Donald Trump and his lawyers are attempting to finish a trial in lower Manhattan that may bring down the former president’s family company and his enormous real estate empire after six weeks and more than a dozen witnesses.
After questioning Mr. Trump and his three eldest children for over 20 hours regarding years of business dealings that allegedly defrauded banks, insurers, and others with grossly inflated values of his net worth and assets, attorneys representing New York Attorney General Letitia James closed their case this week.
At the midpoint of the trial at the New York Supreme Court, Mr. Trump’s lawyers now had the case in their hands and urged the court to rule in their favor on Thursday.
The defendants were previously found guilty of fraud by Judge Arthur Engoron in a devastating pretrial ruling. Judge Engoron said he would consider the parties’ arguments “under advisement” and make a decision later. However, he has already stated that he wants to hear the case according to the timetable he set, which includes the weekend before Christmas.
On his Truth Social on Friday, Mr. Trump, who has been critical of the case, the AG, and the court on several occasions, said that he “totally won.” His lawyers are getting ready to present their own lengthy list of witnesses, beginning on Monday with Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son.
After spending over two days on the witness stand, the eldest Trump son was questioned about his knowledge of his father’s financial status statements, which are the purportedly falsified documents at the center of the case.
In her 2022 lawsuit, Ms. James claims that in order to fulfill the financing requirements for brand-building buildings in the Trump Organization’s portfolio, Mr. Trump, his adult sons, and their top aides falsified those financial documents to inflate his net worth.
Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. all asserted that they had no involvement with them. The former president completely minimized their function and referred to them as “worthless” in his irate and rambling testimony, although he did acknowledge that he occasionally would “look at them” and even make “suggestions.”
Former Trump lawyer and Trump Organization executive Michael Cohen stated in court that he was “tasked” with figuring out “whatever number Mr. Trump told us to.”
Cohen addressed the crux of the matter shortly after he began testifying last month: he was told by his previous employer to base those records on an “arbitrarily elected” assessment of his wealth and holdings. Under pressure from Mr. Trump’s lawyers, he said that while Mr. Trump “speaks like a mob boss,” Mr. Trump never specifically instructed him to do so.
Ivanka Trump was given emails from accountants working for the Trump Organization during her testimony, in which they seemed to mention that fulfilling the lenders’ standards for her net worth may be a “problem.”
Ms. James informed reporters at the foot of the courthouse steps that Ms. Trump’s departure from the courtroom reduced the case to “fraudulent statements about the financial condition that she benefited from.”
“The facts pretty much show the truth, even though she was a really lovely, friendly person,” she said.
The lawsuit cuts to the core of the story that developed Mr. Trump’s political identity and enhanced his public persona.
A civil trial exposes the family, business, and finances of the potential Republican Party nominee for 2024, ahead of his four upcoming criminal trials on charges of business fraud, withholding classified documents, and conspiring to rig the 2020 presidential election.
Judge Engoron’s pretrial ruling in the fraud action marked a significant win for Ms. James and the state investigators, directing the trial to decide whether Mr. Trump is legally required to reimburse damages rather than rehashing the case’s merits.
Ms. James is requesting a decision against the Trumps that would take possession of their properties away from them, prevent them from signing any new commercial leases in the state, and prevent them from submitting loan applications to any New York bank for a period of five years.
Additionally, the Trump family would never again be allowed to operate any type of company in the state. In addition, Ms. James seeks the $250 million in earnings that she claims they stole.
In an effort to weaken the evidence against him, Mr. Trump and his Republican supporters have threatened Judge Engoron and Ms. James politically as the former president’s attorneys present their case to the judge inside the courtroom.
A few days before the case’s resumption, Republican US Representative Elise Stefanik filed an ethics complaint against the judge. Mr. Trump, who, should he win the presidency, has contemplated using federal law enforcement to target his political adversaries, has insisted that Ms. James face charges.
Following Mr. Trump’s initial criminal arrest in March, House Republicans started looking into the charges’ Manhattan prosecutor, Alvin Bragg. Republican US Representative Jim Jordan has also made an effort to look into the case of Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis, who accused Mr. Trump of interfering with elections.
