Day: January 12, 2024

Here’s what you may have missed since testimony ended in mid-December.

James demanded $370 million in fines against Trump and his companies as well as a lifetime ban on the former president and two former company executives from the state’s real estate industry.

The proposed fines include $168 million in interest allegedly saved through fraud; $152 million from the sale of the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., the site of one of Trump’s former hotels; $60 million through the transfer of the contract for Trump’s former Ferry Point golf course in the Bronx borough of New York; and $2.5 million from severance agreements for former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Howard Weisselberg and ex-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney.

James made brief remarks this evening after the trial concluded, saying she was unbothered by Trump’s personal attacks and that the case was only about the law.

“This case has never been about politics or personal vendetta or about name-calling. This case is about the facts and the law, and Mr. Trump violated the law,” James said.

She added that her office had produced evidence showing the scope of the illegality and fraud that she said enriched Trump and his family.

James’ remarks were under two minutes and she did not take questions from reporters.

Trump’s civil fraud trial is over.

Attorneys for the AG’s office finished their closing arguments shortly before 5 p.m. ET.

Engoron said he will try to have a final decision by Jan. 31, adding that there is “no guarantee” on that timing.

Engoron interrupted closing arguments from the prosecution this afternoon to say that their post-trial brief did not show much evidence that Eric and Don Jr. knew there was fraud.

The interruption came as Amer was arguing that Eric and Don Jr. “did not do anything to fulfill their responsibilities,” and that a decision they allegedly made to leave statements of financial condition with Weisselberg and McConney and not Hawthorne demonstrated their intent to defraud and inflate their father’s net worth.

Amer argued for the AG’s office that the “buck stops” with Trump when it comes to the former president’s alleged intent to defraud.

“He was the one responsible for the preparation and the buck stops with him,” Amer said, adding that Trump had personally signed bank certifications “so he clearly knew the statements were being used to satisfy the loan guarantees and was important to make sure net worth was high as possible.”

The closing arguments by the attorney general’s staff have resumed.

The court has taken another break.

In response to a comment from Wallace calling Trump’s witnesses “a murderers’ row” of experts, Kise objected and expressed outrage.

“You talk about me and my client like that? This is outrageous,” Kise said.

Engoron then asked if Wallace was actually accusing them of murder and Wallace said he was making a baseball reference to a good lineup of hitters.

Speaking to reporters in the lobby of his building at 40 Wall St., the former president dismissed New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against him, his business and his family members who are defendants in the lawsuit.

Trump called James “a political hack” and said the prosecutors “don’t have any facts … they don’t have any evidence against it.” He said that James has “serious Trump derangement syndrome.”

“We won this case already in the Court of Appeals,” Trump said, adding that Engoron “has been very, very slow to accept that opinion because that’s not the opinion that he wants.”

Trump is speaking now and has already commented on several of the cases that he is facing, lumping the criminal and civil cases together to argue they are politically motivated.

Trump has departed the New York courthouse and is headed to his news conference.

The lawyers are back in the courtroom for the second half of closing arguments.

Trump will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. ET at his property at 40 Wall St.

That will mean Trump won’t be in the courtroom while the attorney general’s office gives its closing arguments.

Trump went on — without any interruption from Engoron or James’ team — and attacked James, accusing her of election interference.

“You have your own agenda,” Trump angrily said to Engoron. “You can’t listen for more than one minute!”

There may be a reason that James’ staff didn’t interrupt. The AG’s office may have struck gold because some of what Trump said was so damaging to him, especially his explanation of the triplex square footage “error.”

Lawyer Kise asked for permission to have Trump speak.

Engoron replied, “Do you promise to just comment on the facts and the law?”

Trump started talking immediately without agreeing.

Speaking from the table sitting next to his lawyers, Trump denied all wrongdoing while Engoron quietly listened.

Trump maintained that banks “got all their money back” and “they weren’t defrauded” while repeating his call to receive damages “for what we’ve gone through.”

The former president accused James’ office of not providing one document proving her allegations that he had inflated his financial statements and argued that the case presents a “situation where I’m an innocent man.”

