Trump testifies in New York civil fraud case

Former President Donald Trump took the witness stand yesterday to testify in a New York civil trial accusing him and the Trump Organization of manipulating real-estate valuations for financial gain.

📅 Some quick background: New York Attorney General Letitia James has charged Trump and his company with fraudulently inflating the value of their real-estate portfolio by ~$2 billion in recent decades to obtain better financing terms from banks, a strategy which allegedly earned the Trump Org an extra ~$100 million.

• In late September, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Trump and his business are liable for fraud, in a decision which canceled the New York business certificates of Trump, the Trump Org, and other defendants (including two of his sons).
• The current court proceedings, which are scheduled to run through December 22, will decide whether Judge Engoron imposes any or all of the $250 million in fines sought by AG James.

⏩ That brings us to yesterday… Trump spent about seven hours on the witness stand answering questions from the AG’s office, during which he often avoided direct answers (drawing ire from Judge Engoron), and characterized the charges from Democratic AG James as politically motivated.

The former president also denied any direct involvement in the Trump Org’s annual financial statements, and said he believes they underestimated his net worth by failing to capture the full value of his brand or properties like Mar-a-Lago.

⚖️ Zoom out: In addition to the ongoing New York civil trial, Trump is also facing 91 criminal counts across four state and federal indictments. Collectively, these cases cover allegations that Trump:

• Illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election (both in Georgia and during the January 6 Capitol riot).
• Mishandled classified US government documents after leaving office.
• Falsified business records to hide a hush-money payment during the 2016 campaign.