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Thursday, October 05, 2023 7:49:50 PM
As expected: Divert blame, move to cancel and/or delay ALL -- Trump fraud trial Day 4 highlights: Ex-Trump executive grilled in court as former president skips
Related: Letitia James slams Trump’s comments on civil fraud trial
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172961482
After attending the first three days, Trump
was absent Day 4.
Prosecutors grilled a former Trump Organization executive about the value of Trump's Manhattan triplex, which Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last week was grossly inflated.
VIDEO01:32 Trump moves to dismiss indictment in federal election interference case
Updated Oct. 6, 2023, 7:43 AM AEDT
By NBC News
3h ago / 7:43 AM AEDT
Court adjourns
Lisa Rubin
The court day is now over. While we listened to testimony about accounting issues, a bigger-picture theme in the Trump legal world emerged.
Today, Trump not only filed a motion to dismiss the Washington, D.C., election interference case on presidential immunity grounds, but he also moved to dismiss the Manhattan DA’s hush money case. In a reply brief filed last night, he also again requested that the judge in his classified documents case move the trial until after the election. And tomorrow morning, he is now expected to move for a stay of the New York AG trial pending an appeal of last week’s summary judgment decision.
In other words, Trump’s legal teams have made or shortly will make efforts to throw out or postpone four cases. And because of how the Georgia election interference case has proceeded, it's likely we won't see Trump on trial there for months either.
3h ago / 7:19 AM AEDT
Trump attorneys file motion to dismiss hush money case
Adam Reiss
In a separate case, Trump’s attorneys in New York filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case against him charging that he used hush money payments paid by his personal attorney Michael Cohen to keep Stormy Daniels from going public during his 2016 presidential campaign.
The 57-page document asking a New York State Supreme Court judge to throw out the case attacks Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case as a "discombobulated package of politically motivated charges marred by legal defects, procedural failures, discovery violations and a stubborn refusal to provide meaningful particulars regarding its theory of the case."
Trump's attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles go on to say: “The indictment was filed six years after the conduct at issue, more than four and a half years after DANY began to investigate it, and more than three years after they started presenting evidence to a grand jury, the delay has prejudiced President Trump, interfered with his ongoing presidential campaign and violated his due process rights.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty and the trial is scheduled for March 2024 assuming it is not pre-empted by his Washington, D.C., election interference trial, which is also set for March 2024.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA says they will respond in court papers. Responses for defense motions are due Nov. 9.
3h ago / 7:12 AM AEDT
In separate case, Trump argues presidential immunity shields him from 2020 election interference charges
Ginger Gibson, Ryan J. Reilly and Daniel Barnes
[...]
4h ago / 6:25 AM AEDT
AG's office grills McConney about Trump's triplex
Lisa Rubin
Andrew Amer, a lawyer for the AG's office, asked McConney about the price of Trump's triplex, which was at one point valued at $180 million.
They showed McConney a 2012 email he sent to a Trump International Realty employee inquiring about the square footage and asking price of another apartment for purposes of informing his assessment of the triplex — what's known in the real estate world as a "comp."
The apartment in question was owned by a foreign royal or prince, McConney confirms. The employee in his 2012 email response pointed to an apartment at 240 Riverside Park with 14,500 square footage with an ask of $75 million and $5,000 per square foot. That same employee also said he valued Trump's triplex at between $120 million to $180 million based on it having 30,000 square footage.
McConney then used this information to value the triplex at $180 million.
The point the AG is driving at is that a 14,500 square-foot apartment overlooking the river was asking for $75 million and roughly $5,000 per square foot whereas the triplex — which James and Engoron have said is actually closer to 10,000 square feet — was assessed to be worth $180 million, and that could not have been compliant with standard accounting principles at any point. Why? Because no willing buyer would have paid anywhere close to $180 million in 2012 for the Trump Tower triplex.
[...]
5h ago / 5:12 AM AEDT
C-SPAN joins push for more media access during upcoming Trump trial
Kyla Guilfoil
C-SPAN joined other media organizations today in pushing for more media access in another of Trump's upcoming trials.
C-SPAN is urging for access to cameras in the courtroom for Trump's election interference case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a March 4, 2024, trial date.
5h ago / 4:55 AM AEDT
Congressman calls for Palm Beach County to tax Mar-a-Lago at the rate Trump claims it's worth
Sahil Kapur and Summer Concepcion
A Democratic House member is asking Palm Beach County, Florida, to tax former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property at the rate he claims it is worth amid his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York.
In a letter provided exclusively to NBC News, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., issued the request to Dorothy Jacks, Palm Beach County property appraiser.
