Keep your voice down, judge warns Donald Trump at fraud trial
- 6 months ago
#englishnews #donaldtrump #fraudtrial
News Article :-
A judge warned Donald Trump and others at his New York civil fraud trial to keep their voices down on Wednesday after the former president threw up his hands in frustration and spoke aloud to his lawyers while a witness was testifying against him.
Judge Arthur Engoron gave the admonition after Trump conferred animatedly with his lawyers at the defense table during real-estate appraiser Doug Larson’s second day of testimony at the Manhattan trial.
State lawyer Kevin Wallace asked Engoron to ask the defense to “stop commenting during the witness’s testimony”, adding that the “exhortations” were audible on the witness’s side of the room. The judge then asked everyone to keep their voices down, “particularly if it’s meant to influence the testimony”.
The 2024 Republican frontrunner was in court for a second straight day on Wednesday, watching the trial that threatens to upend his real estate empire and his wealthy businessman image. He attended the first three days, but skipped last week. On Tuesday, he left during an afternoon break to give a deposition in an unrelated lawsuit.
In a pre-trial decision last month, Engoron ruled that Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, committed years of fraud by exaggerating his asset values and net worth on annual financial statements used to make deals and get better terms on loans and insurance.
As punishment, Engoron ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies, putting the future oversight of Trump Tower and other marquee properties in question. An appeals court temporarily blocked the order as an appeal of the pre-trial decision is pending.
Over the past three weeks, prosecutors have been building their case that Trump and his family knowingly inflated the value of their properties. Trump’s lawyers, in response, have been trying to argue that the valuations were accurate and any discrepancies were the fault of others.
Trump did not talk about the case on his way into court past TV cameras on Wednesday, saving his usual vitriol about the lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, for a morning break.
Inside the courtroom, which is closed to cameras, Trump grew irritated as Larson testified.
In a series of questions, Trump lawyer Lazaro Fields sought to establish that Larson had, at one point, undershot the projected 2015 value of a Trump-owned Wall Street office building by $114m. Larson said the “values were not wrong – it’s what we knew at the time”.
Trump threw up his hands during the exchange.
On Tuesday, Larson testified that he never consulted with or gave permission for the Trump Organization’s former controller, Jeffrey McConney, to cite him as an outside expert in the valuation spreadsheets he used to create Trump’s financial statements.
Fields on Wednesday accused Larson of lying, pointing to a decade-old email exchange between McConney a
News Article :-
A judge warned Donald Trump and others at his New York civil fraud trial to keep their voices down on Wednesday after the former president threw up his hands in frustration and spoke aloud to his lawyers while a witness was testifying against him.
Judge Arthur Engoron gave the admonition after Trump conferred animatedly with his lawyers at the defense table during real-estate appraiser Doug Larson’s second day of testimony at the Manhattan trial.
State lawyer Kevin Wallace asked Engoron to ask the defense to “stop commenting during the witness’s testimony”, adding that the “exhortations” were audible on the witness’s side of the room. The judge then asked everyone to keep their voices down, “particularly if it’s meant to influence the testimony”.
The 2024 Republican frontrunner was in court for a second straight day on Wednesday, watching the trial that threatens to upend his real estate empire and his wealthy businessman image. He attended the first three days, but skipped last week. On Tuesday, he left during an afternoon break to give a deposition in an unrelated lawsuit.
In a pre-trial decision last month, Engoron ruled that Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, committed years of fraud by exaggerating his asset values and net worth on annual financial statements used to make deals and get better terms on loans and insurance.
As punishment, Engoron ordered that a court-appointed receiver take control of some Trump companies, putting the future oversight of Trump Tower and other marquee properties in question. An appeals court temporarily blocked the order as an appeal of the pre-trial decision is pending.
Over the past three weeks, prosecutors have been building their case that Trump and his family knowingly inflated the value of their properties. Trump’s lawyers, in response, have been trying to argue that the valuations were accurate and any discrepancies were the fault of others.
Trump did not talk about the case on his way into court past TV cameras on Wednesday, saving his usual vitriol about the lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James, for a morning break.
Inside the courtroom, which is closed to cameras, Trump grew irritated as Larson testified.
In a series of questions, Trump lawyer Lazaro Fields sought to establish that Larson had, at one point, undershot the projected 2015 value of a Trump-owned Wall Street office building by $114m. Larson said the “values were not wrong – it’s what we knew at the time”.
Trump threw up his hands during the exchange.
On Tuesday, Larson testified that he never consulted with or gave permission for the Trump Organization’s former controller, Jeffrey McConney, to cite him as an outside expert in the valuation spreadsheets he used to create Trump’s financial statements.
Fields on Wednesday accused Larson of lying, pointing to a decade-old email exchange between McConney a