UPDATED 4:12 P.M.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A defiant Donald Trump attacked New York’s attorney general and the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial as it began on Monday, with a state lawyer accusing the former president of generating more than $100 million by lying about his real estate empire.
Attorney General Letitia James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
Testimony in the Manhattan courtroom began following opening statements, with Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA and longtime accountant for Trump’s businesses, as the state’s first witness.
Trump told reporters before the trial began that the case was a “scam,” a “sham” and a political vendetta by James, and during a lunch break called the Democrat “a corrupt person, a terrible person. Driving people out of New York.”
He was equally unsparing of the judge, Arthur Engoron, calling him a partisan Democrat who is using the case to interfere with the 2024 presidential election, where Trump holds a big lead for the Republican nomination.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred,” Trump told reporters. “This is a judge that should be out of office.”
Trump’s election campaign used the start of the trial for fundraising, saying he was defending his family and reputation from New York Democrats it called “corrupt tyrants.”
The case concerns accusations by the attorney general that Trump inflated his assets and his own net worth from 2011 to 2021 to obtain favorable bank loans and lower insurance premiums.
‘MONA LISA PROPERTIES’
James has accused Trump of materially overvaluing assets including his Trump Tower penthouse apartment in Manhattan, his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and various office towers and golf clubs, and inflated his own fortune by as much as $2.2 billion.
“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other,” Kevin Wallace, a lawyer from James’ office, said in his opening statement. “These are not victimless crimes.”
Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, countered in his opening statement that Trump’s financials were entirely legal.
“He has made a fortune literally being right about real estate investments,” Kise said. “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”
Alina Habba, another lawyer, separately told Engoron that Trump’s assets were “Mona Lisa properties” that could fetch premium prices if Trump sold them.
Trump wore a dark blue suit, a brighter blue tie and an American flag pin on his lapel in court.
As he entered, he called the case “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
James said her office was ready to prove its case.
“The law is both powerful and fragile,” she said. “No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law.”
SIX CLAIMS
Engoron is hearing evidence without a jury.
Last week, the judge found Trump, his adult sons and 10 of his companies liable for fraud, describing in scathing terms how the defendants made up valuations.
He said these included valuing the Trump Tower apartment as if it were three times its actual size and worth $327 million, and estimating that Mar-a-Lago was worth up to $739 million though its assessed value was no more than $28 million.
The judge canceled business certificates for companies controlling pillars of Trump’s empire, and said he would appoint receivers to oversee their dissolution.
Trump responded at the time by calling Engoron “deranged.”
The trial will review six additional claims including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy, and address how much in penalties the defendants should pay.
Before opening arguments, Engoron described himself as a generalist on the law. “One thing I know a lot about is the definition of fraud,” he said.
MANY LEGAL WOES
Wallace played an excerpt from a deposition where Michael Cohen, who had been Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer but has since turned against his former boss, said the goal was “to attain the number that Mr. Trump wanted.”
Kise countered that just because people disagree about valuations does not mean one valuation must be fraudulent.
“They are not designed to be absolutes,” he said.
In his testimony, Bender said he relied on information provided by Trump and his companies when compiling Trump’s personal financial statements.
“The original numbers come from the Trump Organization, and any changes that would have been made at the end would have been approved by the Trump Organization,” Bender said.
Trump frequently spoke with Habba while Bender was on the stand. Bender is expected to resume his testimony on Tuesday.
The trial is scheduled to run through early December.
More than 150 people including Cohen could testify, though much of the trial may be a battle of experts opining on financial documents.
Trump also faces several other legal headaches, which have been a financial drain, and made him the first sitting or former U.S. president to be criminally charged.
He has been criminally charged in Washington over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election, in Georgia over moves to reverse election results there, in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, and in New York over hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jack Queen in New York; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Nick Zieminski and Grant McCool)
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NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump attacked New York’s attorney general and the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial as it began on Monday and a state lawyer accused the former president of generating more than $1 billion by lying about his real estate empire.
The trial in a Manhattan courtroom concerns accusations by state Attorney General Letitia James that Trump inflated his assets and his own net worth from 2011 to 2021 to obtain favorable bank loans and lower insurance premiums.
James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
The state called Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars USA and longtime accountant for Trump’s businesses who worked on Trump’s annual statements of financial condition, as its first witness.
Trump told reporters outside the courtroom before the day’s proceedings began that the case was a “scam,” a “sham” and a political vendetta by James, calling the Democrat “a corrupt person, a terrible person. Driving people out of New York.”
Trump kept up his verbal attacks on the judge. Trump accused Justice Arthur Engoron of being a partisan Democrat who is using the case to interfere with the 2024 presidential election, where Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred,” Trump said to reporters during Monday’s lunch break. “This is a judge that should be out of office.”
James has accused Trump of overvaluing assets including his Trump Tower penthouse apartment in Manhattan, his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and various office towers and golf clubs, and inflated his own fortune by as much as $2.2 billion.
In his opening statement, Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in James’ office, called Trump “materially inaccurate” in describing his finances to banks and insurers.
