Testimony concluded in Trump fraud trial
NEW YORK — After more than 10 weeks, 40 witnesses and bursts of courtroom fireworks, testimony wrapped up Wednesday in former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial. But a verdict is at least a month away.
Closing arguments are set for Jan. 11, and Judge Arthur Engoron has said he hopes to decide the case by the end of that month. The case threatens to disrupt the 2024 Republican front-runner’s real estate empire and even stop him from doing business in his native state.
The verdict is up to the judge because New York Attorney General Letitia James brought the lawsuit under a state law that doesn’t allow for a jury.
“In a strange way, I’m gonna miss this trial,” Engoron mused aloud Wednesday before the last hours of testimony, which were about accounting standards.
James’ lawsuit accuses Trump, his company and key executives — including sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — of deceiving banks and insurers by giving them financial statements that padded the ex-president’s wealth by billions of dollars.
The suit claims the documents larded the value of such prominent and personally significant holdings as his Trump Tower penthouse in New York and his Mar-a-Lago club and home in Florida, as well as golf courses, hotels, a Wall Street office building and more. State lawyers contend that Trump got lower interest rates and other benefits because of the riches shown on his statements.
The defendants deny any wrongdoing, and Trump has made that vehemently clear on the witness stand, in the courthouse hallway, and and in frequent comments on his Truth Social platform.
“A total hit job,” he railed Wednesday in an all-caps post that reiterated his complaints that there was “no jury, no victim.” Both James and the judge are Democrats, and Trump casts the case as a partisan attack.
Trump not only testified but voluntarily sat in on several other days of the trial. He wasn’t there Wednesday to see testimony conclude. James, who has attended with some regularity, watched from the courtroom audience.
Trump took a significant legal hit even before the trial, when Engoron ruled that he engaged in fraud. The judge ordered that a receiver take control of some of the ex-president’s properties, but an appeals court has frozen that order for now.
The trial concerns remaining claims of conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. James is seeking penalties of more than $300 million and wants Trump to be banned from doing business in New York.
The attorney general said in a statement: “While the judge already ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump engaged in years of significant fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his family, this trial revealed the full extent of that fraud — and the defendants’ inability to disprove it.”
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise urged Engoron to rule immediately in the defense’s favor, contending evidence presented during the trial showed “there was no fraud, there were no victims and there has simply been no harm.” Trump will appeal if he loses, Kise said.
Testimony and documents showed the Trump Tower penthouse was claimed as nearly three times its actual size, and that Trump company executives once boosted its estimated value by $20 million partly because of the value of his celebrity. Mar-a-Lago was valued as high as $612 million, based on its potential sale as a private home, though Trump signed a 2002 agreement not “to develop the property for any usage other than club usage.” Trump says he believes it could revert to only a home.
The testimony phase ended on a cordial note Wednesday, with Kise thanking the court for investing time in the case and the judge expressing appreciation for all the work lawyers had done. Some of the defense attorneys shook James’ hand as they headed out of court.