Donald Trump fraud trial live updates: Former president takes the stand - BBC News
Donald Trump fraud trial live updates: Former president takes the stand - BBC News
"This is not a political rally," Donald Trump is told as he testifies in case that threatens his real estate empire.
Trump is now being asked whether the valuations of a number of his properties are accurate.
Instead of answering yes or no, Trump is giving speeches about how and why he invested in various properties.
Again the judge asks Trump's legal team to stop the speeches.
"I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can't, I will," Judge Engoron says.
The state is asking about a 2021 financial statement. Trump says he thinks it's accurate - he hopes so.
“I was so busy in the White House,” he says, adding his focus was on “China” and “Russia”.
"For the record, you weren't president in 2021 were you?" prosecutor Kevin Wallace asks.
Trump says no.
Bwahahaha! What an idjit he is.
Well, we finally had a courtroom laugh moment. Prosecutor asked Trump about his involvement in financials from end of 2021. Trump said his focus at that time was on China and Russia and "keeping our country safe." Courtroom laughed. Note: Trump wasn't president in 2021.
I really want to see his reaction to the courtroom laughing at him. I think this is the first time he is experiencing direct humiliation.
He had the entire UN laugh at him.
Yeah where the hell are the clips I thought this one was televised... or allowed cameras?
I doubt he has the self awareness to know when people are laughing at him
Is this not perjury?
I was \ then.
No you weren't.
No I wasn't.Are you allowed to blatantly lie and just walk it back when called out?
NAL but I think if Trump had argued he was still the President during that time period instead of admitting he wasn't, then it would have been perjury.
Perjury is more than just saying something factually wrong on the stand. Republicans spent years talking about how getting trump in a courtroom was a perjury trap because he would make a small mistake like recall the January 12 of 2011 was a Saturday and then they prosecution would be like, "no it wasn't and now you go to jail because we hate America". In reality, perjury basically takes someone knowingly and intentionally entering testimony that is false. Simply forgetting that he wasn't president at the time would not qualify.
And it's done.
The attorney general's office says they have no further questions.
Donald Trump's team declines to cross examine him. He is excused from the stand, as his testimony is now over.
Wait, his OWN TEAM didn't have questions for him, their own client? It's a civil trial, they could have asked him anything, he could have had the whole court room listening to aIl the stupid bullshit he was trying to say in answer to the state. No questions?
I... can't fathom taking the stand in your own defense and then not having any questions from your own attorneys. How about: "did you do it?" "No, I did not." Or "why is the da trying to railroad you." "Magamagamaga".
No questions is unfathomable.
His legal team is all to well aware that Trump under oath is a ticking time bomb. He's got not verbal control what so ever and liable to admit to wrong doing as a casual boast.
Thank you for your work.
Can I send you some popcorn or are you kinda sick of it now?
I'm good, but thanks for the offer. :)
Is it normal for the defendant's lawyers to not cross-examine him if he takes the stand?
"I beseech you to control him if you can."
This line is going to be EPIC when they make a Trump mini-series.
Trump has just spent the past five minutes airing his frustrations about the New York fraud trial while on the stand.
He points his finger at New York Attorney General Letitia James as he yells that the "political hack back there" is carrying out the probe to hurt him.
At the end of the rant, Kevin Wallace of the attorney general's team asks him, "You done?"
"Done," Trump says, prompting some laughter from the courtroom.
The courtroom is just laughing at Trump now. Anyone's who's spent time in court knows how well it goes for those who rant instead of testify.
Ahead of today's court session, a former federal prosecutor told BBC News that Donald Trump's team was attacking the judge and the trial because "they know they’ve already lost".
Renato Mariotti says he expected Trump to try to "deflect responsibility" and blame accountants or other employees for the false valuations of properties.
He says Trump is going to have to "walk a tightrope" giving evidence today, but adds he believes the former president's legal team have internally "told him they're going to lose this case".
"They're attacking the judge, not to try to convince him, but because they already know they've lost and are trying to spin, or add some colour, to a very bad result." from Renato Mariotti, former federal prosecutor
It's already been a finding of fact that Trump is guilty of fraud. This isn't even up for debate and hasn't been for some time. The only thing to decide is the amount of financial liability Trump is going to suffer for the fraud he committed.
So Trump would've known for weeks that he's lost unless his plan is to redefine win as not lose as much as he could've.
He already did that with the 2020 election, he's got practice.
This will be a repeat of the 2020 election. "We will definitely win and if we don't, it's because the court is unfair".
The question is will his idiot followers storm the courthouse after the verdict?
Earlier, when the trial resumed after lunch, Trump was being very polite to the court. Now it seems he's back to his old self.
On the stand, Trump has started to air his complaints with the case once again.
“This case is a disgrace," the former president says. He goes on to claim there is "murder on the streets of New York and the attorney general here is watching every little move”.
During this outburst, Judge Engoron looks ahead with a straight expression and remains silent.
When Trump has finished, Engoron says he defers to the prosecution on how much they want to allow Trump to speak off topic.
Engoron says Trump is a "broken record", to which Trump replies that the prosecution "keeps asking the same questions, over and over".
Attorney Kevin Wallace keeps his calm, saying the questioning is "very close to the end".
Kevin Wallace of the attorney general's team is pressing Trump about the several instances in which he has admitted to directing his team to lower the values of properties - after his team completed financial statements.
Trump is not providing many specifics. "They made a mistake," he says, adding that the statements had an error disclaimer clause that mean "you don’t have to get sued by the Attorney General of New York".
It's the same way he's been answering most questions today, evading a direct yes or no, and attacking the prosecution.