Moskowitz noted New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling last week saying that Trump repeatedly committed acts of fraud for years. Engoron ruled that Trump lied to banks and insurers by overvaluing and undervaluing his assets while exaggerating his net worth to billions of dollars.
Trump has raged against Engoron’s ruling, insisting that his Florida resort is worth “50 to 100 times” what prosecutors in the New York civil case have said, or “closer to $1.5 billion.”
[Insert: Not keen on that idea. If Mar-a-Lago was taxed at what Trump claims it is worth that could be seen as giving some credence
to that one of Trump's value judgements. And it's obvious on many grounds Trump's value judgements suck big time. ]
[...]
6h ago / 3:59 AM AEDT
McConney says Trump had final sign off on financial statements
Lisa Rubin
McConney testified that he and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg reviewed the final version of the financial compilations and that once Weisselberg signed off, he would notify their accounting company, Mazars.
But he acknowledged that, through his own handwritten notation, he amended Mazars’ issuance letters to indicate Trump himself was entitled to a final review of the compilation of statements of financial condition.
McConney distanced himself from whatever review Trump did or did not do, saying what happened before Weisselberg’s signoff was not within his knowledge, but he could not escape having to confirm that the letters were amended to make clear Trump was entitled to a final review.
In addition, the AG's office showed McConney a list of Trump Org properties with listed values that he marked up the following year with new values. He said that for many years, he marked up the spreadsheets used for backup to the compilations; other times, he just made handwritten notations on the one-page list of properties and sent that back to Mazars.
McConney, who's also a defendant in the case, was then shown letters he sent to a lender to disclose the statements of financial condition to Royal Bank America. That letter and others like it are part of how the AG will attempt to establish McConney’s liability for false financial statements, in addition to his involvement in preparing the statements themselves.
7h ago / 3:33 AM AEDT
Former Trump exec Jeff McConney takes the stand
Adam Reiss, Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian
After some brief re-direct, Bender is done testifying and the AG's office has called its second witness, former Trump Organization senior vice president Jeff McConney.
McConney testified that he retired earlier this year and was given a severance package of $500,000, $125,000 of which is still outstanding but not contingent on anything other than his “being alive.”
He quickly pointed the finger at Bender's accounting firm for the financial statements the AG says were grossly inflated.
“We, being the Trump Organization, did not prepare the statements. Mazars, as our accountant, did,” he said.
McConney was the first witness for the Manhattan DA's office in the criminal trial against the Trump Organization last year and coughed excessively when he got on the stand. He then tested positive for Covid, which halted the trial for several days.
He's not coughing today.
7h ago / 3:06 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer presses Bender about his lack of memory
[...]
8h ago / 2:39 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer questions Bender about dealings with Manhattan DA
Lisa Rubin
Suarez is questioning Bender about his interactions with the Manhattan DA’s office.
Bender, who testified in DA Alvin Bragg's criminal case against the Trump Organization last year, said that he was not threatened with prosecution and that his company Mazars was not either, to the best of his knowledge.
Suarez asked why Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the DA's case, said in his book that Mazars has sent Bender in to meet with them without his own counsel and told Mazars it was in a precarious legal position. Bender said he was “satisfied” with his legal representation and was not aware of that conversation between Pomerantz and Mazars.
Suarez also tried to insinuate that Mazars tried to make Bender the fall guy by sending him in to meet with the DA with only the counsel for Mazars. (Counsel for the company would owe duties to the company alone and is supposed to warn individual employees or former employees that in the event of a conflict, their duties are to the company.)
Bender was called by the defense in the Trump Organization tax fraud trial last year and spent three days on the stand as their lawyers suggested he had failed to alert the Trumps .. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/closing-arguments-begin-trump-organizations-tax-fraud-trial-rcna59183 .. to the scam.
8h ago / 2:25 AM AEDT
VIDEO - When could Trump testify in New York civil trial? Oct. 5, 2023 03:49
8h ago / 2:00 AM AEDT
Protest of 911 dispatchers happening outside of courthouse
[...]
8h ago / 1:56 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer questions culpability of Trump kids
Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian
During his questioning of Bender, Trump's lawyer asked Bender if he ever consulted with Donald Trump Jr. or Ivanka Trump, the former president’s children, about the financial statements that the AG contends were grossly inflated.
"Not that I recall," he said of both.
Trump Jr. is a Trump Organization executive and a defendant in the case and was responsible for filing some of the statements after his father was elected president. Ivanka Trump is a former Trump Organization executive and was originally a defendant in the case, but an appeals court dismissed the AG's claims against her on statute of limitations issues.
