Donald Trump, Jr. will be the first defense witness in the NY Trump Organization. Civil fraud investigation

New York
CNN
—

Donald Trump Jr. He will be the first defense witness to be called Monday, attorneys for the Trump family confirmed.

Lawyers on behalf of the former President Donald Trump, his adult sons and their company will begin their defense on Monday. The New York attorney general’s office rested its case Wednesday and a motion to restrict some expert witnesses from testifying for the defense was denied Thursday.

Judge Arthur Engron, who ruled that the Trump team can call all witnesses, explained his decision by saying, “I don’t want to retry this case, I don’t want to withdraw.”

The judge said in his summary judgment decision that he would limit expert testimony to relevant topics where he had already ruled the Trumps and their company were responsible for “persistent and persistent” fraud. “If it’s clearly inappropriate, I’m not going to allow it,” Engoron said.

Engoron described his “greatest successes”. Summary judgment In it he determined that the valuations of several assets in Trump’s financial statements for various periods were fraudulent.

The judge did not rule Thursday on whether to toss out the remaining six claims in the case, but may have signaled his decision by ordering the parties to proceed as usual on Monday.

The remaining six counts in the lawsuit include falsifying business records, providing false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit alleged fraud.

Starting next week, Trump’s lawyers said they could also recall Eric Trump and other former presidents and bankers related to loans the attorney general’s office alleges were issued based on fraudulent financial statements.

Trump’s attempt to reject the rest of the demands

Donald Trump’s defense attorney, Chris Kiss, argued that the judge should throw out the remaining claims against Trump and his codefendants because the attorney general did not prove any intent or conspiracy to defraud embattled lenders and insurance companies in the case.

Kiss said the attorney general’s office failed to show there was a conspiracy to inflate Trump’s financial statements as a state witness. Michael Cohen retreated to the stand By acknowledging that Trump has never explicitly stated that assets are inflated on his financial statements.

“The only evidence of the contract that they have presented here in court is Michael Cohen,” Kiss said.

Kiss noted that the attorney general initially named Cohen as a key witness, reading his statement during opening statements, but downplayed his role in the case after his inconsistent testimony.

“He was exposed, and now the attorney general is suddenly backing down,” Kiss said.

Trump’s lawyer argued that there was no experimental evidence that banks and insurance companies would have acted differently if they had known that Trump’s net worth was lower than he declared during the transactions.

The judge prompted the attorney general to ask the panel if any bank employees would have done things differently.

Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace acknowledged that Deutsche Bank executive Nicholas Haigh didn’t ask that question during his trial testimony, saying “we’re not making an assumption at trial.”

A Deutsche Bank executive said so in a deposition, but they never received a response during the investigation.

Kiss also said the judge should consider Trump’s own testimony earlier this week that banks do their own due diligence during loan deals and focus mainly on commercial property.

“I think you assume I trust him,” Nkoron said.

Defense attorney Cliff Robert asked the judge for a directed verdict on behalf of this client Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr

“The attorney general has not demonstrated that my clients were involved in the preparation of the financial statements,” Robert said.

Robert reminded the court that Cohen said he did not recall discussing the financial statements with Eric or Donald Trump Jr.

Both of Trump’s sons testified at trial that they relied on accounting and legal staff to make sure the statements they signed were accurate.

“My clients are primarily drawn into the fight between the attorney general and their father,” Robert said.

The assistant attorney general said there was evidence the banks were concerned about the financial statements — they asked for the financial statements, and they had to be certified by the defendants and included in the underwriting of the loans, Wallace said.

Wallace added that it was not enough for the defendants to sit on the witness stand and that they did not want to deceive anyone.

“This is a documentary case and each of the three defendants signed documents saying they were responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the statements,” Wallace said.

The attorney general’s office has filed a motion to block the testimony of four expert witnesses Trump’s legal team wants to call in the defense case, suggesting that Kiss recommended their lawyer go to Russia.

Assistant Attorney General Andrew Amar told the court Thursday that allowing expert witnesses to testify in Trump’s defense would be “a total waste of time and resources.”

“Any expert opinion on valuations of assets or accounting standards or individual financial statements is simply irrelevant,” Amar said.

Following Engoron’s summary judgment order, Amar told the court that an investigation is now underway to determine whether the Trumps and their business had intent to defraud; whether they were involved in the conspiracy; The proper amount of deviation and what relief should be awarded in addition to what has already been decided on summary judgment.

Kiss invokes an insult to begin his counterargument against Amar.

“I suggest you look at American Internet. Vladimir Putin has few openings. That’s where he is,” said Kiss.

Engoron asked Kiss to apologize for his comment.

“I’ll avoid further humiliation, but I won’t take it back,” Kiss said, though he apologized to the judge and Amar after returning from a lunch break. Kiss said he was justified in his feeling that the attorney general’s office suggested that Trump’s defense case was a waste of time and was against the rule of law.

“Should we rest now and not file any case? That’s where they want this case to go,” Kiss added. “The world is watching, so the world should see everyone’s testimony come into the courtroom at least at some point.”