The state attorneys and defense team in former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial will present closing arguments in a lower Manhattan courtroom on Jan. 11. President Trump will also attend the hearing, his second court appearance this week mere days before the Iowa caucuses. The New York attorney general is seeking $370 million in damages and to bar President Trump from doing business in the state. Follow here for live updates.
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AG James: Case Not a Personal Vendetta
Ms. James spoke to reporters after leaving the courthouse, saying the “personal attacks” don’t bother her.
“This is our last day in our case against Donald Trump for persistent and repeated fraud, illegality. This case has never been about politics, personal vendetta, or name-calling,” she said.
“This case is about the facts and the law, and Mr. Donald Trump violated the law. And as you know, the judge has already found that he violated the law for repeated fraud for a period of years.”
Ms. James said she was proud of the case the state presented and argued the evidence was in the state’s favor.
“The fact is this trial has shown and we have produced evidence about the scope, the scale, the depth, the breadth of the illegality, the fraud, that personally enriched Donald Trump and his family,” she said.
“I want to thank the judge, I want to thank my team, and I want to thank opposing counsel. But at the day the point is simple: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how rich you are, nobody is above the law, and that the law applies to all of us, equally and fairly,” she added. “I trust that justice will be done and I’m confident in that. And I’m extremely proud of the case that we’ve put on.”
She did not take questions.
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AG Says Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. Are as Liable as Trump
Mr. Amer pulled up testimony from Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., both trustees and executive vice presidents of Trump Organization, and argued they took on the responsibility of ensuring accurate SFCs after President Trump transfered his authority of the organization over to the trust.
“The court should find they were fully aware Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney schemed to inflate values,” he said.
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AG: Trump Organization Misrepresented Properties
Mr. Amer argued that Mr. McConney had intentionally misrepresented several properties, thus enhancing their value.
A number of rent stabilized units in Manhattan had been represented with market price valuations in the SFCs.
“Now, defendants argue that just because a unit is subject to rent stabilization laws doesn’t mean it can’t be sold. What we all know as New Yorkers is that no one gives up a rent stablized apartment for free, it comes at a cost,” Mr. Amer argued.
He also pointed to Mr. McConney’s testimony that he had represented Mar-a-Lago as a private residence, even though he knew the deed had conditions that it be maintained as a club.
“The court should conclude that there was only one explanation, McConney intended to inflate the value,” Mr. Amer said. “All as part of his overall intent to defraud.”
Mr. Amer said Mr. Weisselberg similarly inflated values by mischaracterizing properties, such as with the triplex penthouse at 30,000 square feet.
“$327 million for 2016. Your honor, that screams of intent to defraud,” Mr. Amer said.
The court paused for a break after Mr. Amer’s statement.
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AG Argues Materiality Is ‘What the Reasonable Banker Would Think’
State attorney Andy Amer said during the trial the state established a pattern that was sufficient to show intent to defraud.
“Was there a pattern of fraud? Does the defendant exercise day to day control over the fraudulent conduct? Have a motive to engage in the fraud? Has the defendant engaged in acts of concealment to cover up the fraud? Has the defendant engaged in acts of deception, which can include being on the stand and being evasive?” Mr. Amer said. “During the trial we established that the defendants engaged in fraud that checks all these boxes.”
He argued the evidence toward intention was “beyond even clear and convincing, it is overwhelming and conclusive.”
He pointed to Mr. McConney’s testimony on intentionally including Vornado’s stake in a Trump Organization property, effectively cash that Trump Organization could not dispense.
“There was nothing innocent about this,” Mr. Amer argued. He added that Mazars accountant Donald Bender had told Mr. McConney not to do it but he did it anyway.
“Mr. McConney absolutely knew that he couldn’t include cash he didn’t control, he did that anyway,” Mr. Amer said. “The defendants want you to believe that it was OK to include cash that he didn’t control. He absolutely knew that what he was doing was wrong.”
Justice Engoron asked for clarification in the sequence of events that showed the statements were made before the inclusion of Vornado’s stake.
“I asked him, were there any mistakes that made cash go in the opposite direction from being inflated,” Mr. Amer said. He showed a chart tracking the cash balances, where Vornado’s cash exceeded $14 million every year.
“That is material in anyone’s book,” Mr. Amer said.
Mr. Amer argued materiality was objective, not subjective.