Trump's attorney Chris Kise argued earlier in the day that Judge Engoron should allow Trump to give answers in his own way.
“With this witness, it’s far more efficient to listen and take it all in,” Kise said earlier, prompting Wallace to laugh.
Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake
Judge Engoron is attempting to redirect the court again as Trump continues to go on about his golf course in Scotland.
“Do you want to let the witness ramble on, be unresponsive?” Engoron asks Kevin Wallace of the attorney general's team.
Trump's attorney Chris Kise chimes in to say he thinks Trump's response is a "brilliant answer".
This prompts a chuckle from Wallace.
Let him keep talking. “Don’t interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”.
Kevin Wallace has been showing Trump a series of agreements for loans, which state his business is required to maintain a certain net worth and that his financial statements are "true and correct".
The documents relate to properties like his hotels in DC and Chicago, and all bear Trump's signature. By signing those documents, Trump was agreeing to those terms.
We're getting into the weeds now, but also heading towards the crux of the attorney general's argument - that Trump submitted misleading financial information to banks to secure favourable loans.
One thing that the average person may not be aware of: knowingly signing a bank document that has false information is punishable by 2 years in federal prison. It's not punished often, usually bank employees who steal money (and sign documents with incorrect totals) and scam business owners (if you say you run a barbershop to get Covid relief funds, but don't really have one).
This isn't a criminal trial but he's clearly using tactics that scammers use.
And his whole defense is that he isn't literally a murderer and that he totally didn't need to steal.
And given the chance to elaborate on that position, his own attorneys had no questions at all.
Does his legal team know they won’t get paid?
I don't know jack shit about law, but I would have demanded something up front
like no fucking way trust him enough to pay them after. if they are that stupid, then it concerns me that they are lawyers
Any legal team that doesn't demand advance payments at this point is just doing pro-bono work.
The stupid gullible lawyers are all he can get these days.
The legal team that didn't bother to cross examine their own client after he testified for the prosecutor? I think they know.
Consider that for a moment. Trump himself just testified ONLY for the plaintiff. His own lawyers had nothing for him to answer at all.
They could have asked him anything like: "explain how it's someone else that's responsible for this" or "explain in detail how this is a witch hunt." Literally anything.
This is the last one, I promise. It was just too funny to not include here.
Trump attorney Christopher Kise has just said that he may want to mention information barred by the gag order in a motion for a mistrial.
Alina Habba, another Trump lawyer, seems to confirm the team will make the motion and says they want to reference communications between Engoron and his law clerk.
The judge says he'll allow Trump's team to make that motion in writing.
"See, I knew there'd be a love fest," Engoron concludes.
Prosecutors are continuing to go through a series of documents with Trump about several loan agreements, including Trump International Hotel in Chicago.
Kevin Wallace is asking Trump about whether statements of financial condition were included in the loan.
Trump is evading the issue of the financial statements and continuing to talk about how much cash and other assets he has.
Are there videos of this? I really need this fix after idk how many years of dealing with this bastard
Nope, no recording allowed. Best we have is this masterpiece from the courtroom sketch artist (this is real).
Amazing
Thank you for making my day
Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor, said that Judge Engoron could have already "taken action" and held Donald Trump in contempt of court for his behaviour during today's testimony.
Penalties for contempt, Epner added, could range from fines to "adverse inferences" and potentially even jail.
Judge Engoron already fined Trump $10,000 (£8,082) for comments made outside of court last month. Financial penalties could potentially be doubled after each outburst.
"I would not be surprised if the starting point for fines was $100,000 or something even higher," Epner said.
"Whatever the judge does, it's going to be designed to compel Trump to stop acting in the way he's been acting".
The prosecution is trying to display, through these series of documents, that banks clearly kept asking for financial statements.
Trump had previously said banks don't really look at those.
Trump says, "I could have done different things".
He says if there was a problem, he could have given the banks cash or not borrowed the money.
"I could have payed for it" said the thief.
"Oh I guess you're innocent then" said nobody
Edit: grammar (but would an idiot thief use proper grammar?)
"Could have", said everyone else
And they're back from lunch.
The line of questioning after lunch has been all about Donald Trump and Deutsche Bank.
The prosecution is highlighting a term loan agreement from 2012, between Trump and the bank.
The agreement said he must maintain a minimum net worth of $2.5bn. Trump says he was aware of this.
Trump says he had about $300-400m in cash at the time. He tells the court that Deutsche Bank wanted to make sure there was substantial cash.
“Yeah I had a lot of cash,” he says. "That’s all they cared about."
Prosecutors were asking him about former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
Weisselberg pleaded guilty and served time for tax fraud related to his work at the Trump Organization.
His name has been brought up frequently throughout the trial and he also testified before Michael Cohen, telling the court he knew Donald Trump was inflating the size of his Manhattan penthouse in Trump Tower.
On the stand, Trump defended his former employee, claiming people "went after him vigorously and violently because he happened to work for me".
"I feel very badly about that whole situation," he says.
So, I'm pretty sure this guy doesn't actually have any firearms.
He'd shot off both feet by now.
This is the best play by play I've seen.
The BBC is pretty amazing at its coverage.
Wow, the speech his lawyers just gave is an incoherent rambling that has says absolutely nothing of substance, completely misses all points and stirs people up. He got himself a clone as lawyer.
Trump calls trial "political lawfare" (video)
They just went to lunch. He barely acknowledged the press. Just kept on walking.
Are there recording devices allowed inside the court room? It'd be interesting to hear the whole examination.
Nothing official. Obama put a microwave in the break room, but the reception isn't great.
Lunch break.
What are yall having?
I had some tasty Mexican buffet at the little local joint near me.
Didn't opt for the big mac?