Trump Testifies in Heated Civil Fraud Trial
And it's Election Day! Not THAT Election Day-- but it's still important to vote
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Good morning,
While there is a lot of attention on election day 2024 next year, election day 2023 is here!
There’s a slew of important elections happening across the country today. Some are statewide and others are local, but all could have serious consequences for the country.
Check out the measures on the ballot in your neck of the woods — and please get out and cast vote!
Have a good one!
Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney
🗞 VERDICT COULD RESHAPE HOW HOMES ARE BOUGHT, SOLD
High-stakes testimony unfolded in a New York City courtroom yesterday as former President Donald Trump took the stand to testify under oath in a $250 million New York civil fraud trial accusing him, his two sons, and Trump Organization execs of overvaluing their assets to extreme measures.
There were no video cameras allowed to capture the testimony, so we’re breaking down what happened behind closed doors.
Bottom line, per Politico: “During his four hours on the witness stand, the former president lost his temper and attacked the judge, railing against the person who will decide the fate of his business empire.”
WHAT’S THIS ABOUT AGAIN?
The gist: NY Attorney General Letitia James says the Trumps and officials from the Trump Organization falsified business records between 2011 and 2021 to exaggerate both their wealth and property values (Trump Tower penthouse, Mar-a-Lago estate, and various office towers and golf clubs) by millions of dollars.
And why would they do that? Allegedly in order to secure more favorable bank loans. The Trumps have denied wrongdoing. The judge already ruled that Trump is liable for fraud. The trial is to determine how much the Trump family will have to pay in damages.
The stakes: A major part of Trump’s real estate empire is at risk. Because this is a civil lawsuit and not a criminal case, there is no possibility of jail time. He could face significant financial and business penalties, though. AG James is seeking to ban Trump from doing business in the state and to dissolve his companies.
📍 TRUMP ON THE STAND
Former President Trump stepped down from the stand after nearly four hours of testimony. There was no cross-examination.
How’d it go? Let’s just say his testimony went off the rails fast. The former President sparred with Judge Engoron, who is overseeing the trial (and be determining the final penalty). Trump blasted the Attorney General’s office as "haters” and repeatedly went off on tangents, spurring Judge Engoron to demand Trump's lawyers "control" him: “this isn’t a political rally.”
Takeaways from Trump’s testimony:
Trump both acknowledged his role in helping determine the value of his properties, while also testifying at times that he did not intervene, like his Mar-A-Lago estate, which he said was "very underestimated, but I didn't do anything about it.”
Trump tried to minimize the importance of the financial statements, saying the bankers he used paid very little attention to them.
Trump insisted he is worth billions of dollars more than Attorney General Letitia James claims, and therefore she has no case.
When asked by the attorney general's office if he maintained accurate books and records, Trump responded, “I hope so. I didn’t keep them myself… I have people. I pay them a lot of money, they’re accountants. I assume they keep good records.”
Alina Habba, one of Trump's attorneys, scolded Engoron for having "predetermined" that Trump was guilty.
What’s next? Court is closed today for election day. The next witness will be Ivanka Trump on Wednesday. The AG’s office will then rest its case.
Trump alleges political bias and plans to appeal.
Who else has been in the hot seat: Trump’s two oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, are also defendants in the suit. Both testified last week, maintaining they were not involved in the documents James alleges Trump falsified.
A key witness for the state is Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who admitted under cross examination that Trump had not explicitly “directed” him to inflate the values, but strongly implied that he and the then-CFO of The Trump Organization should inflate the numbers.
🔌 Want more details? We broke down the trial in more depth in one of our Mo Newsletters last month.
🏙️ HOW COMMON IS STRETCHING THE TRUTH?
New York real estate developers say inflating property is commonplace. Top developers interviewed by The New York Post — including those who love Trump and those who loathe him — admit there has always been a bit of embellishment when dealing with banks about their properties.
“The Real Estate Board of New York’s annual party — the equivalent of Vanity Fair’s Oscar party — is even dubbed ‘The Liar’s Ball,'” one developer noted.
As the Financial Times points out, New York real estate moguls are no strangers to exaggerations.
“Cozy” is a nice way to say tiny and dark.
“Full of character” could mean there is a toilet in the kitchen.
And a place “close to nightlife” probably sits on top of a bar. That’s kind of like what Trump did… but worse.
The most contentious valuation during the trial was Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, FL. In Trump’s financial documents, it was valued for as much as $612 million. But the Judge claims that from 2011 to 2021, the property was assessed by Palm Beach county to be worth between $18 million - $27.6 million.
That incensed Eric Trump, who took to social media insisting the trial is biased because Mar-a-Lago is likely “worth well over a billion dollars.”
FLAGSHIPS & FRAUD: WHICH PROPERTIES ARE AT RISK
Trump could lose control over some of his most prized New York properties. Here are the main properties that are vulnerable, per the lawsuit:
Trump Tower and Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower
4-6 East 57th Street
Trump Park Avenue, 502 Park Avenue
1290 Avenue of the Americas
40 Wall Street
Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley, Hopewell Junction, NY
Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Briarcliff Manor, NY
Seven Springs, Westchester County, NY
Via NY Times
DIY PROPERTY INFLATION
For some fun, The Washington Post created a tool that allows you to apply Trump’s exaggerations to your own properties! You just input a property value between $100,000 and $1 billion, and the tool will tell you how your property would have been presented to investors if the Trump Organization’s metrics had been used to appraise your property.
Here are some examples they calculated, if each were initially worth $400,000:
Trump Tower: $400,000 swells to $1,091,306
Mar-a-Lago: $400,000 ranges from $6,181,589 to $13,602,455
Seven Springs: $400,000 becomes $3,880,000
✔︎ Mo News Reality Check: Teddy Roosevelt is believed to be the only other former president who has testified in court after having left office: first in 1913 in a civil suit against a Michigan newspaper that had accused him of being a drunk, then again in 1915 when he was sued for libel. Roosevelt won both cases.
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🗓 ON THIS DAY: NOVEMBER 7
1987: Eric Carmen released ‘Hungry Eyes’ famous for the ‘Dirty Dancing’ scene.
1996: NASA launched Mars Global Surveyor, a robotic spacecraft designed to carry out a long-term study of the planet; contact with the spacecraft was lost in 2006.
2000: The U.S. presidential election ended in a statistical tie between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush, only to be settled on December 12th by the U.S. Supreme Court after a bitter legal dispute.
2003: 'Elf' starring Will Ferrell premiered in theaters.