“It’s not what these banks thought was material or immaterial, it’s what the reasonable banker would think based on the evidence,” he said.
The cash issue is key, Mr. Amer argued, because it speaks to President Trump’s liquidity.
“And both these underwriters testified taht the cash figure was important to their underwriting analysis precisely because it reflected liquidity,” Mr. Amer said, without mentioning that Trump Organization opened up President Trump’s bank statements to the lenders as well.
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Trump Says He’ll Attend Criminal Trials
President Trump said he will also attend his federal criminal cases and maintained he has done nothing wrong.
“Well the documents case, just here they’re trying to exonerate Biden, and he didn’t have the Presidential Records Act, I do,” he said, referencing a statute that governs records kept by presidents.
“I did nothing wrong,” he said. “What [President Biden] did, a lot of people say is substantially wrong. You can’t have two tiers of justice here in this country.
“I want to go to all of my trials,” he said. “These were all set up by Biden and the Democrats. This is their new form of cheating. Like last time, this is their new form of cheating. So far, I think it’s gone very much against him.”
He ended the press conference as reporters continued to ask questions, and was greeted by cheers from a crowd that had gathered to watch the conference near the entrance of 40 Wall Street. Pool cameras showed a crowded lobby and overflow crowd behind barricades on the sidewalk.
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Trump Says He’ll Attend Next Civil Trial
Next week, President Trump faces yet another civil trial in New York, in a case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, and he said during his new conference he plans to attend.
In 2019, Ms. Carroll accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman in the mid 1990s.
President Trump claimed the case was sponsored by Democrat operatives.
“I never saw this woman in my life other than I have a picture with her and her husband,” he said. “I have no idea who this woman is. I have absolutely no idea. The whole thing is ridiculous, that this is actually a case.”
“It’s a demeaning kind of a thing, and that’s what they want to do,” he said. “It’s election interference.”
“And yeah, I’m going to go to it, and I’m going to explain I have no idea who the hell she is,” he said.
“They called me up years ago and they said, ‘Do you know this woman?'” he said. President Trump had been in office when Ms. Carroll made her public accusation about the alleged incident from years ago. After he denied it in a public statement and accused her of trying to increase her book sales, Ms. Carroll sued him for defamation.
“She doesn’t even know the date, the time, the month, the season,” President Trump said. “We’ve been given an unfair trial there too, I don’t get many fair trials in New York.”
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AG Says Fraud Funded White House Run
Mr. Wallace claimed the multiple loans Trump Organization got spoke to its lack of cash.
“They couldn’t afford to spend more on the borrowing for the properties, there wasn’t enough cash to do it all,” he argued.
“By 2017, Trump’s generating cash flows of just $2 million, obviously below the Deutsche Bank threshold [requirement for the loan]. As you can see, the cash position would have remained negative,” Mr. Wallace argued.
“Of course, the Trump Organization could have found other ways, they could have cut costs or sold assets” but they wanted to “develop these properties to the level that Donald Trump desired and also fund his run for president,” Mr. Wallace claimed.
He argued the size of the loans given to Trump Organization meant potentially “more catastrophic results.”
“That’s why it’s important for the court to take steps to protect the marketplace,” he said.
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AG: Fraud ‘Central’ to Trump Business
Defense attorney Chris Kise objected to state attorney Kevin Wallace comparing the defendants to being on “murderer’s row.”
Justice Engoron asked Mr. Wallace if he was accusing the defendants of being murderers and moved on from the turn of phrase.
Mr. Wallace sought to rebut the defense’s argument that the SFCs and disclaimers indicated transparency rather than intent to defraud.
“Why would the defendants do this? Why go to these lengths? Why put together false financial statements?” he asked. “Across time, it becomes clear that fraud was central to the operations of the Trump Organization’s business.”
“Those low interest rates, those statements were critical to the success of the business,” Mr. Wallace said.
Mr. Kise objected. “I don’t recall any testimony from any expert that this is what kept them afloat. That’s not a fair comment.”
Justice Engoron agreed with the defense, saying there was no testimony that Trump Organization “had to use discounts” and said he would “give leeway in that regard.”
Mr. Wallace said he could still argue that these savings supported Trump Organization, which had to spend “hundreds of millions” to renovate several properties to “the highest luxury standards.”
Mr. Wallace argued Trump Organization was low on cash and “dropping even lower,” which was why they needed false financial statements to obtain favorable loans. Mr. Kise objected, saying Mr. Wallace isn’t an expert and didn’t understand the source of the cash.
