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A COMBATIVE DONALD Trump clashed repeatedly with a judge this afternoon as he took the stand in the New York civil fraud case threatening his real estate empire.
“This is not a political rally,” New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron told the former president after admonishing him to keep his answers short.
“Please, just answer the questions, no speeches,” Engoron said before asking one of Trump’s lawyers, Christopher Kise, to “control your client.”
“We don’t have time to waste. We have one day to do this,” the judge said at one point. At another, he said, “In addition to the answers being non-responsive, they’re repetitive.”
Trump’s turn on the witness stand, in a case that cuts to the heart of the business brand he spent decades crafting, amounts to a remarkable convergence of his legal troubles and his political ventures at a time when he also faces criminal indictments while vying to reclaim the White House in 2024.
Trump walked slowly to the witness stand, tugging at his suit coat as he settled in for hours of questions in a lawsuit by the New York state attorney general, which accuses him and his company of inflating his property values and deceiving banks and insurers in the pursuit of business deals and loans.
Within minutes, he was asked about the financial documents at the heart of the case – his annual “statements of financial condition”, which went to banks, lenders and others to secure financing and deals and which the attorney general’s office says were grossly inflated and fraudulent.
‘Trump Brand’
Trump downplayed the statements’ significance, pointing to a disclaimer that he says amounted to telling recipients to do their own calculating.
“Banks didn’t find them very relevant, and they had a disclaimer clause – you would call it a worthless statement clause,” he said, insisting that after decades in real estate, “I probably know banks as well as anybody … I know what they look at. They look at the deal, they look at the location”.
The former president dismissed allegations that the company’s financial statements were fraudulent, describing them as “very conservative.”
“They were not really documents that the banks paid much attention to,” he said, and the value of the “Trump brand” was not taken into account in the valuations of his assets.
“I became president because of my brand,” Trump said under questioning from Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office.
Though Trump answered questions in a matter-of-fact manner at the beginning, his tensions with state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engeron — who last month fined him $10,000 for violating a gag order — were evident.
During his testimony, Trump accused Engoron of issuing “fraudulent” rulings, and denounced New York state attorney general Letitia James, who brought the case against him, as a “political hack.”
“He called me a fraud and he did not know anything about me,” Trump said of the judge, who was sitting right next to him, before calling the trial a “political witch hunt.”
In recent days, the former president has lambasted the judge on social media, calling him a “wacko” and “RADICAL LEFT, DEMOCRAT OPERATIVE JUDGE” who has already “ruled viciously” against him.
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Trump complained that his 2014 financial statements should not be the subject of the lawsuit at all.
He told the court: “First of all it’s so long ago, it’s well beyond the statute of limitations.”
Trump then turned on the judge, saying he allowed state lawyers to pursue claims involving such years-old documents “because he always rules against me”.
Engoron said: “You can attack me in whichever way you want but please answer the questions.”
James, the attorney general, told reporters before Trump’s testimony that the former president had “consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets.”
“Before he takes the stand, I am certain that he will engage in name-calling and taunts and race-baiting and call this a witch hunt,” James said. “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.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked James, who is Black, as “racist”.
Familiar territory
The courtroom at 60 Centre St has already become a familiar destination for Trump.
He has spent hours over the last month voluntarily seated at the defence table, observing the proceedings.
Trump once took the stand — unexpectedly and briefly — after he was accused of violating a partial gag order. Trump denied violating the rules but Judge Engoron disagreed and fined him anyway.
The vast majority of his speaking has happened outside the courtroom, where he has taken full advantage of the bank of assembled media to voice his outrage and spin the day’s proceedings in the most favourable way.
Eric Trump, the former president’s middle son, who testified in the case last week, said his father had been eager for his appearance on the stand.
“I know he’s very fired up to be here. And he thinks that this is one of the most incredible injustices that he’s ever seen. And it truly is,” the younger Trump told reporters on Friday, insisting his family was winning even though the judge has already ruled mostly against them.
Unlike most Americans, Trump has ample experience fielding questions from lawyers and has a long history of depositions and courtroom testimony that offer insight into how he might respond.
But Michael Cohen, who worked for Trump for more than a decade, said nothing in his past has come close to what he is facing now since they were largely civil matters “where even though the dollar amounts were in the millions of dollars, they were never of any real consequence to him or obviously to his freedom”.
Cohen said: “Right now this New York attorney general’s case is a threat to the extinction of his eponymous company as well as his financial future.”
Trump’s forthcoming criminal cases — accusing him of misclassifying hush money payments, illegally trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election and hoarding documents at his Mar-a-Lago club – “have far more significant consequences, most specifically the termination of his freedom”.