9h ago / 1:39 AM AEDT
AG's office expresses frustration at Trump's lawyers over questioning of financial statements
Adam Reiss and Summer Concepcion
Kevin Wallace, the lead lawyer on the AG’s case, objected after Trump lawyer Jesus Suarez began to ask Bender about financial statements year by year, despite getting similar answers each time.
Engoron then asked how long this would take. Suarez said he thinks he will finish his cross-examination of Bender in the next hour and a half.
Wallace again objected, prompting Engoron to say that, in his discretion, he will give an hour and a half but “if you want you can finish earlier.”
9h ago / 1:38 AM AEDT
Judge sets timeline for Trump to dissolve LLCs
Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian
As the trial proceeds in court, Judge Engoron issued a ruling to make sure the former president and other defendants in the case are complying with his order last week canceling their New York business certificates.
The judge formally extended the deadline for Trump's team and the AG's office to submit suggestions for an independent receiver to oversee the dissolution of the companies by Oct. 26. He also directed the Trump team to turn over a full list of those companies, and to inform the monitor already overseeing the Trump Organization's financial transactions about any third parties who have ownership interests.
The order also directs Trump's team to inform the monitor in advance of any applications for new business certificates and any transfer of assets.
The judge's summary judgment ruling last week found that Trump and his companies had committed repeated fraud, and canceled business certificates for LLCs "controlled or beneficially owned" by Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and two Trump Organization executives. It originally gave the parties 10 days to name a potential receiver, but Engoron extended the deadline at the request of Trump's lawyers. Trump filed a notice Wednesday that he's appealing the ruling.
[...]
11h ago / 11:47 PM AEDT
Highlights from Day 3
Zoë Richards
On Day 3 of the trial, Trump’s lawyers sought to undermine the credibility of Donald Bender, a former accountant for Trump, prompting a heated exchange between defense attorney Chris Kise and Judge Arthur Engoron.
Bender admitted that he didn't dispute valuations of individual assets and also said he didn't recall noticing any failure to disclose the methods used to value those assets, contrary to industry guidelines.
A second accountant, Camron Harris, said in his testimony that the Trump family and their company, the Trump Organization, are responsible for their own financial statements.
Trump who attended the trial for a third straight day again railed against the court proceedings, calling them a “disgrace” and a “witch hunt.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-trial-fraud-live-updates-rcna118882
Related: Letitia James slams Trump’s comments on civil fraud trial
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=172961482
After attending the first three days, Trump
was absent Day 4.
Prosecutors grilled a former Trump Organization executive about the value of Trump's Manhattan triplex, which Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last week was grossly inflated.
VIDEO01:32 Trump moves to dismiss indictment in federal election interference case
Updated Oct. 6, 2023, 7:43 AM AEDT
By NBC News
3h ago / 7:43 AM AEDT
Court adjourns
Lisa Rubin
The court day is now over. While we listened to testimony about accounting issues, a bigger-picture theme in the Trump legal world emerged.
Today, Trump not only filed a motion to dismiss the Washington, D.C., election interference case on presidential immunity grounds, but he also moved to dismiss the Manhattan DA’s hush money case. In a reply brief filed last night, he also again requested that the judge in his classified documents case move the trial until after the election. And tomorrow morning, he is now expected to move for a stay of the New York AG trial pending an appeal of last week’s summary judgment decision.
In other words, Trump’s legal teams have made or shortly will make efforts to throw out or postpone four cases. And because of how the Georgia election interference case has proceeded, it's likely we won't see Trump on trial there for months either.
3h ago / 7:19 AM AEDT
Trump attorneys file motion to dismiss hush money case
Adam Reiss
In a separate case, Trump’s attorneys in New York filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case against him charging that he used hush money payments paid by his personal attorney Michael Cohen to keep Stormy Daniels from going public during his 2016 presidential campaign.
The 57-page document asking a New York State Supreme Court judge to throw out the case attacks Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case as a "discombobulated package of politically motivated charges marred by legal defects, procedural failures, discovery violations and a stubborn refusal to provide meaningful particulars regarding its theory of the case."
Trump's attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles go on to say: “The indictment was filed six years after the conduct at issue, more than four and a half years after DANY began to investigate it, and more than three years after they started presenting evidence to a grand jury, the delay has prejudiced President Trump, interfered with his ongoing presidential campaign and violated his due process rights.”
Trump has pleaded not guilty and the trial is scheduled for March 2024 assuming it is not pre-empted by his Washington, D.C., election interference trial, which is also set for March 2024.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA says they will respond in court papers. Responses for defense motions are due Nov. 9.