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Trump Says Legal Cases Now Part of His Campaign
President Trump responded to a question about how his time was split between campaigning and legal cases saying the cases were politically motivated.
“Well see my legal issues, every one of them, every one, are all set up by crooked Joe Biden, every one of them,” he said.
“They’re doing it for election interference,” he said. “And in a way I guess you can consider it part of the campaign. They are doing this. It’s never been done like this in this country.”
He touted his numbers in early primary states and said the indictments against him weren’t hurting his chances of reelection.
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Trump Says Biden Needs Presidential Immunity Too
He took questions from reporters about other cases; in Washington, he is being prosecuted for actions on Jan. 6, and is appealing to dismiss the case based on presidential immunity.
“On immunity, very simple, if a President of the United States does not have immunity, he will not be very effective, because he wouldn’t be able to do anything,” he said.
“It’ll mean he’ll be prosecuted, strongly prosecuted perhaps, as soon as he leaves office, by the opposing party. So a president of the United States—I’m not talking about just me, I’m talking any president—needs to have presidential immunity,” he added.
“As an example, Biden could come out and you could get him on the border, you could get him on what happened in Afghanistan, horrible, most embarrassing moment that ever happened in this country, you could get him on a lot of things,” he said.
“You could get him on taking money from other countries,” he added, referencing investigations into Hunter Biden and the Biden family’s business dealings that has led to an impeachment inquiry.
“You have to have immunity for the president, and I think a lot of people are seeing that,” President Trump said.
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‘Already Lost’: Trump Holds News Conference
“Let’s remember that before I walked into court, we had already lost—before witnesses, before experts, and do I think any of it mattered? I certainly hope so,” said Trump attorney Alina Habba, referencing a summary judgment Justice Engoron issued a week before the trial that found President Trump liable for fraud.
“For anyone that has been in the courtroom the last 11 weeks, you heard that there was not one fact against President Trump,” she said. “There was not one piece of paper that showed anyone committed fraud.”
She said a consumer fraud statute was “wrongfully used” against President Trump and every one of his employees.
President Trump accused the attorney general and judge of political bias.
“We’ve proven this case so conclusively,” he said. “We’ve asked for directed verdict many times. They don’t have any evidence against us. Millions and millions of pages, years of litigation, and all politically motivated.”
President Trump repeated several of the points he made at the courthouse, and emphasized the attorney general had brought no evidence against him because he had done nothing wrong.
“It’s a shame to have gone through this for years and years and years, and now we’ll see if we’re going to get an honest verdict,” he said. “We didn’t get a jury, we didn’t get the rights to a jury.”
He accused the Biden administration of coordinating with prosecutors to hamper his campaign, but that “the people of the United States really get it, they get it better than anybody else.”
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AG Says Defense Case Completely Irrelevant
Mr. Wallace argued that several of the defense’s expert witness testimonies were “simply not relevant at this point” because President Trump was ruled liable for fraud before the trial begin.
“This is the problem with all the defense testimony in this case: not relevant,” he said.
Five minutes away, Trump attorney Alina Habba said much the same, blaming the summary judgment.
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SFC’s ‘False Every Year’: AG
Mr. Wallace said the Trump Organization SFCs were “false every year” from 2011 to 2021, as the judge affirmed in a summary judgment, and “that was the baseline” from the beginning of the trial.
“They cannot argue … that unsold units at Trump Park Avenue weren’t rent stablized, or that he didn’t have appraisers for 40 Wall Street,” Mr. Wallace said.
“Every individual defendant was acting knowingly and intelligently,” he said. “There was no suggestion this was a mistake. To the contrary, Donald Trump says he approves of what they did. If anything, the valuations they came up were too low for it. We certainly do not hear that the numbers they used were accurate.”
“The statements were clear on their face that they were the responsibility of Donald Trump or his trustees, the defense cannot argue their way out of this,” Mr. Wallace said.
Defendants had argued that Mazars USA, a third party accounting firm, had prepared the SFCs and had full access to the company. Mr. Wallace argued that the accuracy of these statements was still the responsibility of Trump Organization.
“Let’s not forget, Mazars told the Trump Organization the statements could no longer be relied upon in 2022,” Mr. Wallace said.
