The lawyers in Donald Trump’s New York business fraud trial, after a dramatic first day of opening statements, will proceed on Tuesday to the more plodding work of combing over years of his financial documents in what is likely to be a fight that will last weeks.
A CPA who has prepared Trump’s tax returns and other financial documents for years is slated to testify for a second day.
Trump, who spent all of Monday sitting in the audience of the civil trial and venting his anger, has now announced his return to the defense team.
On Tuesday morning, I’ll see you in court. Trump shared an update on Truth Social.
The trial is the culmination of a lawsuit filed by New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused the former Republican president of misrepresenting the worth of his assets to banks, insurers, and others over the course of several years.
An early victory for James was handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron last week when he ruled that Trump had committed fraud by inflating the value of his properties, including the penthouse at Trump Tower and his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, by as much as USD 739 million.
Six of the lawsuit’s remaining allegations and the potential fines Trump may due will be heard during the non-jury trial. James is requesting $250,000,000 in damages and an injunction against Trump from New York state. The judge has already decided to dissolve some of Trump’s LLCs as a kind of punishment.
On the opening day of the trial, Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace told the judge that Trump and his company had repeatedly inflated its financial records to make Trump appear wealthier than he actually was.
Trump’s legal team argued that his claims about the value of his exclusive, high-end real estate holdings were accurate.
That’s not a case of fraudulent activity. Alina Habba, an attorney, referred to that as “real property.”
On Monday, Trump spent hours in court watching opening statements after skipping a previous trial in which his company and one of his top executives were convicted of tax fraud. He emerged several times to tell reporters that the trial was a “sham” designed to hurt his 2024 election prospects.
Trump told reporters as he left court on Monday, “I’d love to be campaigning instead of doing this.”
Trump spent most of the day venting his anger on Twitter, calling Engoron a “rogue judge” and calling James “a disgrace to our country.”
This judge has to be removed from office immediately. This judge needs to be removed from their position. Some have even suggested criminal charges be brought against this judge. Trump has called Putin’s interference in the election a “disgrace.”
But Trump claimed triumph as he left court, citing Engoron’s remarks as evidence that the judge agreed with the defense that the statute of limitations bars most of the claims.
After hearing the testimony of retired Mazars LLP partner Donald Bender, who spoke at length regarding Trump’s 2011 financial statement, Engoron wondered if it had been a waste of his time. By that point, the statute of limitations on any potential fraud in the document would have passed.
Trump interpreted the judge’s comments as a great development, and he posted on Truth Social that it had been a good day in court after all. Wallace had promised to tie it in with a more recent loan deal.
On Tuesday, Bender was scheduled to continue testifying. It is anticipated that the trial would continue through December.
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