A defiant Donald Trump sparred with a New York judge and slammed the state attorney general suing him Monday, using the witness stand at his civil fraud trial to defend his riches and lash out at a case that imperils his real estate empire. The former president\u2019s barbed testimony spurred the judge to admonish, \u201cThis is not a political rally.\u201d Trump\u2019s long-awaited testimony about property valuations and financial statements was punctuated by personal jabs at state Judge Arthur Engoron, who he said was biased against him, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he derided as a \u201cpolitical hack.\u201d He proudly boasted of his real estate business \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m worth billions of dollars more than the financial statements\u201d \u2013 and disputed claims that he had deceived banks and insurers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the opposite of fraud,\u201d he declared. Referring to James, a Democrat whose office brought the lawsuit, he said, \u201cThe fraud is her.\u201d The testy exchanges and frequent rebukes from the judge underscored Trump\u2019s unwillingness to adapt his famously freewheeling rhetorical style to a formal courtroom setting governed by rules of evidence and legal protocol. His presence on the stand was a vivid reminder of the legal troubles he faces as he vies to reclaim the White House in 2024. It also functioned as a campaign platform for the former president and leading Republican presidential candidate to raise anew to supporters his claims of political persecution at the hands of government lawyers and judges.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are sick and tired of what\u2019s happening. I think it is a very sad day for America,\u201d Trump told reporters outside the courtroom after roughly three-and-a-half hours on the stand. The fraud case doesn\u2019t carry the prospect of prison as Trump\u2019s upcoming criminal cases do. But its allegations of financial impropriety cut to the very heart of the brand he spent decades crafting. Engoron has already ruled that Trump committed fraud by inflating his financial statements, putting the the ex-president\u2019s future control of Trump Tower and his other marquee properties into question.<\/p>\n
The non-jury trial addresses other claims in the lawsuit brought by James against Trump, his company and top executives, including his eldest sons. She wants the defendants to fork over what she claims is more than USD 300 million in ill-gotten gains and to be banned from doing business in New York. The civil trial is one of numerous legal proceedings facing Trump as he runs for a second term, including federal and state charges accusing him of crimes including illegally hoarding classified documents and scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential election. His legal and political strategies have now become completely intertwined as he hopscotches between campaign events and court hearings, a schedule that will only intensify once his criminal trials begin.<\/p>\n
Trump has been particularly engaged in his fraud trial, aggrieved by the suggestion that he\u2019s worth less than he\u2019s claimed. \u201cI\u2019m worth billions of dollars more than the financial statements,\u201d he said Monday on the stand, telling a state lawyer, \u201cYou go around and try and demean me and try and hurt me, probably for political reasons.\u201d His testimony got off to a contentious start, with the judge turning to Trump\u2019s attorney at one point and saying: \u201cI beseech you to control him if you can. If you can\u2019t, I will.\u201d The courtroom at 60 Centre Street had already become a familiar destination for Trump, who spent days over the past month voluntarily seated at the defence table, observing the proceedings. He took the stand once before \u2013 unexpectedly and briefly \u2013 after he was accused of violating a partial gag order. He denied violating the rules, but Engoron disagreed and fined him anyway.<\/p>\n
His turn as a witness gave him the biggest opportunity yet to respond to allegations against him. Summoned by lawyers for the state, Trump repeatedly bristled at the suggestion that he had ever intended to defraud financial institutions. He said he had been misquoted or taken too literally in past public comments about his business dealings and his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, and said disclaimers in his financial statements covered any missteps. He returned to a familiar position that no one had been victimised, though state lawyers contend that Trump was able to get lower interest rates and other benefits because of the wealth reflected on his financial statements.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot one bank lost money. Not one insurance company lost money,\u201d he declared. Tensions between Engoron and Trump \u2013 already on display in recent weeks, when the judge fined him a total of USD 15,000 for incendiary outside-of-court comments \u2013 were evident early on Monday when the ex-president was repeatedly scolded about the length and content of his answers. Engoron, who determined in a ruling earlier that Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame, will decide the non-jury case. He cautioned at one point that he was prepared to draw \u201cnegative inferences\u201d against the former president if he failed to rein in his answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do not want to hear everything this witness has to say. He has a lot to say that has nothing to do with the case or the questions,\u201d the judge said. Despite the testy back-and-forth early in the day, Trump was later able to veer into expansive answers without anyone cutting him off, using the opportunity to rail against James, the judge and the proceedings in general. \u201cI think that she\u2019s a political hack, and I think she used this case to try and become governor, and she used it successfully to become attorney general. I think it\u2019s a disgrace that this case is going on,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Of Engoron, Trump said, \u201cHe ruled against me, and he said I was a fraud before he knew anything about me.\u201d James, who was in the courtroom, stared straight ahead at Trump as he spoke and was seen chuckling when Trump suggested she didn\u2019t know anything about one of his properties, which is located across the street from her office. Afterward, she told reporters: \u201cHe rambled. He hurled insults. But we expected that.\u201d Monday\u2019s testimony centered on the core of the allegations by the state attorney general: that Trump and his company intentionally inflated property values and deceived banks and insurers in the pursuit of business deals and loans.<\/p>\n
Echoing the stance taken by two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric, in their own testimony last week, Trump sought to downplay his direct involvement in preparing and assessing financial statements that the attorney general claims were grossly inflated and fraudulent. \u201cAll I did was authorise and tell people to give whatever is necessary for the accountants to do the statements,\u201d he said. As for the results, \u201cI would look at them, I would see them and maybe on some occasions, I would have some suggestions.\u201d He also played down the significance of the statements, which went to banks and others to secure financing and deals.<\/p>\n
\u201cBanks didn\u2019t find them very relevant, and they had a disclaimer clause \u2014 you would call it a worthless statement clause,\u201d he said, insisting that after decades in real estate, \u201cI probably know banks as well as anybody. . I know what they look at. They look at the deal, they look at the location.\u201d He complained that his 2014 financial statements shouldn\u2019t be a subject of the lawsuit at all. \u201cFirst of all it\u2019s so long ago, it\u2019s well beyond the statute of limitations,\u201d Trump said before turning on Engoron, saying he allowed state lawyers to pursue claims involving such years-old documents \u201cbecause he always rules against me.\u201d Engoron said, \u201cYou can attack me in whichever way you want, but please answer the questions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A defiant Donald Trump sparred with a New York judge and slammed the state attorney general suing him Monday, using\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2892,1508,1796,168,2894,218,359,2836,2837,795,2893,217,295],"class_list":["post-10083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-banks","tag-civil-trial","tag-contempt-of-court","tag-donald-trump","tag-financial-statements","tag-fraud","tag-inflation","tag-judge-arthur-engoron","tag-net-worth","tag-new-york","tag-property-valuations","tag-real-estate","tag-us-2024-elections"],"reading_time":"7 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}