After the attorney general contacted Mazars about the investigation and charges to come, Mazars had dropped Trump Organization as a client in 2022. Mazars did not independently investigate the attorney general’s claims.
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State Begins Closing Arguments
State attorney Kevin Wallace began closing arguments by saying the state would not structure their arguments to counter the defense.
“Some of the defense arguments have already been rejected by this court,” Mr. Wallace said. “We have not heard from the defense any new facts because the most important facts are undisputed.”
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Trump to Hold Conference During AG’s Closing Arguments
President Trump is set to hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. at 40 Wall Street, also known as the Trump Building, about five minutes from the courthouse.
State attorneys will give closing arguments from 2:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., closing out the trial.
Justice Engoron said the earliest he would issue judgment is the end of January.
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Trump Says NY Doesn’t Want His Tax Dollars
President Trump summarized his courtroom remarks to the press after the court went on break.
“They owe me damages for what they’ve done,” he said. “We have a great company, we’re an innocent company, we did everything right.”
“They have no witnesses against us other than Michael Cohen, who’s a discredited felon, and no witnesses against us whatsoever,” he said. “They only have one piece of paper. What we run is a great company, that’s been proven, very highly successful company.”
“This is a disgraceful situation, this is why businesses are fleeing New York, like Exxon,” he said. “They paid billions and billions in taxes, and I’ve paid millions and millions over the years.”
He said he paid $300 million over “a very short period of time.”
“They don’t want me to pay it anymore,” he said.
“This is a very serious problem because companies are fleeing New York. They ought to focus on the crime, the violent crime, that’s one of the reasons they’re fleeing. The other reason is because of attorney generals like this that just want to get elected,” he said.
“I don’t know if we’re going to get a ruling, but everyone knows what I just said. This is a sham, and this a shame.”
The attorney general’s office will present closing arguments at 2:15 p.m.
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Judge Interrupts Trump Statement
President Trump accused the attorney general of election interference, leading to Justice Engoron asking Mr. Kise to “control your client.”
“Without all that, your honor, all these days and months and years and millions and millions of pages they found nothing,” President Trump said. “And now they come in and she says I want a $250 million fine, now $370 million.”
President Trump wrapped up his statement shortly after.
He should have been granted a directed verdict in his favor.
“Your honor, I did nothing wrong,” he said. “They should pay me for what I’ve had to go through.”
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Trump Tells Court State Should Pay Him Damages
“Your honor, the financial statements were perfect,” President Trump said. “The banks got all their money back, the banks are happy as can be.”
“I spoke to an executive at Zurich, they said, ‘You didn’t defraud us,'” he added. “There wasn’t one witness against us.”
He again described the case as a “political witch hunt,” and said he should be the one receiving damages “for what they’ve taken this company through.”
“We have millions of pages of documents, they have nothing,” he said. “I’m an innocent man, I’ve been persecuted by somebody running for office. The legal scholars talking about this case, they find it disgraceful.”
He described the novel use of the consumer fraud statutes against him as “vicious.”
“What’s happened here, sir, is a fraud on me,” he said. “And you know what happens, companies leave.”
He said he had added up the amount he paid in taxes over the period but did not reveal the figure.
“I’ve done a lot of great things, I’ve built buildings all over the city, I’ve never had a problem, he said.
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Defense Asks Judge to Let Trump Speak
Mr. Kise asked Justice Engoron to let President Trump make a brief statement in court.
The judge greenlit a five-minute statement.
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Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. Had ‘Nothing to Do’ With SFCs: Defense
Attorney for defendants Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. argued his clients had nothing to do with the Trump Organization’s SFCs.
“They signed these certifications like any executive of a company would, relying on the work of others, an outside accounting firm that was paid millions and millions of dollars,” he said.
“We stand behind the statements of financial condition, that they were accurate in all material facts,” he said. “But even if there was a mistake … it’s absurd, you shouldn’t lose your life because of it.”
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Defense Says Bank Executives Are ‘Pawns’ in Case to Get Trump
Defense attorney Alina Habba said that in the past 44 days of trial, the attorney general did not prove her case, which she described as an “agenda.”
“If Trump Organization, if Donald Trump, if his employees wanted to commit fraud, why would they select Deutsche Bank, Zurich Insurance, some of the most sophisticated, highly regulated companies in the world? It makes no sense, and frankly, there is evidence of it,” Ms. Habba said.
