Trump rails against judge in testimony: ‘the fraud is on behalf of the court’ – latest updates | Donald Trump

Hugo Lowell

Trump returned to assailing the judge almost as soon as he was out of the courtroom for the lunch break, angrily posting on Truth Social a graphic of the judge’s earlier remark admonishing him for making irrelevant statements during his testimony.

The post quoted NY supreme court justice Arthur Engoron saying “No, I’m not here to hear what [Trump] has to say” – a line that came during a furious exchange between the judge and Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba.

The exchange was remarkable for its tone and hostility. Engoron is clearly furious at Trump and his legal team, but reserved particular ire at Trump lawyer Habba when she pushed back at him and said he was there to listen to Trump’s responses. The judge turned to her and, almost shouting, told her to “SIT DOWN”. Trump was shaking his head as his lawyers were dressed down, and said unprompted: “This is a very very unfair trial and I hope the public is watching.”

It may be the Trump team’s intention to aggravate the judge and provoke him into a mistake that they might be able to use to undercut the case on appeal. But it’s a dangerous game because Engoron has a lot of power in his own courtroom, and has twice threatened to draw “negative inferences” from Trump’s testimony – which could lead to him imposing the most severe sanctions. NYAG has asked for a $250m penalty.

During an eventful morning session many, if not most, of the key moments involved Trump attacking his opponents and calling them political operatives, making for a courtroom drama that often involved more theatrics than facts.

Here are some key points from the testimony so far:

• Judge Arthur Engoron, whom Trump has repeatedly bashed as a political operative and other smears along those lines, threatened to boot him off the witness stand for not answering questions succinctly. Engoron said to Trump lawyer Chris Kise: “I beseech you to control him. If you can’t, I will; I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.” Not surprisingly, Trump groused: “This is a very unfair trial…and I hope the public is watching.”

• Trump effectively accused Engoron – who determined the ex-president’s real estate valuations were fraudulent – of being a fraud. ‘The fraud is on behalf of the court,” Trump ranted. “He says that I’m a fraud … He’s the one that didn’t value property correctly.” He also told Engoron: “You’re wrong.”

• The core of James’ civil fraud trial is Trump’s inflation of real estate assets so, it’s noteworthy that he seemed to recognize that his Trump Tower triplex might have been over-stated. Asked about the fact that the triplex had been listed as 30,000sf on financial statements – but was only about 10,000sf – Trump said it could have been a miscalculation. Whoever came up with the square footage, Trump said, just tripled the floor space for each floor. But, “they didn’t take out elevator shafts” and other non-usable square footage, he surmised.

• Trump showed some self-awareness in court this morning when describing his political ascent. While insisting that his net worth was not over-stated, Trump repeatedly pointed to the value of the Trump name. “The most valuable asset was the brand value,” he said. “If you look at the companies, the brand value is a very big part of the asset value of the company.” Shortly thereafter, he said, “I became president because of my brand.

During still more rambling testimony, Trump has doubled down in attacking judge Engoron, who prior to trial ruled that the ex-president’s real estate valuations were fraudulent.

The proceedings spiraled for Trump when he once again claimed that a “disclaimer clause” atop his financial statements insulated him from legal scrutiny, “where you don’t have to get sued by the attorney general of the state of New York” if there’s a mistake.

“No, no, no, no,” Engoron said. “Read my opinion again.”

“You’re wrong, in my opinion,” Trump shot back.

So began the rant.

“He ruled against me without knowing anything about me,” Trump said.

“He ruled against me and said I was a fraud without knowing anything about me. He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me.”

“The fraud is on behalf of the court!” Trump said, repeatedly pointing. ‘“He says that I’m a fraud…he’s the one that didn’t value property correctly.”

“How do you do that? How do you rule against somebody and call them a fraud, as the president of the United States who did a great job…”

“It’s a terrible thing you’ve done…you believed that political hack back there, and that’s unfortunate.”

Wallace asked Trump whether he was done.

“Done,” the ex-president replied.

Trump is being grilled on how valuations were determined for Mar-a-Lago and his golf resort in Aberdeen, Scotland–and the questioning devolved into criticism of judge Engoron and James.

Through questioning, Wallace has noted that the property valuations were deeply impacted by value of potential developments–-which have yet to happen.

Trump insisted that including development potential was above board, saying that the properties had the land area described.

“They’re spending $1bn down the road,” Trump said of Mar-a-Lago having value, with our without being developed differently.

As for his Scotland property, Trump said he didn’t need to build hundreds of thousands of houses right now, saying “I can do it anytime I want.”

He said that he did develop the property by building a golf course, which he described as “an artist ic expression” and “the greatest gold course ever built.”

“It’s one of the greatest pieces of land I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I just want to sit with–it’s called an investment.”

