This week, former President Donald J. Trump makes a second appearance in a proceeding that could jeopardize his economic empire. He returned this Wednesday to the Manhattan courtroom, where his civil trial for fraud was held.
Donald Trump returns to court for civil fraud trial
The lawsuit follows a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleging that Mr. Trump, his companies and his sons falsely inflated the value of their assets to obtain favorable insurance and loan deals. The twelfth day of the trial was marked on Wednesday when Ms James was also present in court.
Arthur F. Engoron, the trial judge, said before the trial that Mr. Trump and the other defendants were guilty of fraud and that several examples of such behavior could be found in the annual financial statements they used to report their assets.
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It canceled business licenses that allowed Mr. Trump to run his businesses in New York. The judge’s decision was partially stayed by an appeals court.
Lawyers representing Mr. Trump have been trying for three weeks to shift blame for the misleading assessments to other witnesses.
Doug Larson, a former employee of Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate firm that has appraised some of Mr. Trump’s properties, was the target of that effort on Wednesday.
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Mr. Trump’s lawyers alleged that Mr. Larson lied when denying he participated in the evaluation process.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump’s legal representative, Lazaro Fields, continued his cross-examination of Mr. Larson, leading to a confrontation between Mr. Trump’s legal team and the attorney general’s office.
During his testimony, Mr. Trump’s lawyers suggested that Mr. Larson had lied the day before when he denied having participated in any way in the valuation of Trump’s properties.
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Lawyers for the attorney general’s office responded by accusing Mr. Trump’s lawyers of witness tampering and calling their theatrical questioning mere spectacle.
Nodding, Mr. Trump appeared to agree with his lawyers’ argument and the perjury charge during the meeting. “The government, through its witness, just got caught in a big lie,” Mr. Trump said during the lunch break. Afterward, Ms. James called Mr. Trump’s actions “performative.”
Nicole Gueron of Clarick Gueron Reisbaum, representing Mr. Larson, said in a statement that “Mr. Larson told the truth on the witness stand. Period.”
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She continued: “The attorney who initially made the accusation ultimately recanted and explained to the court that the defendants were not accusing Mr. Larson of lying. »
For his part, Judge Engoron said he was only concerned with moving the trial forward and had made no conclusions about whether Mr. Larson had lied or not.
There was also a brief interruption by a woman present in the court. Following her efforts to approach Mr. Trump and express her desire to sit next to him, the woman was removed from the courtroom. Court officers quickly ordered her to leave the premises and she was subsequently taken into custody.
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A court spokesperson said in a statement that the woman was employed, was placed on administrative leave and was charged with second-degree contempt of court, a misdemeanor.
Republican Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. Trump said he would not return to the courtroom; Nonetheless, at the end of the day, Ms. James said she was awaiting his return for the testimony of her former fixer, Michael D. Cohen.
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