Ms. Habba said Mr. Weisselberg and Mr. McConney were used as “pawns” because the attorney general could not get to President Trump.
They had “dedicated their lives to putting their nose down and working and doing their best” and any human error on their part was inflated as “part of an agenda” for the “attorney general’s office to come after Mr. Trump.”
“She used this man … in the 44 days, nothing, no proof,” Ms. Habba said. “Where’s President Trump? I didn’t see anything from him, so they’re trying to intimate my other clients to get him.”
“Mr. McConney stood here and cried and said he was tired of being bullied, tired of being subpoenaed because he did his best work,” she said. “He was not a machine, he was a human being.”
Ms. Habba rehashed testimonies surrounding the Trump Tower penthouse triplex square footage error, which involved Mr. McConney and Mr. Weisselberg entering the erroneous figure for the SFC after emails with a real estate agent who thought he was citing an accountant on the figure.
Real estate agent Kevin Sneddon had also testified that the attorney general’s office specifically told him “they needed him to say he got that number from someone else,” Ms. Habba argued. “That’s what they told him they needed to prove their case. Not my words, Sneddon’s.”
“On no planet should that be fraud. It’s called human error,” Ms. Habba said.
“Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney do not have certificates saying they’re CPAs. So what do they do, these alleged fraudsters? They hire the largest accounting firm in New York,” Ms. Habba said. “It makes no sense.”
She argued that these Trump Organization executives gave the Mazars accountant full access to come in and out of Trump Organization, and the firm had made millions from Trump Organization as a client.
Ms. Habba added that Zurich Insurance Group issued seven bonds to Trump Organization this year alone, and the group has its own regulatory and accountability departments, as well as their own brand and reputation to consider and wouldn’t have issued the bonds without confidence.
“This isn’t some mom-and-pop shop,” she said of Zurich, which is one of the leading commercial property insurance groups.
Ms. Habba pointed to testimony that the insurance group would have still issued the policy to Trump Organization with $25 million, far below the billions in asset value the organization claimed.
“This is the point of desperation that we are at,” Ms. Habba said. “There was absolutely no material investigation.”
“We have experts who could not point to one sentence of fraud,” Ms. Habba argued.
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Attorney General Wants ‘Corporate Death Penalty,’ Says Defense
State attorneys are asking for a broad range of penalties, which Mr. Kise argued was “grossly disproportionate.”
“It must bear some rational relationship to the events and issues,” he said. The unlawful activity alleged have nothing to do with commercial real estate, real estate agent impersonation, or problematic transactions, he argued.
“The attorney general claims there’s this need to protect counterparties in the marketplace. They haven’t brought in anyone to demonstrate [that],” he said.
Beyond the $370 million penalty, the attorney general is asking that President Trump be permanently barred from doing business in New York state, and for the Trump Organization to be handed to an independent third-party monitor to manage for five years.
“The attorney general is trying to have you say President Trump cannot manage or dispose of his assets at all,” Mr. Kise said.
“The government can’t confiscate property without a jury, that’s what they want you to do. They want you to use the consumer protection statute to take his property,” he argued.
The use of these laws in this manner is “unprecedented,” Mr. Kise said.
President Trump would be barred from transacting any business with any New York financial institution, effectively denying him “access anywhere in the world.”
“This is an exceptional unconstitutional burden,” Mr. Kise said.
He argued that the independent monitor currently overseeing the Trump Organization, former Judge Barbara Jones, has issued five reports to date, and “the word fraud doesn’t appear in any of them.”
Mr. Kise said there was “just no evidentiary basis” for the kinds of penalties the attorney general demands.
“The attorney general wants you to turn standard loan transactions into fraud,” he argued. “It’s just a substitution of the attorney general’s political judgment for that of sophisticated financial professionals conducting risk analysis.”
A ruling in the attorney general’s favor would lend her “limitless power,” he argued. “This is extremely dangerous, this is the weaponization of alleged fraud … it’s preposterous. The commercial real estate market would cease to exist as we know it.”
“You just cannot allow the attorney general to assert victimless fraud and impose the corporate death penalty,” Mr. Kise said. The statute is “not a license for the attorney general to strip an individual of all their property, without a jury, and say it’s fraud.”
“You should rule in our favor on all the counts and determine that there is no basis for disgorgement,” Mr. Kise said. “Not one witness, not one complaint.”
