new york
CNN
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Donald Trump brought campaign records into court Thursday during closing arguments in his $370 million civil fraud trial in New York, gave campaign speeches both in and out of court, and the attorney general who filed the lawsuit with him. attacked the attack against.
President Trump’s decision to enter a monologue at the end of his lawyers’ closing arguments reflects the fact that the civil fraud trial is a serious threat to President Trump’s business and brand, and New York Attorney General Letitia James President Trump is trying to ban him from doing business in the United States. She also talked about the situation in the state and how Trump is trying to take advantage of the situation in his bid for president.
Judge Arthur Engoron has already found Trump liable for fraud in the civil suit and is expected to issue a full judgment by the end of the month.
Here are the highlights from the final day of the trial:
The former president delivered the same speech in virtually multiple locations Thursday. It was held for cameras outside the courtroom, for Mr. Engoron inside the courtroom, and in the afternoon for reporters at his home at 40 Wall Street.
Notably, the most important time he gave his speech was inside the courtroom, where there were no cameras.
“This was a political witch hunt,” Trump told Engoron in an unscheduled moment in court. “What happened here is a fraud against me.”
Just before the lunch break around 12:55 p.m., Trump lawyer Chris Kiss reminded Engoron to give Trump a “couple of minutes” to make his case directly to the judge. requested.
Mr. Engoron addressed Mr. Trump and asked him if he would promise to comment only on the facts of the case.
President Trump responded, “I think this incident simply deviates from the facts,” and began a five-minute speech from the defense bench. “There are situations where I’m innocent. I’m being persecuted by someone who’s running for public office, so I think I should push the envelope.”
Engoron sat for a few minutes and let Trump continue, then interrupted, saying he didn’t have enough time.
“Wait a minute, that’s all I’m saying,” the judge said.
Trump responded, “You have your own agenda, I understand that.”
“Mr. Kise, please control the client,” Engoron replied.
Trump continued briefly. “Sir, look, I’ve done nothing wrong,” he said. “They should make me pay for what we had to go through. What they did to me in honor and everything else.”
Mr. Trump’s closing argument speech mimicked his testimony when the attorney general called him as a witness, and Mr. Engoron tried to have Mr. Trump answer questions directly and avoid making political speeches. In the end I gave up.
AG claims Trump ‘acted with intent’ to defraud
In its final presentation, the attorney general’s office argued that Trump “acted with intent” to fraudulently inflate the value of his assets in financial statements.
Andrew Ammar, a lawyer with the attorney general’s office, said Trump was responsible for Trump.org’s actions, saying “he was responsible.” Executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney came on board to inflate his wealth.
“Mr. Trump was certainly in a position to review and approve the statement,” Amell said. “The court must infer that he acted with fraudulent intent based on his extensive knowledge of these assets.”
The attorney general’s office is seeking $370 million in claims against President Trump, alleging that his fraudulent financial statements allowed him to obtain loans and insurance at more favorable interest rates.
Engoron has already found Trump and his co-defendants liable for persistent and repeated fraud charges, and the trial will determine the amount of unpaid money as well as collusion, issuing false financial statements and business records. falsification, insurance fraud.
The attorney general’s office pointed to testimony from Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who said Trump instructed him and Weisselberg to “reverse engineer” financial statements to inflate his net worth. Ammar argued that the defense was unable to bring Trump to the stand to rebut Cohen’s claims.
Mr. Cohen’s reliance on testimony was notable because he reflected on his own statements during cross-examination and said that President Trump did not directly instruct him to inflate the numbers.
“He tells you what he wants without telling you specifically,” Cohen later explained. “We understood what he wanted.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyers repeatedly attacked Mr. Cohen’s credibility in their final presentation, accusing him of being a “serial liar” and an unreliable narrator as the only witness to allege fraudulent intent.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers echoed the same theme as their client in their closing arguments, accusing the New York attorney general of waging a political vendetta against Mr. Trump.