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@Reece Dooley: rofl you fell for the most obvious grifter you fool, state of ya supporting a rap1st, you know what they say birds of a feather flock together
@Reece Dooley: I’d have a think about giving about this kind of man your support. It might be in fashion now for people who have been drawn into a manufactured football supporter type battle online but the fundamentals are pretty simple. This is a man with a proven and documented track record of exploitation, racism, misogyny and sexual assault. This is before we get to his wannabe dictator tendencies and comical levels of dishonesty. I think there will be a lot of people disowning their past if and when things settle down in the future. Understandably so, as it will be absolutely mortifying to admit you were on his side. People will ask how you could possibly have supported such a man. They’ll be right to ask.
@Dave Grant:
Yup their site, their rules….are you gonna crowd fund for their legal bills after THEY end up publishing a pile of libelous tripe spouted by the likes of The Irish Light Brigade and their basement dwelling bot army of incel far rightards and racists etc!?
Two-Term Trump.
Hate his personality all you want, look at the US under him vs under liberal Biden.
San Francisco, LA, Chicago, most liberally controlled cities are crime slums.
@Chris Rea:
He left Washington and specifically the Capitol literally in $hite with barriers etc all around it after rallying his Mango mob to try and stop the certification of an election he lost decisively! Since the numerous charge brought in relation to that shitshow, six co-conspirators so far in the Georgia case alone have taken plea deals to testify against him including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows whose testimony will be mana to DA Fani Willis!
@Chris Rea: I’m just back from a business trip to San Francisco. I can assure you it’s not a crime slum at all, certainly Downtown was thriving and busy. Now if you had said Portland, Oregon I would have agreed and have been there twice this year.
@Liam o Connor:
Sure comment away there, nobody’s stoppin ya!…. can’t wait for the Gemmaroid’s new comment section on The Irish Light site when it and Muddy Waters aren’t too busy in court figgting numerous libel and harrasment orders etc etc! ;~}
@Liam o Connor: What pearls of wisdom are you dying to contribute? I feel we’ve all been let down by the Journal not allowing you to comment. Maybe your mates and/or family will lend an ear instead?
@Willie Marty: I have a preference for facts, he is not a sex offender.
No, Trump is not required to register as a sex offender.
Social media is not a court, judge and jury.
USA Today https://www.usatoday.com › factcheck › 2023/05/16
Claim: Trump is now required to register as a sex offender
Claimed by: Social media
Fact check by USA Today: False
@Donal Ronan: Yes, it’s a fact that Tiny is a proven rap ist, not a convicted one. The fact that he’s not a convicted offender due to statute of limitations is not really a great boast.
@Donal Ronan:
He was found liable by a jury of sexual abuse after hangin’ himself in a deposition where he mistook E.Jean Carroll for his second ex trophy wife Marla Maples!
@Donal Ronan: Genuinely curious but why do you care??? Trump is in America he isnt running for Irish Government is he?
Just see it for what it is i sweat for some reason too many Irish get wrapped up in American politics.
Moaning about illegal immgrants while calling for more rights in America for the undocumented Irish.
Who cares, find something else to focus your time on like your family or friends and not what is happening in America.
@Willie Marty: in fairness, if Trump wins, the yanks will be busy purging Disney and Netflix in their little culture wars so the rest of the planet might get a break from their interference for a few years. Give us some time to clean up some of the mess they have made.
@Tom Dillon: Who said anything about love? What are you talking about ?
Anyway, This case is a joke, anyone with even a passing interest in what’s happening here can see it.
Although it probably flew right over your bird brain which is why you’re parroting that line all over this article.
Playing the victim narrative suits him at this juncture. In this case the consequences in fines and business restrictions he may get are probably less than the publicity he gets for his base, who wouldn’t understand or care anyway. It’s Georgia that matters. As he says himself and I agree, no one seens anything like it!
The media have created this false narrative that the older generation does not buy. In comparison, the younger generation of people see the older generation as out of touch, Biden included.
Society can control what it dumps into the environment, such as air, ocean, and countryside pollution; however, it cannot control the weather/temperatures, aka climate change modelling. The media seem unable to retreat from hysterical dire predictions and introduce society to more balanced views like environmental concerns.
In America and perhaps Ireland in the years to come, older people will vote for those who insure their financial stability and who cares if the President is a self-aggrandising fool.
The journal only opens the comments on certain news/agenda, why doesn’t the journal open its comments on the war in Israel , over 10,000 dead but yea let’s focus on trump .
American politics has only two major problems which appear equally bad. Republicans and Democrats.
The only thing worse than two party politics is one party politics.
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