“The legal scholars looking at this case find it disgraceful,” he said, adding, “This is a fraud on me.”

The attorney general’s office will begin closing arguments when the court resumes at a little after 2 p.m.

Cliff Robert, presenting the defense argument for Trump’s sons, has less than 15 minutes, but he’s focused: No witness has testified to Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr. having anything more than “peripheral involvement” with the statements of financial condition, he argues.

Robert says his clients should not lose their ability to do business on the basis of those statements of financial condition, which he argues are either accurate or contain non-material, unintended mistakes.

Alina Habba, pacing the well of the courtroom, says the case started before James was elected and points at the attorney general. Engoron reminds her to stick to the facts, which she says she is trying to do, but that James’ conduct is part of the factual record.

James has not proven her case in the six weeks of trial, Habba argues, and repeats the defense’s allegation that Cohen lied on the stand.

She then focuses on Weisselberg and McConney, whom she represents, and says the attorney general used them as “pawns” because “they can’t get to the president.”

Before we get to the attorney general’s closing argument, Cliff Robert and Alina Habba, who represent other Trump defendants, including Eric and Don Jr., will get limited time to pile on. But after lunch, when we do hear from the AG, these are the issues on which their response matters most to me:

1 — A theme throughout Kise’s presentation is that no one, least of all Deutsche Bank, was hurt by any valuation “discrepancies.” And Kise was right that the Deutsche Bank witnesses here were largely uncomplaining; at best, they helped establish that by 2017, the bank’s risk tolerance had changed and that Trump was no longer a candidate for big-time loans. The statute under which the AG is seeking relief doesn’t require a victim, but this case has consumed serious taxpayer resources as well as the AG’s own attention, as demonstrated by her frequent trial attendance. So how will the AG’s team explain whose interests are served by disabling, or even dismantling, Trump Inc.?

The defense will resume arguments afterward.

In brief remarks to reporters outside of court, Trump maintained that the civil case against him is unfair and bashed James, saying the trial is part of her “publicity to run for office.”

“This is a case that should have never been brought, and I think we should be entitled to damages,” he said.

Kise is arguing that the AG’s disgorgement request would be a “double dip” with respect to the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C. They can’t say the interest rate was too low and seek to claw back Trump’s savings, and then, on the back end, demand his profits from the sale of the lease of that same property — something that occurred to me in reading the briefs.

The amount of money at issue is not inconsequential. Trump’s profits from the sale of that lease was roughly $139 million; the adult children, for their part, each received around $4 million.

As for the $60 million the AG is seeking from Trump’s transfer of the Ferry Point golf course, there was no corresponding loan at issue. The disgorgement sought is based on Trump’s failure to submit a “no material adverse change” letter, for which the contract itself specifies a monetary penalty.

Kise said the attorney general’s proposed fines are based on sheer speculation and argues the banks were satisfied with Trump’s financial statements.

That prompted Engoron to counter, “You’re supposed to disgorge profits” from ill-gotten gains, but there doesn’t have to be evidence of harm to a third person.

Kise disagreed: “They still have to demonstrate some harm, that President Trump got something that he otherwise wouldn’t have received.”

Kise added there was no proof that the loan terms would have been different.

Kise is now arguing that none of the valuation discrepancies was material. The certifications, he notes, advertise that they present a fair reflection of Trump’s financial condition in “all material respects.”

But Kise insists that the AG has gotten materiality wrong. It should be measured by what would have been material to the real-life end user — here, Deutsche Bank — and not what the AG believes should or should not be material.

Kise went on to attack former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, calling him a serial liar who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress.

Trump’s attorney alleged that Cohen said Trump asked Allen Weisselberg to change the statements of financial condition and then admitted that Trump didn’t direct him to inflate the numbers.

Cohen’s testimony about Trump instructing him and Weisselberg to inflate the values in the statements of financial condition — even if Engoron believes it — was never corroborated by other witness or documents.

Kise also said Cohen hates Trump and makes money trashing Trump.

