank would have put more weight on where it envisioned inflation and economic growth in the coming months.

Yet now, “they don’t have any confidence in their ability to forecast inflation,” said Nathan Sheets, chief global economist at Citi and a former top economist at the Fed.

“No one,” Mr. Sheets said, “has been successful at forecasting inflation” for the past three to four years.

In a courtroom showdown five years in the making, Donald Trump’s fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen testified Tuesday that he worked to boost the supposed value of the former U.S. president’s assets to “whatever number Trump told us to.”

Mr. Trump’s lawyers — and outside court, Mr. Trump himself — by turn sought to portray Mr. Cohen as a serial deceiver who pleaded guilty to crimes that include tax evasion and telling falsehoods to Congress and a bank. During a fractious cross-examination, Mr. Cohen, a disbarred attorney, even floated his own lawyerly objections, responding to some queries with “asked and answered!”

It was a fraught face-to-face encounter between Mr. Trump and a man who once pledged to “take a bullet” for him. Mr. Cohen eventually ended up in prison and became a prominent witness against his former boss in venues from courthouses to Congress.

Now, Mr. Cohen is a key figure in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit alleging that Mr. Trump and his company duped banks, insurers and others by giving them financial statements that inflated his wealth.

“I was tasked by Mr. Trump to increase the total assets, based upon a number that he arbitrarily elected,” Mr. Cohen testified, saying that he and former Mr. Trump finance chief Allen Weisselberg labored “to reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve a number that Mr. Trump had tasked us.”

Asked what that number was, Mr. Cohen replied: “Whatever number Trump told us to.”

Mr. Trump denies Ms. James’ allegations. Outside court, Mr. Trump dismissed Mr. Cohen’s account as the words of “a proven liar.”

“The witness is totally discredited,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s a disgraced felon, and that’s the way it’s coming out.”

The former president and Republican 2024 front-runner voluntarily came to court for a sixth day this month. Mr. Cohen has said he hadn’t seen Mr. Trump for five years until now.

“Heck of a reunion,” Mr. Cohen said outside court. He insisted that “this is not about Donald Trump vs. Michael Cohen or Michael Cohen vs. Donald Trump. This is about accountability, plain and simple.”

Mr. Cohen testified that Mr. Trump would summon him and Weisselberg and say, for example: “I’m actually not worth four and a half billion dollars. I’m really worth more like six.”

Mr. Cohen said he and the finance chief would then inflate the value of Mr. Trump properties by pegging them to “comparable” real estate that was actually different — brand-new developments with higher ceilings, more sweeping views and no rent regulation, for instance.

Insurance company executives were shown the exaggerated statements, where the combination of extremely high values and low liabilities could net Trump more favorable premiums, Mr. Cohen testified. Plus, he said, Mr. Trump would deliberately show up about three-quarters of the way through his deputies’ meetings with insurers and spark a conversation to the effect that he was rich enough to self-insure if he couldn’t get a good premium.

As Mr. Cohen testified, Mr. Trump at times whispered to his lawyers or shook his head. At other points, the former president hunched forward in his seat, watching intently, or leaned back with crossed arms. He took a keen interest in Mr. Cohen’s cross-examination, gesturing to his attorneys and craning his neck to get a better view.

Mr. Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba hammered at Mr. Cohen’s 2018 federal guilty pleas and his effort now to distance himself from some of them. Although he pleaded guilty to tax evasion and to making false statements to a bank on a loan application, he said Tuesday he’d lied when he made those admissions. He suggested he’d only engaged in “tax omission” and failed to correct inaccuracies on the loan paperwork.

“You’re not going to lie to me, as well?” Ms. Habba asked pointedly. And when Mr. Cohen objected to certain questions and rattled off cases he said allowed him to do so, Ms. Habba snapped back that he was mistaken.

“If you still had your law license, you’d understand that,” she said. Another Trump lawyer, Christopher Kise, complained that Mr. Cohen was a “serial liar” who was “out of control” and seeking to “play judge.”

The actual judge, Arthur Engoron, told Mr. Cohen to answer most of the questions.

Mr. Engoron already has ruled that Mr. Trump and his company committed fraud. The trial involves remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Mr. Trump says his assets were actually undervalued, and he maintains that disclaimers on his financial statements essentially told recipients to check the numbers out for themselves.

He has derided the case as a “sham,” a “scam” and part of an effort by Ms. James and other Democrats to drag down his campaign.

Mr. Cohen spent a decade as Mr. Trump’s fiercely loyal personal lawyer before famously breaking with him in 2018 amid a federal investigation that sent Mr. Cohen to federal prison. He is also a major prosecution witness in Mr. Trump’s separate Manhattan hush-money criminal case, scheduled for trial next spring.

Ms. James has credited Mr. Cohen as the impetus for her civil investigation, which led to the fraud lawsuit and trial. She cited Mr. Cohen’s testimony to Congress in 2019 that Mr. Trump had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.

Earlier this month, Mr. Trump dropped a $500 million lawsuit that accused Mr. Cohen of “spreading falsehoods” and breaking a confidentiality agreement. A Mr. Trump spokesperson said the former president was only pausing the lawsuit, while campaigning and fighting four criminal cases.

In one of those criminal cases, co-defendant Jenna Ellis, an attorney, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a felony charge over efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. She’s the fourth defendant to take a plea deal in the case.

Mr. Trump’s attorneys sought to delay the New York trial Tuesday, arguing that coronavirus cases among Ms. James’ staff put the former president’s health at risk. The attorney general’s office, in a statement, said it had taken all steps to notify the relevant parties and had followed health guidance.

Mr. Trump later complained outside court that “what they did with COVID in the courtroom was a disgrace,” but he and the attorneys beside him didn’t don masks.