By Priscilla DeGregory and Ben Kochman
Former President Donald Trump is set to testify Monday at the $250 million civil fraud trial that could decide the fate of the New York real estate empire that propelled him to fame.
Trump, 77, is expected to take the witness stand at around 10 a.m. in Manhattan Supreme Court in the lawsuit brought by New York State Attorney General Letitia James accusing him of exaggerating his wealth to dupe banks and insurance companies and save money.
His testimony will mark the climax of a month-long-trial in which the AG’s office has grilled a steady stream of accountants, appraisers and Trump Organization officials — including the ex-president’s eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who are also defendants in the suit.
Both of them testified last week that they weren’t involved in their dad’s annual “statements of financial condition” — documents James alleges Trump falsified for a decade by inflating his assets to the tune of billions a year for better loan and insurance terms.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron — who is deciding the case — already found Trump liable for fraud in a ruling issued days before trial, writing that the real estate mogul had valued his assets as if he lived in a “fantasy world” on financial filings between 2011 and 2021.
The filings contained “indisputably false” claims, Engoron wrote — including that Trump’s soaring Midtown penthouse was 30,000 square feet when it was in fact closer to 11,000 feet.
Engoron ordered Trump’s New York-based businesses to be dissolved — which could force the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner to eventually turn over Trump Tower and other properties to a court-ordered receiver.
Trump’s legal team is appealing that ruling, and James’ office agreed to stay the cancellations as the case rolls on.
Six other claims remain to be decided, including three “conspiracy” charges, where James’ office is tasked with proving that Trump had the “intent” to falsify business records and defraud insurers.
A key witness for the state’s conspiracy case is Trump’s ex-personal attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen, who claimed on the stand that his old boss had him “reverse engineer” his assets to meet “whatever number” Trump wanted.
But under cross examination from Trump’s lawyers, Cohen admitted that the ex-president had not explicitly “directed” him to inflate the values.
Instead, Trump operated “like a mob boss” and merely strongly implied that he and former Trump Org Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg were meant to manipulate the filings to reach Trump’s desired inflated totals, Cohen testified.
“He tells you what he wants without specifically telling you,” Cohen said.
Trump is likely to be asked about these alleged meetings with Cohen and Weisselberg on Monday.
It’ll technically be Trump’s second time testifying during the trial in the lower Manhattan courtroom — though he’ll speak for far longer this time and is expected to be the sole witness called Monday.
When Cohen testified on Oct. 25, Trump was called to the witness stand for a surprise hearing after he appeared to malign the court’s lead law clerk while speaking to reporters during a morning break.
After Trump claimed that he was actually blasting Cohen and not the clerk, an unconvinced Engoron scolded him as “not credible” — and fined him $10,000 — for violating a limited gag order from early on in the trial barring the former president from speaking publicly about court staff.
Keeping track of all of Trump’s indictments
Former President Donald Trump is facing 91 charges in four different criminal cases following his time in office.
Here are all of the legal troubles Trump will face as he heads toward the 2024 election.
Mar-a-Lago classified docs
- The former president received 40 felony counts related to his storage of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
- Trump is the first former president to receive a federal indictment.
- Trump is accused of taking around 11,000 documents, some containing sensitive national security secrets, and hoarding them in a haphazard manner at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate.
- The most serious charge, in this case, carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’
- Trump was indicted by a New York grand jury in March over “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.
- The former president is accused of falsifying business records in connection with the payments
- Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about a sexual encounter she claimed the two had.
- Trump pleaded not guilty to the charges and is trying to have the case moved to federal court. He is set to appear in court on Jan. 4, 2024.
2020 election overturn bid
- Special counsel Jack Smith charged the ex-president with four counts in connection with his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
- Prosecutors charged that the 45th president’s incessant claims of election fraud costing him re-election “were false and [Trump] knew they were false.”
- The indictment is the second brought by Smith against the 77-year-old Trump.
- A mob of Trump supporters breached the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following his speech on the Ellipse.
- The charges against the former president include violation of the Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, conspiracy, false statements, and asking a public official to violate their oath of office.
Georgia 2020 election probe
- Trump and 18 of his allies and supporters were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.
- The former president faces 13 counts in the case, matching a docket prematurely posted to the Fulton County Superior Court’s website around noon.
New York civil cases
- The former president was sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
- James is alleging that Trump and three of his children lied to banks about his assets and net worth by billions.
- She is seeking a $250 million fine and a ban on Trump doing business in New York state.
- In another civil case, Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s.
- Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages from Trump.
- Trump was not found guilty of rape after the jury rejected Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room.
Trump had already been fined $5,000 and warned twice about making public attacks about law clerk Allison Greenfield, whom he disparaged near the start of the trial in a since-deleted post on Truth Social.
The AG’s office had planned to call Trump as their last witness in the case, but the ex-president’s daughter Ivanka Trump is now slated to testify on Wednesday as the state wraps up its case. Courts are closed Tuesday for election day.
Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday when his eldest sons were in court railing against the case, the judge and the AG, claiming his kids were being “persecuted.”
The 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner has attended the trial for seven days — as he is not required to show up for the civil case, like he would be in a criminal one.
He took every opportunity in front of media cameras at court to blast the judge, the AG and the trial as a political witch hunt and has denied any wrongdoing.
The five weeks of trial so far have seen the AG herself in attendance observing from the front row on key days frequently when Trump was also in attendance and when important witnesses like the Trump sons testified.
On Thursday, an appellate court judge denied Ivanka’s bid to try to get out of testifying in the case — which she was dismissed from earlier this year over the statute of limitations. Following the loss, she withdrew her appeal.
When the AG’s case wraps after Ivanka’s testimony, Trump’s lawyers will then be able to put on their own case and question their own witnesses — of which they have 128 listed to potentially call.
Trial is expected to end around Christmas.