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Trump Developments Improved Cities: Defense
Defense attorney Chris Kise argued President Trump’s business has been a boon to the city.
“These are success stories. Rather than praising President Trump for his business success, we have an attorney general coming after him, using a consumer statute in a victimless crime,” Mr. Kise argued.
His client helped build and develop this city, and others, he argued, and the banks recognized that value too.
“The operating experience, and most importantly, the relationship, and you heard the testimony—they [Deustch Bank] wanted this relationship, and they made hundreds of millions of dollars,” Mr. Kise said.
He added that the state was asking the court to disgorge both profit and interest and “you can’t have it both ways.”
President Trump had spent more than the $10 million required of him by the bank on the Dora golf development.
“He spent five to seven million more than required on the golf course. He created a world-class facility out of a dump in a year! He should be getting a medal. He met all the obligations under the contract, the city, everyone won,” Mr. Kise said. “The city won, they got a beautiful facility, and President Trump oversold, exceeded them.”
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Defense Blasts AG Record
Mr. Kise said the attorney general tried applying similar arguments in a case against ExxonMobil, and argued that not only was it unsuccessfully legally but hurt the state.
“They tried this in Exxon and there was the same problem. Guess what happened? Not only did they lose, Exxon left,” Mr. Kise said.
In 2019, a state judge ruled in favor of Exxon in a civil case brought by Ms. James that argued the company engaged in fraud through how it accounted for the cost of climate change regulations in its financial statements.
Exxon had also sought to countersue, but the case was dismissed in district and appeals courts.
Justice Engoron asked Mr. Kise if he believed harm to a third party was required for disgorgement, which would be the payment in the difference of what the Trump Organization would have paid with the higher interest rate.
“There has to be tresspass on their legal rights,” Mr. Kise answered, meaning that Deutsche Bank has to have not received what they should have.
He said in this case, the state is just making up the different interest rate.
“It’s their burden to establish that in the first instance,” Mr. Kise said. “They need to say, would you have priced these differently? This is why their analysis is speculation. They just substitute their judgment.”
According to Deutsche Bank, President Trump would have qualified for the rates he was given even if his net worth was only $100 million. The SFCs had put his net worth in the multi-billions.
“The AG didn’t call anyone to establish the certifications,” Mr. Kise argued. “They just conjured it up, they’re using it to get around the statute of limitations.”
Mr. Kise pulled up the originating credit memo from the Deutsche Bank for the Doral golf development, which showed $2.4 billion more than reported on the SFC.
“They did their own [analysis],” Mr. Kise argued.
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Defense, Judge Disagree on Materiality
The statutes used by the attorney general require proving both intent to defraud and materiality, and Mr. Kise argued materiality is at the center of the case.
Mr. Kise argued that materiality is “not determined based on the court’s view,” or the state attorneys’ view.
“It’s not material because they say so, I say so, you say so,” Mr. Kise said. “Professor Bartov told you, materiality is what makes a difference to the user, here Deutsch Bank.”
“The AG didn’t introduce any actual evidence. They just relied on the summary judgment decision and ignored the applicable standard,” Mr. Kise said, referencing the pre-trial judgment that found President Trump liable for fraud.
“Material is the user relying on a report. If the bank doesn’t say it’s material, then it’s not material,” Mr. Kise said. “Deutsche Bank is satisfied.”
The bank had done its own analyses, which differed from the Trump Organization SFCs, according to court testimony.
The judge disagreed with Mr. Kise’s argument.
“The bank does not say it’s material. That doesn’t mean it’s not material,” Justice Engoron said.
Mr. Kise protested, arguing no witnesses pointed to materiality.
“Is materiality an objective standard or a subjective standard?” Justice Engoron asked.
“It’s a subjective standard,” Mr. Kise said.
For example, he argued, $2 billion is a lot of money to him, but in the context of a credit report reflecting differences in opinions of valuation, it may not be material, and Deutsche Bank had made its own determinations.
“The only thing the AG cites … is lost money,” Mr. Kise said. “They don’t cite a single witness.”
He added that the state ignored the bank’s own underwriting process in declaring fraud, and could not prove that President Trump would have otherwise received a different interest rate range.
“There is no question that President Trump exceeded the qualifications,” Mr. Kise said. “The commercial real estate range their expert is conjuring up had nothing to do with it.”
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Defense Argues ‘No Concealment,’ No Intention to Defraud
Another property that featured prominently in the trial was President Trump’s penthouse triplex because it had been covered in an investigative Forbes piece.
