Trump expected to be back in front row for NY fraud trial closing arguments

The sprawling civil fraud trial putting at risk former President Trump’s business empire — which rocketed him to fame and the presidency — will reach its conclusion Thursday, when his legal team and state lawyers make closing arguments to the judge.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is asking Judge Arthur Engoron to bar Trump from New York’s real estate business for life and to force him to pay a nearly $370 million penalty for falsely altering his net worth on key financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits. Trump, his business and several top executives — including his adult sons — have denied wrongdoing. 

The former president is expected to make a final appearance Thursday at the New York Supreme Court, which has morphed into an unexpected campaign stop as he juggles his legal troubles and 2024 presidential bid. 

Though Trump is not required to attend the fraud trial, he has regularly made appearances to decry the case as politically motivated — both on the witness stand and in courthouse hallway stump speeches. 

The trial’s conclusion comes at a critical point in Trump’s presidential campaign, with the Iowa caucuses just days away. Any remarks by Trump could serve to shift the spotlight from his GOP primary rivals in the pivotal race. 

It also could serve as a blueprint for how Trump approaches his ever-growing number of court dates in 2024.

Over two and a half months, lawyers with the New York attorney general’s office and Trump’s legal team presented some 40 witnesses who gave fresh insight into Trump’s finances and business dealings. 

At the heart of the New York attorney general’s case were Trump’s statements of financial condition, which detail the value of the Trump Organization’s various assets and were sent to banks and insurers to secure loans and deals.

One expert witness hired by the state, M.M. Dillon & Co. Chairman and CEO Michiel McCarty, testified that the Trump Organization’s skewed financial statements may have cost banks more than $168 million in interest across four projects.

A different witness — Nicholas Haigh, Deutsche Bank’s former risk management officer — testified that the documents played a vital role in the approval of two loans, in particular: a $125 million loan in 2011 for Trump’s Doral, Fla., golf resort and a $107 million loan in 2012 for his Chicago hotel. Thanks to his financial statements, Trump was able to secure bigger loans with lower interest rates, Haigh said.

“The conclusion that defendants intended to defraud when preparing and certifying Trump’s [statements of financial condition] is inescapable; the myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” state lawyers wrote in their post-trial brief, the last written argument before closings.

In his own testimony, Trump played down the importance of his financial statements, testifying that they were “not really documents that the banks paid much attention to.” He and his lawyers also asserted that banks are required to do their “own due diligence,” not just rely on the Trump Organization’s representations in the statements. 

Top Deutsche Bank executives seemed to bolster that argument in testimony during the defense case. Deutsche Bank Managing Director David Williams said that bankers viewed their clients’ statements of financial condition as “subjective or subject to estimates,” taking their own look at the reports of net worth. However, he said, bankers also expect their clients’ information to be “accurate.” 

Trump’s counsel argued in their post-trial brief that banks wanted to work with the Trump Organization and found no fraud — arguments they repeatedly made at trial.

“Errors or misstatements happen all the time in accounting, if there are no indicia of fraud such as concealment, forgery, or deceit, then there is no basis to determine that these [statements of financial condition] are fraudulent, and any misstatements are just accidental errors,” the defense brief states.

Trump’s adult children — Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump — have distanced themselves from their father’s financial statements, too. 

The brothers, who are defendants in the case, argued in their post-trial brief that the attorney general failed to show they had “anything more than a peripheral knowledge or involvement in the creation, preparation or use” of their father’s financial statements. They urged the judge to dismiss the case against them in full. Ivanka Trump was previously dismissed from the case. 

Before the trial began, Engoron found Trump and his co-defendants liable for fraud, determining that the New York attorney general’s office had proved the crux of its case. The trial is addressing other claims, including conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records. Engoron, who is overseeing the bench trial with no jury, will ultimately decide the case and could issue a verdict before the month is out.  

That ruling, plus a gag order barring Trump and his counsel from making comments about Engoron’s court staff, placed the judge directly in Trump’s line of fire throughout the case — and served as fodder for the former president’s political messaging. 

In a rant outside the courtroom on the trial’s first day, Trump accused Engoron of “interfering with an election” and suggested he should be “charged criminally” for overseeing the case. Shortly after court was dismissed, Trump’s campaign blasted out a fundraising email that lambasted the trial as political in nature and a “witch hunt” against him. 

On the witness stand, he lobbed attacks at the judge and state attorney general, calling them “Trump haters,” “frauds” and “political hacks” bent on keeping him out of the White House.

“Can you control your client?” Engoron asked a Trump lawyer at one point. “This is not a political rally.”

With all cameras trained on him, Trump has repeatedly swapped more traditional campaign stops for courthouse appearances, particularly those where he was not required to be in attendance.

On Tuesday, the former president appeared in person at the D.C. federal courthouse to hear arguments before a federal appeals panel over whether he has broad presidential immunity from prosecution on charges related to the 2020 presidential election.

Trump’s lawyers also said last month that he may testify at a trial scheduled to begin next week that will decide how much he owes columnist E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him of sexually abusing her three decades ago.

His courthouse appearances have only helped him on the campaign trail, where he holds a commanding lead over his GOP rivals in key primary states and nationwide.