Pressed on why there hadn’t been building, Trump said: “I have a castle that we renovated but now, I want it just the way it is.”

“There’s nothing wrong with sitting on a property and waiting if you’re willing to play their game.”

Trump insisted that he had the money, “a lot more money” than people thought.

Gesturing emphatically at points, Trump once again railed against the AG’s office, saying that his financial statements went above and beyond in trying to be accurate.

“People don’t know how good a company I built, because people like you go around and try and demean me and try and hurt me” because of politics, Trump said.

“And in her case, definitely political,” he said of James.

“I think she’s a political hack, I think she used this case to try and become governor and she’s successfully used it to become attorney general,” Trump answered when asked if he disagreed with James’ assessments.

“I think she should be ashamed of herself.”

Judge Engoron has lost his patience with Trump repeatedly failing to answer questions without rambling, once again urging lawyer Chris Kise “control him” and warning “if you can’t, I will; I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”

The digression that drew Engoron’s ire stemmed from Wallace’s question about the valuation of 40 Wall Street. Trump insisted that the valuation was too low.

“The tower is a perfect measurement for turning that into condos and I have the right to do that and at some point, we or somebody will do that––that’s the highest and best use, in which case $550m is a very low number.”

“All you have to do is look at a picture of the building,” he continued. “You say ‘that’s worth a whole lot more.’”

“Mr Kise, that was a simple yes or no question,” Engoron said.

“The question was whether he believed that was an accurate number. We got another speech.”

Engoron threatned to boot Trump from proceedings and urged Kise to control his client or else.

“If you can’t, I will. I will excuse him and draw every negative inference that I can.”

Kise said that it was only right for Engoron to hear Trump out.

“No, I do not want to hear everything that he has to say,” said Engoron with increasing annoyance. “He has a lot to say that has nothing to do with the case or the questions.”

“I would urge the court to take in all the questions,” Kise pushed back. “This is a situation where you have, on the stand, [a witness] whose a candidate for president of the United States.”

Kise then invoked Trump’s campaign, saying of the testimony that: “Having him here takes away from that effort.”

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, voiced opposition. Engoron eventually told them “sit down already.”

When questioning resumed, Trump grumbled: “This is a very unfair trial…and I hope the public is watching.”

Trump’s approach to defending himself against accusations that he over-valued real estate is interesting, to say the least. Trump said that if he wanted to inflate his assets on financial statements, he could have done it just by using his name.

“The most valuable asset was the brand value,” he said. “If you look at the companies, the brand value is a very big part of the asset value of the company.”

“If I wanted to build up a statement,” Trump said, “I would have added brand value here. and I would have increased it 10s of millions of dollars”

“It’s an asset,” he said of his brand. “Coca-Cola has it, and other big companies, public companies” have it.”

“I became president because of my brand,” Trump also said. “I sell books at levels that are incredible because of my brand.”

Donald Trump might have been prohibited from commenting on judge Arthur Engoron’s staff, but he freely railed against the jurist less than 30 minutes into his testimony.

The ex-president grew testy when asked about financial documents from approximately one decade ago; Trump’s alleged inflation of real estate assets is at the heart of his civil fraud trial.

When Wallace asked Trump about the document, he shot back: “It’s so long ago this is well beyond the statute of limitations.” Trump insisted that others would be exempt from scrutiny for a document this old.

“But I’m probably not, because I’m sure the judge will rule against me, because he always rules against me.”

“Mr Kise, was that comment necessary part of the narrative in answering the question,” Engoron said to Trump attorney Chris Kise, who had asked for his client to have some latitude in answering questions.

“Mr Trump, please just answer the question. You can attack me, you can do whatever you want, but answer the question,” Engoron said.

As questioning progressed, Trump grew increasingly incensed by Kise’s questions about his real estate being over-valued.

“Your case was that I had no money,” Trump said. “You sued me on the basis that Trump had no money and he wrote up phony things and he defrauded banks…”

“And even though these banks were paid back in full, there was no harm, no anything, everybody got their money in full, there was no victim,” Trump also said.

“The banks don’t even know what they’re doing in this case.”

“Mr Kise, can you control your client?” Engoron interjected. “This is not a political rally. This is a courtroom .”

“I’ve asked several times. I’ve asked the witness several times to answer the question,” the judge also said. “I don’t want editorializing. We’ll be here forever and accomplish nothing.”

“The people call Donald J. Trump.”

The ex-president has just taken the witness stand in the New York State Attorney General’s case against him. He had a dour demeanor as he was sworn in and sat down.

Just before 10 am local time, Trump walked into the courtroom at 60 Centre street to testify in New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ civil fraud case against him.

His testimony could start within moments.