Former president Donald Trump, who faces criminal charges for alleged election meddling, decried the trial as “election interference” during one of his testy digressions. Trump got onto the topic of election chicanery by saying “this case is a disgrace.” He then said that James was more concerned about sitting in court despite “everybody being killed on the streets of New York.” Then came Trump’s mention of the 2024 race. “We sit here all day – it’s election interference, because you want to keep me in the courthouse!”
After the trial proceedings concluded, Trump spoke briefly to reporters outside the courtroom and called for the case to be dismissed. “I think it’s a very sad day for America,” Trump said. “This is a case that should’ve never been brought and it’s a case that should be immediately dismissed.”
Trump very much took issue with any suggestion that his wealth was not as he claimed. According to James’ suit, Trump secured favorable loan and insurance terms by puffing up the value of his assets, including real estate. When Wallace noted that several loan agreements required he maintain a $2.5bn net worth, Trump said: “I could have given them a few assets which were worth more than $2.5 bn.” Trump also wanted to make clear he was liquid. “I’ve had a lot of cash for a long time.
The ex-president also feigned ignorance about details of financial transactions. He said, for example, that a loan for his project in Chicago was paid off recently, but couldn’t recall when. Wallace asked him: “Are you aware that the Trump Chicago loan was paid off last week?” Trump said, “I heard it was…I don’t know if it was last week. I know it was recently.” He claimed that son Eric Trump made the call to pay off the loan early.
Judge Arthur Engoron, whom Trump has repeatedly bashed as a political operative and other smears along those lines, threatened to throw him him off the witness stand for not answering questions succinctly. Engoron said to the ex-president’s lawyer Chris Kise: “I beseech you to control him. If you can’t, I will; I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.” Not surprisingly, Trump groused: “This is a very unfair trial … and I hope the public is watching.”
Trump in effect accused Engoron – who determined the ex-president’s real estate valuations were fraudulent – of being a fraud. ‘The fraud is on behalf of the court,” Trump ranted. “He says that I’m a fraud … He’s the one that didn’t value property correctly.” He also told Engoron: “You’re wrong.”
The core of attorney general Letitia James’s civil fraud trial is Trump’s inflation of real estate assets so, it’s noteworthy that he seemed to recognize that his Trump Tower triplex might have been overstated. Asked about the fact that the triplex had been listed as 30,000 sq ft on financial statements – but was only about 10,000 sq ft – Trump said it could have been a miscalculation. Whoever came up with the square footage, Trump said, just tripled the floor space for each floor. But, “they didn’t take out elevator shafts” and other non-usable square footage, he surmised.
Trump told the court he was too “busy” as president to review a financial document related to real estate valuation. “Were you involved in the preparation of the 2021 statement?” prosecutor Kevin Wallace asked. “No,” Trump said. “I hadn’t seen it. I was so busy in the White House.” He added: “My threshold was China, Russia and keeping our country safe.”
Trump showed some self-awareness in court this morning when describing his political ascent. While insisting that his net worth was not overstated, Trump repeatedly pointed to the value of the Trump name. “The most valuable asset was the brand value,” he said. “If you look at the companies, the brand value is a very big part of the asset value of the company.” Shortly thereafter, he said: “I became president because of my brand.”
James spoke outside the court before the hearing. She said she expected Trump to “engage in name-calling and taunts and race-baiting, and call this a witch-hunt”. James said the former president has “repeatedly and consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets.” “But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the facts and the numbers – and numbers, my friends, don’t lie,” she added.
James stood by the prosecution’s work after a contentious day with Trump in court. “At the end of the day, the documentary evidence demonstrated the fact he falsely inflated his assets to basically enrich himself and his family,” she said. She said the former president chose to “engage in distractions” while on the stand. “I will not be bullied,” James said.
