Trump defends business empire during hours of heated testimony

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump did not hold back criticism on the witness stand Monday as he testified during a contentious day in court for the civil fraud case brought against him over claims that he for years exaggerated his wealth.

Trump at times railed against Judge Arthur Engoron and Attorney General Letitia James, the latter of whom sat at the front of the Manhattan courtroom, leaving observers astonished at his candor as he defended the financial management of his premier assets.

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The former president challenged both the substance and the style of the case against him.

Addressing Engoron directly at one point during his testimony, Trump said, “It’s a terrible thing you’ve done. You knew nothing about me.”

“You believed this political hack back there,” Trump added, pointing to James.

Amid claims of bias from Trump’s defense team, the case has so far unfolded largely against the former president.

Engoron ruled partly in favor of James last month in an opinion ahead of the trial, finding Trump, his two adult sons, and two Trump Organization executives liable for “persistent and repeated” business fraud. The trial is expected to assess James’s remaining and more narrow claims against Trump and the others, as well as determine penalties.

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James is seeking $250 million in damages and is aiming to bar Trump and his associates from doing any business in New York permanently.

As Trump inserted asides into his testimony early in the day on Monday, such as labeling the trial “crazy” and arguing that the court was skewed against him, Engoron repeatedly and aggressively warned Trump he was being nonresponsive and that he would consider drawing “negative inference” from Trump’s answers, effectively threatening to assume Trump’s guilt from the responses if the former president did not comply with instructions.

In one instance, Trump remarked, “I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me.”

The judge, in turn, asked Trump’s attorney Chris Kise, “Mr. Kise, was that a comment that was necessary and part of the narrative?”

Kise and attorney Alina Habba repeatedly came to Trump’s defense, saying their client was only delivering drawn-out answers because the questions from James’s assistant attorney general, Kevin Wallace, were overly broad. A judge should want to hear what the lead defendant in a case has to say, Kise and Habba argued.

Engoron eventually became furious with the attorneys, shouting at them, “Sit down, Mr. Kise! Sit down, Ms. Habba!”

“I am not here to hear what he has to say!” the judge said. “I am here to hear him answer questions.”

In a noticeable shift in tone after the first hour and initial recess, Engoron scaled back his admonishments, indicating he would instead let Wallace dictate how far to let Trump veer from direct answers.

Trump, in turn, freely continued to cast criticisms, slipping into familiar monologues on more than one occasion.

In response to a pointed question about his company’s statements of financial record, which are at the center of the civil case, Trump drifted into lamentations about violent crime in New York and called the case against him election interference because it has taken Trump, the leading 2024 Republican candidate, off the campaign trail.

“Legal scholars are saying this is the most unfair witch hunt they’ve ever seen,” Trump said during his testimony.

Trump was confronted throughout four hours of questioning about his statements of financial records from 2011 to 2017, but he downplayed the statements, insisting banks did not prioritize them when they considered loaning him money.

“I’ve been dealing with banks for 50 years,” Trump said. “I know what they look at.”

New York generally has a five-year statute of limitations in fraud cases, but the judge has suggested that James’s team could use evidence from before 2018 to prove more recent claims.

Trump argued the statute of limitations had lapsed, and he also leaned heavily on his financial statements’ disclaimer provisions. Those provisions are meant to highlight a lender’s responsibility to verify a borrower’s statements independently.

“You have a clause that goes on forever,” Trump said. “That clause, as we’ve discussed quite a bit, tells the lender of this money to go out and do your own work.”

“Well, that clause isn’t the only thing that goes on forever,” Wallace shot back, highlighting other clauses in documents signed by Trump that denoted the documents’ contents were materially accurate.

James’s 233-page complaint against Trump zeroed in on some of his most prized properties, cutting to the heart of his success as a self-made real estate mogul before he became president. She accused him, for instance, of grossly overvaluing his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the 40 Wall Street skyscraper, located just blocks from the courthouse.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP

While Trump has declared the case a “disgrace” and the judge as biased against him, Trump and his defense team have, from the outset of the trial, also taken issue with Engoron’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield. Targeting a clerk, a typically unnoticed character, led Engoron to issue two gag orders prohibiting Trump and his attorneys from referencing Greenfield.

At the end of Trump’s testimony, Habba previewed to Engoron that the defense attorneys may need to mention Greenfield because they planned to file a motion for a mistrial upon finding that the clerk donated more money to Democrats than allowed by ethics rules and that Engoron had allegedly been made aware of a complaint about the donations.

Engoron initially snapped at Habba, saying, “Don’t file that motion, please.”

After some off-the-record conversation, the judge, however, backtracked and apologized for yelling at her.

Trump’s testimony follows appearances by his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who are Trump Organization executive vice presidents and co-defendants in the case, in the courtroom last week.

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His daughter Ivanka Trump, who was dropped as a defendant on statute of limitations grounds, is still set to appear as a witness in the trial on Wednesday.

Donald Trump’s attorneys said they believe the trial could finish around Dec. 15.