“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other,” Wallace said. “These are not victimless crimes.”
Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, countered in his opening statement that the financials for Trump and the Trump organization were entirely legal.
“It is one of the most highly successful brands in the world, and he has made a fortune literally being right about real estate investments,” Kise said. “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”
‘WITCH HUNT’
Trump wore a dark blue suit, a brighter blue tie and an American flag pin on his lapel in court. As he entered, he called the case “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.”
He also defended his company as a “great” and “tremendous” business owning “some of the greatest real estate assets in the world. And now I have to go in before a rogue judge.”
James said her office was ready to prove its case.
“The law is both powerful and fragile,” she said before entering the courtroom. “No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law.”
Engoron will hear evidence without a jury.
The case largely concerns penalties that Trump, his adult sons and 10 of his companies must face after Engoron last week found them liable for fraud.
Before opening arguments, Engoron described himself as a generalist on the law. “One thing I know a lot about is the definition of fraud,” he said.
In his Sept. 26 decision, Engoron described in scathing terms how the defendants made up valuations.
He said this included valuing the Trump Tower apartment as if it were three times its actual size, and estimating that Mar-a-Lago was worth up to $739 million though deed restrictions capped it at $28 million.
The judge canceled business certificates for companies controlling pillars of Trump’s empire, and said he would appoint receivers to oversee their dissolution.
Trump responded at the time by calling Engoron “deranged.”
MANY LEGAL WOES
Wallace played an excerpt from a deposition where Michael Cohen, who had been Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer but has since turned against his former boss, said the goal was “to attain the number that Mr. Trump wanted.”
Kise countered that just because people disagree about valuations does not mean one valuation must be fraudulent.
He also said Trump’s banks and insurers knew his valuations were estimates.
“They are not designed to be absolutes,” he said.
Alina Habba, a lawyer speaking on behalf of some defendants, in a separate opening statement called Trump’s assets “Mona Lisa properties,” and said Mar-a-Lago alone would fetch more than $1 billion if Trump sold it.
The trial is scheduled to run through early December.
More than 150 people including Cohen could testify, though much of the trial may be a battle of experts opining on financial documents.
Trump also faces several other legal headaches, which have been a financial drain, and made him the first sitting or former U.S. president to be criminally charged.
He has been criminally charged in Washington over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election, in Georgia over moves to reverse election results there, in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, and in New York over hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jack Queen in New York; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Nick Zieminski and Grant McCool)
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump gained more than $1 billion by lying about the value of his assets to banks and insurers, lawyers for the New York state attorney general told a judge on Monday in a civil fraud case that could deal a major blow to the former president’s real estate empire.
Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in state Attorney General Letitia James’ office, said in his opening statement in a downtown Manhattan courtroom that Trump described his finances to banks and insurers in a “materially inaccurate way” for a decade.
Wallace said Trump did this to get better loan terms and lower insurance premiums, illegally generating more than $1 billion of financial benefits.
“This isn’t business as usual, and this isn’t how sophisticated parties deal with each other,” Wallace said. “These are not victimless crimes.”
Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, countered in his opening statement that the financials for Trump and the Trump organization were entirely legal.
“It is one of the most highly successful brands in the world, and he has made a fortune literally being right about real estate investments,” Kise said. “There was no intent to defraud, there was no illegality, there was no default, there was no breach, there was no reliance from the banks, there were no unjust profits, and there were no victims.”
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is accused by James of inflating his assets and his own net worth from 2011 to 2021.
James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
Before entering the courtroom, Trump called the case “a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time.
“We have a great company. I built a great company. It’s tremendous,” he continued. “It’s got some of the greatest real estate assets in the world. And now I have to go in before a rogue judge.”
Trump wore a dark blue suit, a brighter blue tie and an American flag pin on his lapel.
He again called James, who is Black, “racist,” and said the Democrat had a vendetta against him.
James said her office was ready to prove its case.
“The law is both powerful and fragile,” she said before entering the courtroom. “No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law.”
MANY LEGAL WOES
Trump’s trial is overseen by Justice Arthur Engoron, who will hear evidence without a jury.
It largely concerns penalties that Trump, his adult sons and 10 of his companies must face after Engoron last week found them liable for fraud.
Before opening arguments, Engoron described himself as a generalist on the law. “One thing I know a lot about is the definition of fraud,” he said.
In his Sept. 26 decision, Engoron described in scathing terms how the defendants made up valuations.
That included Trump calculating the value of his apartment in Trump Tower as if it were three times its actual size.
Engoron canceled business certificates for companies controlling pillars of Trump’s empire, and said he would appoint receivers to oversee their dissolution.
The ruling covers some of his most valuable properties Trump Tower, his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his family estate in Westchester County, New York, and various office buildings and golf clubs.
Specifics for implementing the order have not been decided, but the loss of those prized assets would be a major blow to Trump’s finances.
James accused Trump of “grossly” inflating the values of his assets, and inflated own net worth by as much as $2.2 billion.
