MANHATTAN (CN) — The New York Supreme Court was surrounded by guard rails and a hefty media gaggle on Thursday in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return to the courtroom. Earlier in the morning, Trump had unceremoniously announced with a Truth Social post that he was sitting in on his fraud trial for the first time in weeks to hear testimony from the defense's final witness.
“Headed to a Witch Hunt with a Crooked Judge and a Bats..t CRAZY (and Racist!), A.G.” the former president wrote in the post.
Prior to entering the courtroom, Trump held a makeshift news conference with a group of reporters. He called New York Attorney General Letitia James a “lunatic” and baselessly claimed that he had already won the case on appeal.
James’ suit accuses Trump of fraudulently inflating asset values on his yearly financial statements, which were used in business transactions with banks and insurers. Judge Arthur Engoron already found Trump liable for the case’s top fraud count before the trial began.
Outside the courtroom, one reporter asked several times if Trump was considering settling with the attorney general’s office on the remaining counts. Trump didn’t reply.
He walked into the courtroom flanked by his lawyers, Chris Kise and Alina Habba. Also by his side was his son Eric Trump, who had been slated to take the stand on Wednesday until his lawyers pulled his testimony at the eleventh hour.
The defense called their final expert witness on Thursday: esteemed New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, who rattled off qualifications from his 21-page resume before the judge deemed him an expert in financial accounting and credit analysis.
As Bartov was slated to be a key expert for the defense’s case, Trump attorney Chris Kise insisted that the state was “terrified” of his testimony when it objected to the area of his expertise.
“Come on!” shouted state lawyer Louis Solomon in response to Kise’s quip.
Bartov’s testimony was unkind to the state’s case, though. The accounting professor claimed that there are “no merits” to the attorney general’s charges, and chided the case for its failure to list “a single GAAP provision that was violated.”
Bartov claimed that the defendants followed GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, to a tee when compiling their yearly financial statements. He said that even the clear factual inaccuracies in the financial statements, like the size of Trump’s Manhattan triplex, weren’t provably made in bad faith.
“The triplex, the price was inflated, there’s no question about it,” Bartov said. “In 2012 it was valued at $118 million. And in 2011 it was valued at $80 million. And the reason was an error in the calculation.”
Trump routinely pegged the Trump Tower triplex as being 30,000 square feet in his statements of financial condition. In reality, the apartment was less than 11,000 square feet.
“Errors like that are not unusual,” said Bartov. “This is an error. This is not fraud.”
Bartov advocated for a number of the defense’s key arguments: that the disclosure statements in the financial documents absolve Trump of guilt, that Trump’s outside accountants were ultimately the ones responsible for checking accuracy and that Trump’s “brand value” makes him worth far more than his statements say.
“There is no question that the brand value of Mr. Trump, President Trump, is worth billions,” Bartov said.
Tensions boiled over just before lunch when state lawyer Kevin Wallace accused Bartov’s testimony of being “pure speculation” from someone being paid to say “whatever” the defense wants.
Defense lawyer Jesus Suarez, who had been leading Bartov’s direct examination, called Wallace’s accusation “nasty.”
Bartov exploded at the state attorney.
“You really should be ashamed of yourself for allegations like that,” Bartov shouted at Wallace. “I’m here to tell the truth. You should be ashamed of yourself, talking to me like that.”
Engoron broke for lunch a few minutes early in an effort to let cooler heads prevail.
After the break, Bartov picked up right where he left off, insisting upon Trump’s innocence. He even showered the scrutinized statements of financial condition with praise.
“I’ve never seen a statement that provided so much detail, and is so transparent, as this statement,” Bartov said, adding that the documents featured an “awesome amount of information” in their footnotes.
The attorney general’s office claims Trump inflated his personal net worth by billions of dollars on those same financial statements, then used those documents to get more favorable loan terms and insurance policies from banks and insurers.
Bartov called those allegations “absurd” while examining data from Deutsche Bank, Trump’s largest single lender between 2011 and 2021.
“It’s impossible to argue Deutsche Bank would make lending decisions based on the statements of financial condition,” Bartov said. “This should close the book on this case.”
Wallace once again objected to Bartov’s testimony, criticizing his “speculation” of Deutsche Bank’s thought process. Engoron overruled his objection and allowed Bartov to continue.
Bartov will return on Friday to continue his defense testimony and be cross-examined by the state. Donald Trump will take the stand on Monday.
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