Former President Donald Trump appeared on the witness stand Monday for questioning in the fraud case brought by New York state Attorney General Letitia James, and characteristically, the ex-president’s answers were all over the place. The proceedings were not available for the general public to watch, so reporters provided insights.
“Judge has admonished Trump for not directly answering the question four times in under 30 minutes,” journalist Erica Orden shared online at about 10:30 a.m. And the stand-off got tenser. “Trump again veers away from a direct response when he begins to say, “the banks came to me,” at which point the judge interrupts him, saying “Stricken! Stricken!”” Orden shared less than ten minutes later.
The core of James’ case deals with alleged deception in claims made by Trump and his team for the value of assets connected to him. This allegedly years-long pattern of misrepresentation set up the Trumps for financial benefits like the $168 million an expert witness estimated the Trump businesses saved on interest in connection to just four properties because the involved financial institutions went with interest rates lower than what the state contends would have more appropriately matched the Trumps’ actual financial condition.
Journalist Adam Klasfeld had a slightly longer version of what Trump was saying when the judge declared the former president’s remarks to be stricken. (It’s Judge Arthur Engoron — not a jury — deciding the outcome of these trial proceedings.) “It’s a nice compilation of assets. It’s a great statement. […] It’s a lot of cash. […] The banks came to me. They wanted to make deals with me,” Trump reportedly babbled, per Klasfeld. Trump also restated his recent assertions that some values for some of his holdings are actually higher — substantially higher, even — than the values included in statements used in past dealings. Trump has separately claimed astronomical values for his Florida property Mar-a-Lago putting it likely in the billions of dollars… something for which there’s no evidence.