She said that inflated financials included listing Mar-a-Lago as being worth up to $739 million though deed restrictions capped it at $28 million.
Wallace played an excerpt from a deposition where Michael Cohen, who had been Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer but has since turned against his former boss, said the goal was “to attain the number that Mr. Trump wanted.”
The trial is scheduled to run through early December. While more than 150 people could testify, much of the trial may be a battle of experts opining on financial documents.
Trump faces several other legal headaches, and while they have been a financial drain, none has dented his commanding lead over rivals for the Republican nomination.
Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. president to be criminally charged, is under indictment in four separate cases.
He has been charged in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, in Washington over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election, in Georgia over moves to reverse election results there, and in New York over hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in all four cases.
(Reporting by Jack Queen; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Cynthia Osterman and Nick Zieminski)
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump went on trial on Monday for fraud, in a civil case against him and his family business that could deal a major blow to the former U.S. president’s real estate empire.
Kevin Wallace, a lawyer in state Attorney General Letitia James’ office, said in his opening statement that Trump described his finances to banks and insurers in a “materially inaccurate way” for a decade.
Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is accused by James of inflating the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure better loan and insurance terms.
“This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time,” Trump said before entering the courtroom at a state court in downtown Manhattan.
“We have a great company. I built a great company. It’s tremendous,” he continued. “It’s got some of the greatest real estate assets in the world. And now I have to go in before a rogue judge.”
Trump wore a dark blue suit, a brighter blue tie and an American flag pin on his lapel.
He again called James, who is Black, “racist,” and said the Democrat had a vendetta against him.
James said her office was ready to prove its case.
“The law is both powerful and fragile,” she said before entering the courtroom. “No matter how much money you think you may have, no one is above the law.”
Trump’s trial comes six days after Justice Arthur Engoron, who presidents over the case, found Trump, his adult sons and 10 of his companies liable for fraud. The trial largely concerns the penalties they must face.
James is seeking at least $250 million in fines, a permanent ban against Trump and his sons Donald Jr and Eric from running businesses in New York and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
Before opening arguments, Engoron described himself as a generalist on the law. “One thing I know a lot about is the definition of fraud,” he said.
MANY LEGAL WOES
In his Sept. 26 decision, Engoron described in scathing terms how they made up valuations.
That included Trump calculating the value of his apartment in Trump Tower as if it were three times its actual size.
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” he said.
Engoron canceled business certificates for companies controlling pillars of Trump’s empire – including Trump Tower and his golf clubs in New York – and said he would appoint receivers to oversee their dissolution.
The ruling covers some of his most valuable properties including his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his estate in Westchester County, New York, and various office buildings and golf clubs.
Specifics of how that order would be implemented have not been decided, but the loss of those prized assets would be a major blow to Trump’s finances. If Engoron tacked on fines and business restrictions, that damage would compound.
The trial is scheduled to run through early December.
While more than 150 people could testify, much of the trial may be a battle of experts opining on financial documents.
James alleges Trump reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten savings by “grossly” inflating the values of his assets to get better deals from lenders and insurers.
She said that included listing Mar-a-Lago as being worth up to $739 million though deed restrictions capped it at $28 million.
The case is one of several legal headaches Trump faces as he campaigns to retake the White House in the 2024 election.
None has dented his commanding lead over rivals for the Republican nomination, though they have been a financial drain.
Trump, the first sitting or former U.S. president to be criminally charged, is under indictment in four separate cases.
He has been charged in Florida over his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, in Washington D.C. over his efforts to undo his loss in the 2020 presidential election, in Georgia over moves to reverse election results there, and in New York over hush money payments to a porn star.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in all four cases.
(Reporting by Jack Queen; Additional reporting by Luc Cohen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Cynthia Osterman and Nick Zieminski)
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(Reuters) – Donald Trump said he will appear in a New York court on Monday at the beginning of a civil fraud trial in which the former president will face what he said was a “sham” accusation that he fraudulently inflated the value of properties and other assets.
“I’m going to Court tomorrow morning to fight for my name and reputation,” Trump said on his Truth Social account on Sunday.
Trump lashed out in his post at New York state Attorney General Letitia James and the judge in the case, who Trump called “unfair, unhinged, and vicious in his pursuit of me”.
In a decision last week, New York state Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and his family business fraudulently inflated the value of his properties and other assets to suit their business needs.
Trump and the other defendants have argued that they never committed fraud.
“He values Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, at 18 Million Dollars, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount. His valuations are FRAUDULENT in pursuit of Election Interference, and worse. THIS WHOLE CASE IS SHAM!!! See you in Court – Monday morning,” Trump said in his post, referring to the judge and the case.
Trump had been sued in September 2022 by state attorney James, who accused him, his adult sons, the Trump Organization and others of “staggering fraud” in how they valued properties.
James is seeking at least $250 million in penalties, a ban on Trump and his sons, Donald Jr and Eric, from running businesses in New York, and a five-year commercial real estate ban against Trump and the Trump Organization.
The case is unrelated to the four criminal indictments that Trump faces, including for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; editing by Robert Birsel)
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