Donald Trump pulled a piece of paper out of his suit jacket during his testimony in a Manhattan courtroom Monday, claiming it would completely clear his name in the $250 million civil fraud case against him and asked to show it to the judge.
Apparently, the 77-year-old former president was asking to show both the judge and the prosecutor a disclaimer of a financial statement in which New York Attorney General Letitia James accused him of lying in her lawsuit.
While testifying at trial in the lawsuit, Trump held up the document and asked if the judge “would like to have it.”
The real estate mogul later said, “I would love to read this, your honor, if I could.”
“Not at this time, not at this time,” responded Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is deciding the bench case that threatens Trump’s New York real estate empire.
“I’m shocked,” Trump responded.
One of Trump’s main defenses during his testimony revolved around annual financial statements in which James claims he lied from 2011 to 2021, inflating his assets by billions a year to obtain better loan and insurance terms.
Donald Trump pulled a piece of paper out of his suit jacket as he testified, saying it would exonerate him from a fraud lawsuit. Steven Hirsch
Trump claimed that a hold harmless clause meant he was not responsible for any inaccuracies the documents might contain, although Engoron, in an explosive ruling before the trial began last month, rejected that particular defense argument.
“I think the financial statements were very good, actually somewhat conservative, and they were fully protected, as I was, by the disclaimer,” Trump insisted from the witness stand Monday afternoon.
The annual financial statements contained a section that said Trump promised to provide a “fair representation” of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Engoron wrote in his Sept. 26 decision that liability waivers “do not protect defendants from liability,” adding that they actually even “place the burden of accuracy squarely on the shoulders of defendants.”
On Monday, referring to the disclaimer, the judge told Trump to “read my opinion, I guess for the first time.”
The debate over the clause led Trump to explode on the stand and lash out at the judge and the attorney general.
“He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me!” Trump shouted, as he pointed at the judge.
“The fraud is on the court and not in me… the fraud is in it!”
He then called James, who was sitting calmly in the front row, a “political stunt.”
Trump claimed that a disclaimer in his financial disclosure statements (at the center of the fraud case) cleared him of inaccuracies in the documents.
Trump used many other arguments to combat the attorney general’s claims against him, including attempting to downplay the importance of annual returns.
He claimed that banks didn’t actually rely on financial statements when considering lending him money, but instead gave more weight to the terms of the deal or the location of the property for which he was obtaining financing.
“They weren’t really documents that the banks paid much attention to,” he testified.
Trump testified for about three and a half hours on Monday.
“I have been dealing with banks for 50 years. I probably know banks better than anyone,” he added. “They look at the deal, they look at the location…they don’t want to get involved in the financial statements.”
And the returns actually understated his net worth, Trump testified, claiming that his Financial District property at 40 Wall St. was worth much more than the $550 million it was valued at in a 2014 return.
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“That building, you just look at it and say it’s worth a lot more than $550 million,” Trump said, suggesting that the prosecutor “take a picture” of the building.
He also claimed that he repaid all the bank loans he took out, so no one was really “harmed” and there were no “victims.”
“They were paid in full. There were no victims,” Trump said, before adding: “Everyone is trying to figure out why you are [the prosecutor] doing this? Nobody understands it, but I understand it… it’s called politics.”
Still, the law under which the real estate mogul was sued does not require a showing of actual harm if he is found liable for fraud.
Trump has also claimed as a defense that the entire case against him is politically motivated and his lawyers have threatened to file a mistrial motion due to the judge’s alleged bias.
The 2024 GOP presidential front-runner testified in total for about three and a half hours during a dramatic cross-examination on Monday, leaving only Ivanka Trump called by the attorney general’s office on Wednesday before prosecutors dropped their case. case.
Trump attacked the judge and the attorney general, saying that they committed fraud and not him.REUTERS
Trump’s side will begin calling witnesses after Ivanka’s testimony, including the withdrawal of Trump’s two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, Trump’s lawyer confirmed Monday.
The case, which was originally scheduled to last through the Christmas holidays, is now expected to end around Dec. 15, Trump’s lawyers told the judge on Monday.
Outside court, after the day’s trial ended, Trump said the case should be dismissed immediately and criticized the judge and attorney general for carrying out what he called a “fraud” against him.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn