Trump shows up at NY civil trial as case winds down
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[December 08, 2023]
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump arrived at a New York court on Thursday
to attend his ongoing civil fraud trial, where his defense team is
arguing that the former U.S. president's family company did not
manipulate the value of its properties to win favorable financing.
The trial, which kicked off in October, is one of several legal
challenges the former president faces as he mounts a comeback bid for
the White House.
The judge overseeing the trial, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that
Trump and his adult sons manipulated financial statements to dupe banks
and insurers into providing better loan and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in
penalties and wants Trump banned from New York state real estate
business.
Trump is expected to testify as the final defense witness on Monday. He
has denied wrongdoing and says James, an elected Democrat, is biased
against him.
"This whole case is a fraud. What they've done is they've weaponized
justice," he told news media outside the courtroom.
Over the past several weeks, Trump's team has called bankers and others
who did business with the Trump Organization to testify that they did
not rely solely on Trump's valuations in deciding to lend to his
company.
On Thursday, New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, who
does not work for Trump's company, testified that he found that the
company had made an accounting error in one of its valuations. But he
said he did not see any evidence of accounting fraud.
"There was no justification for any of these allegations," he testified.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination,
has appeared as a witness once already. In defiant and rambling
testimony last month, he complained of unfair treatment and acknowledged
that he was involved in some of the documents at the heart of the fraud
case.
He has also turned up at the trial on other occasions to glower at
participants from the defendant's chair and air his grievances to TV
cameras outside the courtroom.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the courtroom during a
break, as he attends the Trump Organization civil fraud trial, in
New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York
City, U.S., December 7, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar
Engoron has imposed gag orders in the case restricting Trump and his
lawyers from speaking publicly about court staff, after Trump
published a photo of the judge's main law clerk with Democratic U.S.
Senator Chuck Schumer on social media and falsely called the clerk
Schumer's "girlfriend."
Engoron said the post left the court "inundated" with threats from
Trump supporters. Trump is appealing the gag orders.
Over the past several weeks, bankers and others who did business
with the Trump Organization have testified for the defense that they
did not rely solely on Trump's valuations in deciding to deal with
his company.
Trump says the questionable valuations did no harm.
"We did nothing wrong, there were no victims. The bank loves us," he
said.
Trump faces four unrelated federal and state criminal indictments,
including two over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020
presidential election.
He has pleaded not guilty in all of those cases.
None of them have dented his commanding lead in the race to
challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in next November's
election.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; additional reporting by Susan
Heavey and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Writing by Andy
SullivanEditing by Noeleen Walder and Nick Zieminski)
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