Fate of Trump’s business empire to be decided in new year: What we know

The fate of former President Trump's business empire, which catapulted him to fame, will be decided in the new year after more than two months of testimony by 40 witnesses in a sprawling New York civil fraud trial.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) said Trump, his company, and multiple executives, including his adult son, should be able to receive tax and insurance benefits by valuing the company's assets on key financial statements. The company accused the company of falsely changing the information and misleading financial companies and insurance companies.

Judge Arthur Engoron had already found the former president and his co-defendants guilty of fraud and refocused the trial on other allegations, including conspiracy, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

Engoron, who has repeatedly clashed with Trump and his lawyers, including in separate legal battles over a gag order imposed by a judge early in the case, will issue the verdict alone.

After closing arguments are heard on January 11, a decision could come as early as next month.

The trial provided new insight into President Trump's finances and business dealings. Also, how the former president and current front-runner in the 2024 Republican primary is making use of his New Year's court appearance, when campaigning is suspended, through fiery speeches outside of court and politically charged testimony on the witness stand. I showed that it could be done.

With the Trump family's business in flux, here's what we learned from the trial.

Politics permeates the courts

The politics of the 2024 presidential election have been intertwined with the court case from day one.

On October 2, President Trump went on a rant outside court, accusing Engoron of “interfering with the election” and suggesting that Engoron should be “criminally charged” for overseeing the incident.

Roughly 20 minutes after the case was dismissed, Trump's campaign posted a fundraiser with the subject line “Just Leaving Court” denouncing the case as political in nature and a “witch hunt” against Trump. I sent a lot of emails.

“Politicians, drunk with power, are using the legal system as a weapon to completely destroy me, and ultimately imprison me for the rest of my life as an innocent person,” the email said. It was dark. “So why are they trying to stop me so much? Because they believe that I am on the verge of winning the 2024 election in a landslide, taking their power as soon as I take office, and you Americans Because we know we will give it back to the people.”

President Trump's political rhetoric reached a boiling point when he took the witness stand on November 6th.

The former president attacked those involved in the case as “Trump haters” and called the judge and state attorney general “frauds” and “political hacks.” He expressed his dissatisfaction with the “Democratic” prosecutors and attorney generals “coming after” him. And he repeated the familiar refrain that all of his legal troubles are a “political witch hunt” aimed at preventing him from seeking a second term in the White House.

“Do you have control over your client?” Engoron asked Trump's lawyer at one point. “This is not a political rally.”

As the election heats up and four of Trump's criminal cases head to trial, the politics of fraud trials may offer a glimpse of what's to come in 2024.

President Trump's financial statements were distorted, witnesses testify

President Trump's statements about his finances were at the center of the New York attorney general's lawsuit. The documents detail the value of various Trump Organization assets and were sent to banks and insurance companies to secure loans and deals.

Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer and personal lawyer, has testified that he inflated Trump's assets at the former president's request.

“My responsibility, along with Allen Weisselberg, was primarily to reverse engineer different asset classes and grow those assets in order to achieve the numbers that President Trump put on us,” Cohen said. Told.

“When you say numbers, what numbers are you talking about?” prosecutor Colleen Faherty asked Cohen.

“No matter what Mr. Trump tells us,” Mr. Cohen responded.

The former president's Trump Tower triplex penthouse came under scrutiny in court. From at least his 2012 to his 2016, his financial statements valued the property at 30,000 square feet, nearly three times its actual size. Trump claimed his business “just made a mistake.”

“As we sit here right now, do you know how big your apartment is?” State's Attorney Kevin Wallace asked.

“Obviously, I've heard it's 11, 12, 13,000 feet because of the trial,” Trump responded.

The role of President Trump's children

The trial has provided new insight into the roles President Trump's adult children have played in the family business and their loyalty to the business, as evidenced in their testimony.

Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump each distanced themselves from their father's financial statements during testimony, instead relying on accountants and other experts to confirm whether the numbers were correct. suggested.

When Ivanka Trump took the stand, she gave muted testimony, repeatedly saying she didn't remember the business interactions she was being questioned about. President Trump's niece Mary Trump predicted ahead of Ivanka Trump's testimony that she might not immediately defend the family business like her brother and father, and instead predicted that the former president's daughter “They will tell the truth and denounce it,” he suggested. [former President Trump] under the bus. ”

In his second match on the witness stand, Donald Trump Jr. painted an idyllic picture of his father's real estate business and praised his “vision for doing things differently.”

Ivanka Trump was removed from the case before it went to trial, but both of Trump's adult sons are defendants. Their testimony could influence Engoron's sentencing, which will determine each defendant's fine for fraud.

The bank found no fraud.

The New York Attorney General's Office hired expert witnesses to testify that the Trump Organization's distorted financial statements may have cost the bank more than $168 million in interest.

But when Deutsche Bank executives took the stand, they testified that the bank wanted to work with the Trump Organization and that a due diligence review had found no wrongdoing. This is what Trump's lawyers have argued from the beginning.

After meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Deutsche Bank managing director Rosemary Vrablich emailed colleagues in 2011 saying she was “whaling” to pursue a relationship with the Trumps. I wrote. She testified at trial that bankers used “whale” to refer to very wealthy clients.

Mr. Vrablic will become Mr. Trump's chief banker, marking a 10-year partnership between the two.

David Williams, another managing director at Deutsche Bank, said bankers look at net worth reports and consider clients' financial statements to be “subjective or subject to estimates.” He testified.

“I think we expect the information our clients provide to be accurate,” Williams said. “At the same time, it is not industry standard for these statements to be audited.”

He added that because “they primarily rely on the use of estimates,” bankers “make some adjustments” on a daily basis.

The executives' testimony doesn't all bode well for the former president, with former Deutsche Bank risk manager Nicholas Haig saying statements about President Trump's finances are likely to result in two millions of dollars the bank gave him. He testified that he played an important role in approving the dollar loan. In 2011, it loaned $125 million to President Trump's golf resort in Doral, Florida, and in 2012, it loaned $107 million to a hotel in Chicago.

Haig said the financial documents allowed Trump to secure larger loans at lower interest rates, supporting the New York attorney general's claims.

Still, bankers are the most vocal defenders of Trump's business practices and could be at the center of the former president's inevitable appeal against the impending Engoron ruling.

The Associated Press contributed.