Kise has repeatedly emphasized this morning that certain testimony has been unrebutted. Engoron, during a pause, makes clear that the law does not require him to credit that testimony, even if unrebutted. Kise pushes back, insisting that without a reply, how can Engoron assess the veracity of testimony or credibility of the witness?

Trump is sitting up in his chair listening intently as his lawyer, Chris Kise, is presenting arguments. Kise is standing at a lectern directly in front of the judge and is using a large computer monitor for his notes. The documents he is referring to are being shown on a large TV screen to the gallery. The big monitor is right in front of the attorney general.

Trump attorney Chris Kise is delivering closing arguments. He lamented the lack of a jury. (His lawyers agreed to a bench trial, but it became a point of contention early in the process.)

Kise said that not a single witness in the trial has testified that Trump and his company committed fraud, that banks lost money or that the certifications affected the loan terms.

The only witness James’ office has cited, Kise argues, is Michael Cohen.

This is “a manufactured claim to pursue a political agenda,” Kise said.

While awaiting the daily parade of news photographers, who come in to take shots of the parties and judge, Engoron joked, “I see the usual mixture of anticipation and dread” on the faces of those assembled.

The judge’s principal law clerk is still seated to his immediate right and within easy arm’s length, as she has been throughout the trial.

Speaking to reporters outside of the courthouse, Trump repeated his accusation that the civil fraud case against him is part of an effort to interfere with his presidential campaign.

“It’s election interference at the highest level,” he said, before alleging without evidence that President Joe Biden and the White House are behind the trial “because he can’t win an election fairly.”

Trump said he will hold a news conference after closing arguments, pointing to Engoron’s rejection of his request to speak because “I will say things he doesn’t want to hear.”

“I am hoping to speak to help my lawyers reveal all the defects of this case,” he said.

“We’ll see whether or not the judge allows me to speak, perhaps he won’t but I certainly would like to.”

Testimony in Trump’s civil fraud trial went for 44 days and featured 25 witnesses for the attorney general’s office, 19 defense witnesses and two rebuttal witnesses — fewer than were originally proposed.

Along the way were plenty of spectacles, with testimony from the former president and his family members, gag orders, fines, angry exchanges and dramatic showdowns.

While James’ office set out to show financial statements Trump used to get favorable loans from banks were steeped in fraud, with grossly inflated values, Trump’s team argued he did nothing wrong, saying the statements were largely accurate and that any mistakes weren’t his fault.

Here’s a look at some key testimony from the trial.

Read the full story here.

Trump is in the courtroom, escorted by his son Eric, who is sitting in the first row of the gallery. Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn is here as well.

Anti-Trump protesters blocked traffic outside the New York City courthouse where closing arguments will be held in the civil fraud trial against the former president.

Trump’s motorcade arrived on Pearl Street on the side of the courthouse. Moments earlier, the former president wrote that he was on his way.

“Heading down to the Unconstitutional Witch Hunt in Lower Manhattan. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!” he wrote.

James arrived moments ago at the courthouse in New York for closing arguments, entering by the front steps. She did not answer questions, but waved at the cameras.

Protesters outside of the courthouse were heard chanting, “Thank you, Tish.”

Police on Long Island responded Thursday morning to a bomb threat at the home of Judge Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told NBC News.

The threat came hours before closing arguments in the trial were scheduled to begin, with those arguments expected to proceed.

A Nassau County bomb squad was called to Engoron’s home and was investigating Thursday morning; it is unclear whether Engoron was home at the time. 

Read the full story here.

Closing arguments will be presented in Trump’s civil fraud case, in which James as contented that the former president used fraudulent tactics to inflate his net worth with the intent of obtaining more favorable loan and insurance rates.

In previous testimony, Trump and executives at the Trump Organization denied the inflation of his financial statements, saying that the judge should rule in their favor because such valuations are subjective. But Engoron had already ruled last month that he did not buy their arguments.

Engoron has said he expects to issue a written decision with his findings in the following weeks.

Trump is likely to appeal the trial verdict.