3h ago / 7:12 AM AEDT
In separate case, Trump argues presidential immunity shields him from 2020 election interference charges
Ginger Gibson, Ryan J. Reilly and Daniel Barnes
[...]
4h ago / 6:25 AM AEDT
AG's office grills McConney about Trump's triplex
Lisa Rubin
Andrew Amer, a lawyer for the AG's office, asked McConney about the price of Trump's triplex, which was at one point valued at $180 million.
They showed McConney a 2012 email he sent to a Trump International Realty employee inquiring about the square footage and asking price of another apartment for purposes of informing his assessment of the triplex — what's known in the real estate world as a "comp."
The apartment in question was owned by a foreign royal or prince, McConney confirms. The employee in his 2012 email response pointed to an apartment at 240 Riverside Park with 14,500 square footage with an ask of $75 million and $5,000 per square foot. That same employee also said he valued Trump's triplex at between $120 million to $180 million based on it having 30,000 square footage.
McConney then used this information to value the triplex at $180 million.
The point the AG is driving at is that a 14,500 square-foot apartment overlooking the river was asking for $75 million and roughly $5,000 per square foot whereas the triplex — which James and Engoron have said is actually closer to 10,000 square feet — was assessed to be worth $180 million, and that could not have been compliant with standard accounting principles at any point. Why? Because no willing buyer would have paid anywhere close to $180 million in 2012 for the Trump Tower triplex.
[...]
5h ago / 5:12 AM AEDT
C-SPAN joins push for more media access during upcoming Trump trial
Kyla Guilfoil
C-SPAN joined other media organizations today in pushing for more media access in another of Trump's upcoming trials.
C-SPAN is urging for access to cameras in the courtroom for Trump's election interference case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Judge Tanya Chutkan has set a March 4, 2024, trial date.
5h ago / 4:55 AM AEDT
Congressman calls for Palm Beach County to tax Mar-a-Lago at the rate Trump claims it's worth
Sahil Kapur and Summer Concepcion
A Democratic House member is asking Palm Beach County, Florida, to tax former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property at the rate he claims it is worth amid his ongoing civil fraud trial in New York.
In a letter provided exclusively to NBC News, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., issued the request to Dorothy Jacks, Palm Beach County property appraiser.
Moskowitz noted New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling last week saying that Trump repeatedly committed acts of fraud for years. Engoron ruled that Trump lied to banks and insurers by overvaluing and undervaluing his assets while exaggerating his net worth to billions of dollars.
Trump has raged against Engoron’s ruling, insisting that his Florida resort is worth “50 to 100 times” what prosecutors in the New York civil case have said, or “closer to $1.5 billion.”
[Insert: Not keen on that idea. If Mar-a-Lago was taxed at what Trump claims it is worth that could be seen as giving some credence
to that one of Trump's value judgements. And it's obvious on many grounds Trump's value judgements suck big time. ]
[...]
6h ago / 3:59 AM AEDT
McConney says Trump had final sign off on financial statements
Lisa Rubin
McConney testified that he and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg reviewed the final version of the financial compilations and that once Weisselberg signed off, he would notify their accounting company, Mazars.
But he acknowledged that, through his own handwritten notation, he amended Mazars’ issuance letters to indicate Trump himself was entitled to a final review of the compilation of statements of financial condition.
McConney distanced himself from whatever review Trump did or did not do, saying what happened before Weisselberg’s signoff was not within his knowledge, but he could not escape having to confirm that the letters were amended to make clear Trump was entitled to a final review.
In addition, the AG's office showed McConney a list of Trump Org properties with listed values that he marked up the following year with new values. He said that for many years, he marked up the spreadsheets used for backup to the compilations; other times, he just made handwritten notations on the one-page list of properties and sent that back to Mazars.
McConney, who's also a defendant in the case, was then shown letters he sent to a lender to disclose the statements of financial condition to Royal Bank America. That letter and others like it are part of how the AG will attempt to establish McConney’s liability for false financial statements, in addition to his involvement in preparing the statements themselves.
7h ago / 3:33 AM AEDT
Former Trump exec Jeff McConney takes the stand
Adam Reiss, Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian
After some brief re-direct, Bender is done testifying and the AG's office has called its second witness, former Trump Organization senior vice president Jeff McConney.
McConney testified that he retired earlier this year and was given a severance package of $500,000, $125,000 of which is still outstanding but not contingent on anything other than his “being alive.”
He quickly pointed the finger at Bender's accounting firm for the financial statements the AG says were grossly inflated.
“We, being the Trump Organization, did not prepare the statements. Mazars, as our accountant, did,” he said.
McConney was the first witness for the Manhattan DA's office in the criminal trial against the Trump Organization last year and coughed excessively when he got on the stand. He then tested positive for Covid, which halted the trial for several days.
