Trump made a fortune inflating his assets, New York tells court
NEW YORK — Donald Trump wanted to get higher on the Forbes billionaires list and save a fortune on loan terms by overvaluing his properties, according to evidence that a lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James previewed for a packed courtroom at the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Clips of sworn testimony by Trump Organization officials and emails with the Trump family’s bankers were featured in the state’s opening statement Monday as New York argued that the company falsified asset values to get better terms from Deutsche Bank and others.
Trump, 77, sat in the front row of the Manhattan courtroom flanked by a team of lawyers and Secret Service. He watched as the state played a past clip of his former lawyer Michael Cohen testifying that the disputed assets were often valued more to get Trump “higher on the Forbes list,” apparently to suggest a tendency to exaggerate his wealth.
“It was basically the number that Mr. Trump wanted,” Cohen said in the clip.
James alleges that Trump and his company used false asset valuations to inflate his wealth by billions of dollars a year from 2011 to 2021. He is also accused of using false valuations to get cheaper insurance policies. All told, Trump allegedly reaped $250 million in illegal profit.
State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron has already found Trump liable
Conservatives win platform fight
Hard-right California GOP members won during the convention weekend by killing a four-page draft version of the party platform that would have eliminated the “one man and one woman” definition of marriage. It also would have revised the platform’s “right to life” section to say GOP members “want to see the number of abortions reduced,” rather than ending them entirely.
More conservative Republicans wanted the party to re-adopt a version of the 2019 platform, a 14-page document with a decades-old framework that maintains same-sex marriage opposition and stronger language against abortion. for fraud. The trial will now focus on six remaining claims and the amount of damages owed. It will help determine the fate of Trump’s real estate empire in New York and marks the first of a slew of others, including four criminal trials, that lie ahead even as Trump runs in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump, wearing a blue suit and blue tie, took a seat in the front of the room, with his arms crossed, and Deputy Attorney General Kevin Wallace began delivering his opening statement. Trump’s son
Eric was seated in the row behind his father. Both Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are also defendants in the case.
In his own opening, Trump’s lawyer said the evidence at trial will show that the claims involve only successful and profitable loan transactions with no victims, and that the banks that lent him the money made more than $100 million in interest.
“President Trump has made billions of dollars building up one of the most successful business empires in the world,” said Chris Kise.
Kise said Deutsche Bank officers will testify that they conducted independent risk analysis and didn’t rely on Trump’s statements of financial condition, and that valuation disparities aren’t considered by the bank to be fraudulent. They’ll also testify that Trump was “overqualified” to do business with them, Kise said.
Trump hunched forward and peered at the computer monitor in front of him as he studied a May 10, 2016, statement his company submitted to Deutsche
Members opposed to the draft actively lobbied against it on Saturday, wearing stickers and carrying red signs that said, “RE-ADOPT. STAY UNITED.”
Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGTBQ organization, supported the draft. Other Republicans also welcomed the opportunity to change the platform and include new provisions around recent GOP concerns.
Betsy Mahan, chair of the Sacramento County Republican Party, wanted to add language supporting election integrity, and opposing gender-affirming care for minors.
She said
“misinformation” about whether the draft could include old language or be amended helped tank that version.
“There were a number of issues that these people were here for that could have been resolved,” she said of the opposition. “But the people who led the effort, they’re just trying to make a point that they had some power — that’s really all it was about. And it’s a shame, because our party hurts as a result.”
Jordan, who also serves as chair of the San Luis Obispo County Republican Party, was strongly against the draft and moved to help quash it.
When the California
GOP recognized the
Log Cabin Republicans as a chartered group in 2015, Jordan said, those who pushed for the organization’s acceptance agreed not to attempt any change to the definition of marriage. He was not happy to see that altered in the draft.
“I think we have lost so many people in our party that were true Republicans,” he said. “As soon as we started losing our values, and we started being the big tent, I think they left us. They either left the state or they left our party, and now they’re no party preference.”
Bank, which Kise said was “negotiated by top-tier counsel.” Trump’s familiar signature in black Sharpie was plainly visible on the document.
Kise read from one of Trump’s disclaimers: “Users of this financial statement should recognize that they might reach different conclusions.” He pointed to a 2014 Deutsche Bank document showing that the bank continued with a loan even after coming up with a valuation of that was $2 billion lower than Trump’s. These differences are the “heart and soul of commercial real estate lending,” Kise said.
Engoron scheduled the New York trial to last until Dec. 22. Trump will testify toward the end of the trial, according to a list of witnesses.
Last week the judge granted New York’s request to hold Trump liable on the fraud claim, concluding that the evidence of his use of false and misleading asset valuations was so strong that a trial on that allegation wasn’t necessary.
The trial will also determine penalties. The attorney general seeks $250 million in restitution and a ban on Trump and the other defendants, including Donald Jr. and Eric, from serving as officers of any New York-based company, as well as other penalties.
The judge’s earlier ruling required the cancellation of certificates for companies that hold those assets, a process that will be overseen by a court-approved receiver. The Trump Organization is made up of some 500 entities, and the scope and impact of Engoron’s order remain unclear.
A less competitive GOP?
Those who drafted the newer platform say the party’s rejection will force candidates to campaign on an older set of principles that will not be popular in certain areas.
“What I worry about is our Assembly and our state Senate candidates who now have to take this flawed, outdated platform that’s 20 years old and have to sell that to the voters in places like South Central or Watts or Hillcrest or the Castro,” said Charles Moran, president of Log Cabin Republicans, who lobbied for the draft platform.
“They’re going to be woefully ill-equipped because this group of people decided to make choices about what conservatism means in the state of California,” he added. “And it takes away the ability of candidates to do that.”
But state Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-san Diego, opposed the draft, saying he thinks the platform needs updates, but “right now is not the right time.”
“We’ve got a very important primary coming up in March,” he said. “We need all of our candidates concentrating on that.”
Jones downplayed the significance of the party platform for candidates, saying most voters are not familiar with it.
“We’re trying to recruit candidates that match their district,” he said. “That candidate is responsible for the message that they’re going to carry. The statewide organization isn’t going to carry that message for each individual candidate.”
Moran disagreed, saying the old platform keeps the party stuck in the past.
“What happened today makes us wholly less competitive in California for a small vocal minority who wants to continue to fight battles that are already been fought,” he said.