The 10,000-square-foot private apartment had been listed as 30,000 square feet in the financial statements even though the floor plans showed otherwise, resulting in a valuation well upwards of $100 million.
“The number’s wrong, they fixed it immediately, and there’s no problem,” Mr. Kise argued. “There is no concealment, none of that is evidence of intent.”
Trump Organization executives testified that the tripled figure had been an honest error and not one that substantially changed the asset value. State attorneys had pointed to the fact that the error was not immediately fixed on the SFCs, after a reporter made multiple inquiries, as evidence of an intention to defraud.
Mr. Kise also argued that an expert witness had testified that the disclaimers on the SFCs that ask users to do their own analyses show the opposite of intention to defraud.
“Someone who wants to deceive doesn’t put [this] in writing,” Mr. Kise said.
Critically, GAAP is not a formula and allows for several methodologies.
“Different inputs create different outputs and there’s no fraud intended,” Mr. Kise said.
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Defense Says Main Witness Michael Cohen a ‘Serial Liar’
Mr. Kise argued that Michael Cohen, former personal lawyer for President Trump, was introduced by the attorney general as a main witness in the case.
“[Mr. Cohen] is a serial liar,” Mr. Kise said. He recounted the several admissions Mr. Cohen made during his testimony to lying under oath—to Congress, to a federal judge, and again in the courtroom for the current trial.
Some of the statements were new, including an unprompted admission that Mr. Cohen lied to a federal judge when accepting a plea bargain when he claimed he was not guilty of the tax evasion he pleaded guilty to.
Mr. Cohen also introduced several inconsistencies when he testified about his involvement with the SFCs prepared by the Trump Organization.
He had described a process of handwriting changes to the SFCs that was different from what accounting firm Mazars employee Donald Bender described. He also said President Trump asked for his net worth to be inflated, then backtracked on the claim and said President Trump had never done it so overtly.
“Not only did he have a record of lying and lying and lying, he comes into the courtroom and lies right in front of you,” Mr. Kise said. “One other thing he told you: he hates President Trump, he makes money trashing President Trump. What better way than to walk in here and gin up a whole bunch more media attention for his law office? That’s what he’s doing.”
“The record is replete with omissions of fact … he’s just making up a story,” he said. “It’s also inconsistent with the AG’s own findings of fact.”
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Judge Interrupts, Counters ‘Unrebutted’ Witness Claim
Justice Engoron interrupted the defense’s closing arguments, taking issue with Mr. Kise’s repeated claims that the testimonies he referenced were “unrebutted.”
Mr. Kise said he disagreed; either a witness was rebutted or he wasn’t.
John Shubin, an expert witness in land-use planning, entitlement, and zoning, had testified to the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family home.
A key component of the attorney general’s low valuation of Mar-a-Lago is an easement on the property that requires President Trump to keep it as a club. The state attorneys claim that to market it as a single-family home is fraud.
Mr. Shubin went over several documents regarding the use of Mar-a-Lago, which showed to prohibition of use as a residence as well as a social club.
President Trump had even quipped outside of court that keeping it as a club of only one member, who also lives in the club, was the smartest use of the property.
Mr. Kise also argued that the testimonies of several other expert witnesses were unrebutted, and offered to pull up the testimonies.
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Defense Begins Closing Arguments
Defense attorney Christopher Kise argued that no generally accepted accounting practices (GAAP) were found to have been violated in the Trump Organization SFCs, a claim that has been the foundation of the case.
Far from inflated, the SFCs were actually understated, Mr. Kise argued.
“There’s no question that the brand value of President Trump is worth billions, and the brand is not included in that FCOS as a stand-alone asset,” he said.
Deutsche Bank, whose loan to the Trump Organization featured heavily in the trial, had courted President Trump’s business.
Mr. Kise said President Trump is “one of 10 or 20” high net worth individuals in the world that the bank sought to welcome to their business.
“There’s no need, fiddling with financial statements and changing numbers that are totally inconsequential,” he argued.
He argued that rather than proving that assets were inflated in the SFCs, the attorney general “undervalued by substantial sums” several properties like Mar-a-Lago, which was given an estimated value of as low as $18 million based on county assessor numbers.
“That’s an absurd valuation,” he said.