“This entire incident is a fabricated allegation to serve political purposes,” Kise said at the beginning of his presentation. “It was always press releases and posturing, but no evidence at all.”
Kise and Alina Haba, an attorney for Trump, the Trump Organization, Weisselberg and McConney, both personally pursued James.
“When I turned around, this morning her shoes were off and she was drinking Starbucks coffee,” Haba said.
“She’s not sitting here with us. She’s out with her public relations team,” Haba added, warning Engoron that she was deviating from the facts related to the case. received.
Haba protested that his criticism was actually related to the incident.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have filed complaints about the conduct of both the attorney general’s office and the judge and clerk during the three-month trial, in addition to Mr. Engoron’s earlier appeal of summary judgment. He has already announced that he plans to appeal the ruling. The ruling found Trump liable for fraud.
Mr. Trump’s team urged Mr. Engoron to consider the impact of the ruling beyond the former president, warning that he was making a legacy-defining decision that would have far-reaching implications for New York businesses.
“Judge, your actions affect every business in New York,” Kise argued.
Kise accused the attorney general of wanting “unrestricted powers to intervene” in commercial real estate transactions.
“We absolutely cannot allow the attorney general to pursue crimes without victims and impose the corporate death penalty,” Kise added.
One example Trump’s lawyers cited is a 2018 lawsuit brought by New York’s attorney general against Exxon, in which a New York judge ruled that ExxonMobil should be disputing investors over how it accounts for the costs of climate change regulations. The court ruled that the attorney general had not proven the allegation that he had been misled.
Kise said not only did the attorney general lose, but Exxon is now based in Texas, not New York. Trump then continued to insist that Exxon was happy in Texas.
Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace opened closing arguments by saying that Exxon had, in fact, left New York for Texas in 1989.
The judge asked questions during both the plaintiff’s and defendant’s statements and expressed skepticism about several points.
In particular, Mr. Engoron asked pointed questions of the attorney general’s office about whether Mr. Trump’s adult sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., were responsible for the fraud.
“What’s the evidence that they knew there was a fraud? I haven’t seen it?” Engoron asked.
Amell countered that the “head in the sand” defense was not enough, while Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. ran the Trump Organization as co-CEOs for seven years. He also mentioned that he is running a business.
“If you have a responsibility and you have information to which you have access, and you claim that you have not done anything to meet that responsibility, the law says that is not a defense,” Amell said. .
Engoron remained skeptical, especially about Donald Trump Jr.’s knowledge of fraud.
But the judge also questioned arguments from Trump’s lawyers at several points Thursday. That included when Mr. Kise pointed to testimony from New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, a defense expert who said there were no material misstatements in Mr. Trump’s financial statements.
“I didn’t have much faith in Mr. Bartov,” Mr. Engoron replied.
Kise said the two discussed whether Trump’s financial statements contained material discrepancies and “you know, I didn’t think that was fair.”
“They didn’t care about the $2 billion difference,” Kise said of Deutsche Bank, saying the bank gave Trump the loan based on its own adjusted value.
“This has to be viewed through the lens of banks,” Kise says.
“Of the banks. Not the banks. We disagree,” Engoron replied.
Engoron said he hoped to make a ruling by the end of January.
But that’s not the end of the problem.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have already appealed Mr. Engoron’s summary judgment, which was issued at the start of the trial, and the judge ruled that Mr. Trump and his co-defendants were liable for persistent and repeated fraud. was lowered.
Engoron’s post-trial judgment is expected to include the amount of disgorgement the defendant must repay, as well as six additional claims filed by the attorney general in the case.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly said during the trial that they plan to appeal the ruling, challenging both the case against him and the actions of the judge and clerk.
That means the litigation could drag on, with the fate of President Trump’s ability to do business in New York hanging in the balance.
The New York Court of Appeals has put a moratorium on the division and payments of Mr. Trump’s business while the case proceeds.
Meanwhile, the former president could return to court in Manhattan next week.
He told reporters that he plans to attend a defamation trial filed by magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.
President Trump said, “I want to go to every trial.”
