Former President Donald Trump returned to a New York City courthouse Tuesday to be a spectator as one of his company's accountants testified in the civil fraud trial threatening to disrupt his real estate empire.
The lawsuit brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James alleges that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and inflating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.
Trump voluntarily attended the first three days of the trial, Oct. 2-4. He turned his appearance into a campaign stop by complaining about the case at every opportunity to TV cameras in the hallway outside the courtroom. On Tuesday, he repeated the tactic, airing his greivances at James and boasting of his campaign success for seven minutes before entering the courtroom.
"She shouldn't be allowed to be attorney general. She's defrauded the public with this trial. She said that Mar-a-Lago, she convinced the judge that Mar-a-Lago was worth — in Palm Beach, Florida, the most expensive land in the world, I guess, and the most expensive houses definitely in the world — that Mar-a-Lago, the biggest house, the most spectacular place in all of Florida was worth $18 million when it's worth approximately, could be close to 100 times that amount," Trump said, claiming his Florida country club residence is actually worth over $1 billion.
"And I should be in Iowa now. I should be in New Hampshire now. I should be in South Carolina now or someplace else campaigning. The good news is we're about 60 points up on everybody and we're leading Biden by 11 and that's why they're doing this because this is all coming out of Washington," the former president added, faslely inflating his polling numbers in both the GOP primary (where he leads by roughly 40 percentage points) and a hypothetical general election against President Joe Biden (where he polls about even with Biden) while also baselessly claiming the civil fraud trial in a New York state court was being directed and influenced by national Democrats.
After repeatedly attacking the judge in speeches and on social media — including as recently as Tuesday morning in a social media post describing Judge Arthur Engoron as a "Radical Left Democrat Judge, WHO IS HIGHLY POLITICAL" — the former president took a more concillatory tone while still arguing the trial is rigged against him.
"I've gotten to respect the judge, I like the judge, I like him, but it's not fair because I don't know how he can make a fair decision in this. He's got all the Democrats pushing him left and right, pushing him around like a pinball. And it's a very unfair situtation that they put me in," Trump said. "I want a jury, I'm entitled to a jury, but this is a case that should have never been brought."
The suit was brought under a state law that doesn't allow for a jury.
Inside the courtroom, Trump sat beside his legal team, including top adviser and media surrogate Alina Habba. His son, Eric Trump, who maintains day-to-day control of the family business, was also in the courtroom. James sat feet away from the former president as prosecutors from her office interrogated Trump Organization accountant Donna Kidder.
Kidder, who was not cross-examined by Trump's team, testified that her work maintaining financial documents and sharing them with external parties was overseen and influenced by former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who testified last week after spending 100 days at New York City's Rikers Island jail for tax fraud earlier this year. Kidder also testified about her work for Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka.
As she filled out spreadsheets documenting the value of a Trump-owned Wall Street office building, Kidder recalled Weisselberg told her to act as if the skyscraper would be fully leased by a certain date, even if some space was currently vacant. For a Park Avenue residential tower, she was told to project that unsold units “would all sell out” in a certain timeframe.
The accountant said she wasn’t aware that those assumptions would be used to improve Trump’s bottom line on financial statements that helped his company make deals and get financing and insurance.
State lawyers on Tuesday are also expected to call Jack Weisselberg, Allen Weisselberg's son, who arranged financing for Trump while an executive at Ladder Capital.
After 90 minutes in the courtroom, Trump reemerged around 11:30 a.m. and spoke to the press again briefly, offering Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, his endorsement for the House speakership ahead of an expected vote later on Tuesday. Then when he returned after a 15 minute break, he said his wife Melania thinks the trial "is a total disgrace, she thinks it's very very unfair, and all of this is election interference. It's all election interference and it all starts with the DOJ. It starts with Biden."
The Department of Justice and the president of the United States have no role in the litigation of a state civil trial. And while the Department of Justice is prosecuting Trump in two separate criminal cases — both brought by a special counsel operating independently of DOJ leadership — there is no evidence of influence by Biden, who has insisted he is steering clear of the cases.
An outside appraiser, Doug Larson, also testified that he didn't condone a former Trump Organization comptroller's methods of valuing properties.condone a former Trump Organization comptroller's methods of valuing properties.
“It doesn't make sense,” Larson said of the way the ex-controller reached a $287.6 million value for a prominent Trump-owned retail space in 2013.
James’ lawsuit alleges that Trump and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and inflating his net worth on his financial statements.
“Mr. Trump may lie, but numbers don't lie,” she said after court.
“He can call me names, he can engage in distractions," she said, but "his entire empire was built on nothing but lies and on sinking sand.”
Trump says his assets were actually undervalued and maintains that disclaimers on his financial statements amounted to telling banks and other recipients to check out his numbers themselves.
Larson, a real estate brokerage executive and certified appraiser, assessed Trump properties for lenders. He was taken aback when told on the stand that he was repeatedly cited as an outside expert in former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney ’s valuation spreadsheets.
“It’s inappropriate and inaccurate,” Larson testified. “I should have been told, and an appraisal should have been ordered.”
When it came to valuing a storefront formerly known as Niketown, McConney relied on rates of return for a different type of property, rather than for comparable retail space, Larson testified. He also said he appraised a Trump-owned Wall Street building at $540 million in 2015, while McConney valued it at $735.4 million on Trump’s financial statement.
In cross-examining Larson, Trump lawyer Lazaro Fields asked whether anything "prevents President Trump, as a real estate developer, from valuing his own properties."
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t know,” Larson responded. Asked again, Larson said: “Not that I know of.”
Trump's appearance was initially supposed to coincide with testimony by Michael Cohen, his former attorney turned foe. But Cohen's planned appearance on the witness stand was delayed until at least next week, due to a health problem.
Cohen said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he isn't dodging Trump. On Monday, he said he expects his estranged ex-boss to be in the courtroom when he does testify.
"I am thankful the medical condition, while incredibly painful, does not require an immediate procedure," Cohen said in a text message. "I anticipate appearing as soon as the pain subsides. When I do testify, I am certain Donald will be in attendance, sitting with his lawyers at the defendant's table."
The attorney general started investigating Trump in 2019 after Cohen testified to Congress that the billionaire politician had a history of misrepresenting the value of assets to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
During his first visit to the court earlier this month, Trump said the trial was a "scam," and accused James, a Democrat, of attempting to hurt his chances in the election.
After Trump maligned a key court staffer on social media, the judge called him into a closed-door meeting on the trial's second day, issued a limited gag order, warning participants in the case not to smear members of his staff. The judge also ordered Trump to delete the post.
Trump's first trip to the trial attracted hordes of news media and led to enhanced security measures at the courthouse, including extra screening checkpoints, metal barricades along the streets and Secret Service agents lining the courtroom walls.
Trump's return to court comes a day after the judge in his Washington, D.C. election interference criminal case imposed a narrow gag order barring him from making statements targeting prosecutors, possible witnesses and court staff.
In a pretrial decision last month, a judge resolved the top claim in James' lawsuit, ruling that Trump and his company committed years of fraud by exaggerating the value of Trump's assets and net worth on his financial statements.
As punishment, Engoron ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies, putting the future oversight of Trump Tower and other marquee properties in doubt. An appeals court has since blocked enforcement of that aspect of the ruling, at least for now.
The trial concerns six remaining claims in the lawsuit, including allegations of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.