“That’s not measure, it’s an inappropriate measure. Mar-a-Lago is worth 50 times, maybe 75, could be 100 [times],” he said, pointing to expert testimony estimating a price close to $1.25 billion in 2021.
Mr. Kise argued the attorney general had cherry-picked a handful of line items, but even those contained no material misstatements according to defense expert witnesses including Eli Bartov, a professor of accounting who specializes in recognizing financial fraud in such statements.
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Trump Arrives in Court
Former President Donald Trump arrived at the 40 Wall Street courthouse in Manhattan for closing arguments of his civil trial, telling reporters he would be holding a news conference after the arguments.
“I want to speak, I want to make a summation,” he said. “The judge is not letting me make the summation because I’m going to bring up things he doesn’t want to hear.”
While New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron had barred him from making courtroom remarks a day ago, nothing prevents President Trump from making public statements outside the trial about his case.
“It’s a very unfair trial, I’ve never seen anything like this,” President Trump said, pointing to the novel statute used in the case against him.
“I’m hoping to speak and otherwise reveal all of the defects in this case that should have never been brought,” he said.
President Trump has attended his trial regularly since it began on Oct. 2, often giving reporters updates on his case and lambasting the judge and attorney general for what he describes as a political “witch hunt.”
“It is election interference at the highest level, it’s a disgrace,” he said. He accused state attorneys of being in coordination with the Biden administration, “because he can’t win an election.”
He claimed the financial statements surprised state attorneys pursuing him for fraud, because as a private company the numbers were not previously accessible.
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Defense Attorneys Expected to Argue No Fraud Demonstrated
Meanwhile, the defense is expected to argue that the case premise is entirely flawed.
President Trump has often claimed outside the courtroom that between half and 90 percent of the case falls outside the statute of limitations. Defense attorneys have argued that seven out of 10 of the transactions in the case closed prior to July 13, 2014, and are time-barred.
They have also repeatedly argued that the attorney general failed to show any intent to defraud or material misstatements in the SFCs.
When presenting their case, the defense called on several expert witnesses who rebutted claims of materiality and intention to defraud, testifying that Trump Organization practices used in the SFCs are common in the industry.
Defense attorneys are also expected to attack several of the state’s witnesses on credibility.
Eric Lewis, a rebuttal witness against the defense’s accounting expert, is not a CPA or certified fraud examiner and lacks the expertise to testify on valuation, defense attorneys argued.
Michael Cohen, a former Trump Organization executive vice president and former personal attorney to President Trump, was the only witness to testify regarding intention, the defense argued, and has a track record of lying in court.
During Mr. Cohen’s two-day testimony, he admitted several times to lying in court, and defense attorneys sought to have him impeached as a witness. The judge rejected the defense’s request for a directed verdict after Mr. Cohen’s testimony.
While it was Mr. Cohen’s public claim that President Trump inflated his net worth to gain favorable financial terms that led to the investigation and case, Justice Engoron said he did not think of Mr. Cohen as a “key” witness and said there was plenty of other evidence in the case.
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State Attorneys Expected to Focus on Executives’ Involvement in SFCs
Attorneys with New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office are expected to highlight the involvement of defendants former President Donald Trump, former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, former Trump Organization comptroller Jeff McConney, and Trump Organization executive vice presidents Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in the preparation of company statements of financial condition (SFCs) from 2011 to 2021.
The SFCs are not official or mandatory financial documents, but summaries of President Trump’s net worth year to year, which served as a marketing piece when Trump Organization sought to do deals.
The judge had ruled President Trump liable for fraud in a summary judgment a week before the trial, finding he inflated his net worth by up to $2.2 billion.
With that, the trial was meant to focus on materiality and intent, and the amount President Trump may need to pay in damages.
State attorneys called upon other Trump Organization employees and outside bankers and real estate professionals who had dealt with the organization, seeking to establish the defendants’ reliance on the SFCs in making deals, or their involvement in the line item figures that appear on the SFCs.
Through witness and expert testimony, they sought to establish large differences between the value of specific properties listed on the SFCs versus market value.
The attorney general is now asking for $370 million, up from the $250 million listed in the initial petition.
The number was derived in part from expert testimony from banker Michiel McCarty, who calculated what Trump Organization would have paid in interest if they had been presented different rates based on lower SFCs.
The attorney general is also seeking to bar President Trump from doing business in the state and to ban his adult sons from doing business for five years.
From The Epoch Times
