What to know about Day 3 of Trump’s fraud trial
- This is the third day of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million civil fraud trial against former President Donald Trump, two of his adult children and the family’s company.
- Trump was admonished yesterday by Judge Arthur Engoron after he attacked one of his clerks on social media.
- The former president’s attorneys filed a notice of appeal of the judge’s ruling last week that Trump had committed “persistent fraud.”
- During the cross-examination this morning, Trump’s lawyers sought to damage the credibility of his former accountant, Donald Bender, who admitted that he did not dispute property valuations that the attorney general’s office has alleged were inflated.
- A second accountant, Camron Harris, argued in the afternoon that the Trumps and their company, the Trump Organization, are responsible for their own financial statements.
Here are highlights from Day 2.
Court adjourned
Court is over for the day.
The defense will continue cross-examination of Bender tomorrow. There is back and forth between the clerk and the defense on how much longer for Bender. A lawyer for Trump said it could go into much of the day tomorrow.
Jeff McConney, a top executive at the Trump Organization who is expected as the next witness, will be ready tomorrow in case cross-examination of Bender ends earlier than expected.
Second accountant argues Trumps are responsible for financial statements
The roles of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who signed the representation letter and the engagement letter for the 2021 compilation of Trump’s statements of financial condition, emerged as a big theme this afternoon.
In the Bender years, Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, largely played that role, but by 2021, the responsibility for retaining and managing the accounting relationship seems to have shifted to the Trump sons.
Camron Harris, an accountant of Whitley Penn, took the stand as the second witness today. He argued that the Trump Organization and the Trump sons are responsible for the company’s financial statements.
Harris said he was responsible for compiling and checking the documents for obvious errors but the clients are ultimately in charge of preparing the information.
Accountant talks about Eric Trump, who is still in the room
Eric Trump has come up for the first time in testimony. Harris is saying that Eric Trump was a member of the executive leadership who set “the tone at the top” and that he had no interactions with the president’s son regarding the statements of financial condition. Their first meeting took place after the 2021 statement was issued.
Although the former president left the courthouse, his son stayed.
Eric Trump sat in the front row, shaking his head suggesting he doesn’t agree with Harris’ descriptions of his role.
Another Trump accountant testifies
As we return from the lunch break to a courtroom devoid of Trump, Engoron has allowed an interruption to Bender’s testimony to accommodate Camron Harris, the partner at Whitley Penn who handled Trump’s accounting work after Mazars resigned in 2020.
Harris is now discussing the role of Jeff McConney, the Trump Org. comptroller, in their engagement to compile the statements of financial condition.
As the AG did with Bender, they are reviewing specific language from Whitley Penn’s written description of the process. He says they went through the 2020 statement of financial condition to understand how to obtain information and their process.
Harris discussed Whitley Penn’s internal “program” for compiling statements of financial condition, which appears to be a guide to how to handle compilations. “We do not verify any of the accuracy of the information provided,” which distinguishes a compilation from a review or an audit. It does not include, for example, analytics or inquiries of management, much less verification of work papers.
He is essentially limiting the scope of their work, as Bender did.
Trial resumes without Trump
The trial has resumed without the former president, who left the courtroom at the break. The mood in the courtroom is considerably lighter now that Trump is no longer here.
Trump blasts judge, legal system before leaving courthouse
As Trump left the courthouse after attending the civil fraud trial against him and his company, he bashed the judge, the state attorney general and the legal system.
“I’m here, stuck here,” an angry Trump complained before leaving. “I’d rather be right now in Iowa, I’d rather be in New Hampshire or South Carolina or Ohio or a lot of other places, but I’m stuck here because I have a corrupt attorney general,” he fumed before leaving in a motorcade.
The former president, who had no legal obligation to attend the trial, said he’d done so since Monday because he wanted to point out “how corrupt it is.”
Referring to the summary judgment order where the judge found that Trump’s financial statements contained fraudulent valuations, Trump said, “they defrauded us because he called me a fraud.”
He also attacked the judge, saying he’s “run by the Democrats” and “already knows what he’s going to do.” “Our whole system is corrupt,” he said, adding that Engoron came out of “the clubhouse.”
Engoron came to the bench through the neighborhood-specific Democratic clubs that have a disproportionate role in who runs for elected office (and especially lower-tier offices) in NY.
Yesterday, we met a trial observer who told us that he is a professional musician and a friend of Engoron. He said they knew each other through their club, which is now known as Westside Democrats. Of course, that doesn’t mean Engoron is unqualified, biased, or wrong.
Source: NBC News