He's not coughing today.
7h ago / 3:06 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer presses Bender about his lack of memory
[...]
8h ago / 2:39 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer questions Bender about dealings with Manhattan DA
Lisa Rubin
Suarez is questioning Bender about his interactions with the Manhattan DA’s office.
Bender, who testified in DA Alvin Bragg's criminal case against the Trump Organization last year, said that he was not threatened with prosecution and that his company Mazars was not either, to the best of his knowledge.
Suarez asked why Mark Pomerantz, a former prosecutor in the DA's case, said in his book that Mazars has sent Bender in to meet with them without his own counsel and told Mazars it was in a precarious legal position. Bender said he was “satisfied” with his legal representation and was not aware of that conversation between Pomerantz and Mazars.
Suarez also tried to insinuate that Mazars tried to make Bender the fall guy by sending him in to meet with the DA with only the counsel for Mazars. (Counsel for the company would owe duties to the company alone and is supposed to warn individual employees or former employees that in the event of a conflict, their duties are to the company.)
Bender was called by the defense in the Trump Organization tax fraud trial last year and spent three days on the stand as their lawyers suggested he had failed to alert the Trumps .. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/closing-arguments-begin-trump-organizations-tax-fraud-trial-rcna59183 .. to the scam.
8h ago / 2:25 AM AEDT
VIDEO - When could Trump testify in New York civil trial? Oct. 5, 2023 03:49
8h ago / 2:00 AM AEDT
Protest of 911 dispatchers happening outside of courthouse
[...]
8h ago / 1:56 AM AEDT
Trump lawyer questions culpability of Trump kids
Adam Reiss and Dareh Gregorian
During his questioning of Bender, Trump's lawyer asked Bender if he ever consulted with Donald Trump Jr. or Ivanka Trump, the former president’s children, about the financial statements that the AG contends were grossly inflated.
"Not that I recall," he said of both.
Trump Jr. is a Trump Organization executive and a defendant in the case and was responsible for filing some of the statements after his father was elected president. Ivanka Trump is a former Trump Organization executive and was originally a defendant in the case, but an appeals court dismissed the AG's claims against her on statute of limitations issues.
9h ago / 1:39 AM AEDT
AG's office expresses frustration at Trump's lawyers over questioning of financial statements
Adam Reiss and Summer Concepcion
Kevin Wallace, the lead lawyer on the AG’s case, objected after Trump lawyer Jesus Suarez began to ask Bender about financial statements year by year, despite getting similar answers each time.
Engoron then asked how long this would take. Suarez said he thinks he will finish his cross-examination of Bender in the next hour and a half.
Wallace again objected, prompting Engoron to say that, in his discretion, he will give an hour and a half but “if you want you can finish earlier.”
9h ago / 1:38 AM AEDT
Judge sets timeline for Trump to dissolve LLCs
Lisa Rubin and Dareh Gregorian
As the trial proceeds in court, Judge Engoron issued a ruling to make sure the former president and other defendants in the case are complying with his order last week canceling their New York business certificates.
The judge formally extended the deadline for Trump's team and the AG's office to submit suggestions for an independent receiver to oversee the dissolution of the companies by Oct. 26. He also directed the Trump team to turn over a full list of those companies, and to inform the monitor already overseeing the Trump Organization's financial transactions about any third parties who have ownership interests.
The order also directs Trump's team to inform the monitor in advance of any applications for new business certificates and any transfer of assets.
The judge's summary judgment ruling last week found that Trump and his companies had committed repeated fraud, and canceled business certificates for LLCs "controlled or beneficially owned" by Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and two Trump Organization executives. It originally gave the parties 10 days to name a potential receiver, but Engoron extended the deadline at the request of Trump's lawyers. Trump filed a notice Wednesday that he's appealing the ruling.
[...]
11h ago / 11:47 PM AEDT
Highlights from Day 3
Zoë Richards
On Day 3 of the trial, Trump’s lawyers sought to undermine the credibility of Donald Bender, a former accountant for Trump, prompting a heated exchange between defense attorney Chris Kise and Judge Arthur Engoron.
Bender admitted that he didn't dispute valuations of individual assets and also said he didn't recall noticing any failure to disclose the methods used to value those assets, contrary to industry guidelines.
A second accountant, Camron Harris, said in his testimony that the Trump family and their company, the Trump Organization, are responsible for their own financial statements.
Trump who attended the trial for a third straight day again railed against the court proceedings, calling them a “disgrace” and a “witch hunt.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/live-blog/trump-trial-fraud-live-updates-rcna118882
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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