Moments after arriving at a Manhattan courthouse Monday morning to testify in a $250 million fraud case, former president Donald Trump slammed the proceedings as an attempt at “election interference” by New York attorney general Letitia James.
Based on decades of financial records, the state alleges that Trump significantly overstated the value of his assets in statements of financial condition in an effort to secure more favorable loan terms.
“This is really election interference,” Trump told reporters outside the courtroom. “This trial is ridiculous.”
“It’s political warfare, as you would call it, or political lawfare,” the 2024 GOP primary candidate continued. “I got a lot of names for it.”
THIS IS ELECTION INTERFERENCE! pic.twitter.com/cYwPbqWj31
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) November 6, 2023
The trial began in October with opening statements and witnesses taking the stand. Last week, Trump’s two adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, who are involved in their father’s business and are named as defendants, testified. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, will be the last witness to testify on Wednesday.
Addressing reporters outside the courthouse on Monday, James predicted that Trump would be hostile and even personally insulting when he took the stand.
“Mr. Trump has repeatedly and consistently misrepresented and inflated the value of his assets and before he takes the stand I’m certain that he will engage in name calling, taunts and race baiting, calling this a witch hunt,” James said.
While it appears like a criminal proceeding, the trial concerns a civil complaint, for which Trump was already found liable in September. Justice Arthur Engoron of New York state court in Manhattan determined that the Trump organization engaged in fraudulent accounting practices that earned Trump $100 million and enabled him to inflate the value of his net worth by $2 billion.
However, Engoron declared Trump guilty on only the first cause of action. The trial is on the remaining six causes of action. James is seeking $250 million in damages and nine other remedies, two of which Engoron has already granted to the state. The other remedies are expected to be litigated during the rest of the trial. Another goal of James’s is to prevent the family from doing future business in New York.
In court, Trump testified: “I became president because of my brand value.”
“I sell books because of my brand value,” he said. “If I wanted to build out a statement [of financial condition]. I would have added brand value and I would have increased it by tens of millions of dollars.”
Trump faces this civil dispute in addition to four criminal cases. While this case will not result in a prison sentence, it further endangers his reputation as he attempts to secure re-election in 2024.
Speaking about the annual “statements of financial condition” that were accused of being fraudulent, Trump said: “They were not really documents that the banks paid much attention to.”
“I’ve been dealing with banks for 50 years. I probably know banks as well as anybody,” he added. “They look at the deal, they look at the location … they don’t want to get involved in financial statements.”
After about two hours of testifying in a soft voice, Trump’s court decorum suddenly deteriorated, the New York Post reported. He accused Engoron and James, whom he called a “political hack,” of unjustly targeting him. James, Trump argued, is using the Trump to advantage her political career and become governor.
Attacking the judge’s summary judgment, Trump said, “He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me…It’s a terrible thing you’ve done. You know nothing about me. You believe this political hack back there, and this is unfortunate,” CNN reported.
James salvaged the remnants of the lengthy civil complaint against Trump after even Manhattan prosecutors, such as progressive district attorney Alvin Bragg, declined to bring it. Armed with New York’s Executive Law 63(12), which doesn’t require the state to prove the defendant intended to defraud or actually did defraud anyone, James was empowered to launch the case against Trump, a partisan foe. The state only had the burden of demonstrating that the defendant made false claims repeatedly so that at least two individuals were “affected.”