Former President Donald Trump has lost his latest bid to end the business fraud lawsuit he faces in New York as he campaigns to reclaim the White House. Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling denying the Republican’s latest request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Quick Read
- Trump’s Failed Legal Bid: Former President Donald Trump’s attempt to end a business fraud lawsuit in New York was denied by Judge Arthur Engoron.
- Ruling Against Trump: The lawsuit, brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, alleges exaggerated wealth and inflated asset values by Trump for loans and business deals.
- Judge’s Critique of Expert Witness: Engoron dismissed the credibility of Trump’s expert witness, accounting professor Eli Bartov, for testifying in favor of Trump’s financial statements.
- Expert Witness Compensation Questioned: Bartov, paid nearly $900,000 for trial work, was criticized by the judge for potentially biased testimony due to high fees.
- Trump’s Defense of Bartov: Trump defended Bartov on Truth Social, stating that expert witness fees are standard practice.
- Bartov’s Testimony Challenged: Bartov claimed no evidence of accounting fraud in Trump’s financial statements, a claim disputed by Engoron who noted numerous errors in the statements.
- Bartov’s Clarification and Defense: Bartov clarified in an email that he did not imply Trump’s statements were entirely accurate and argued his billing was standard.
- Scheduled Trial Conclusion: The trial’s closing arguments are set for Jan. 11 in Manhattan.
The Associated Press has the story:
Judge criticizes Trump’s expert witness as he refuses to toss fraud lawsuit
Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP)
Former President Donald Trump has lost his latest bid to end the business fraud lawsuit he faces in New York as he campaigns to reclaim the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling denying the Republican’s latest request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
And in doing so, the judge dismissed the credibility of one of Trump’s expert witnesses at the trial, a professor who testified that he saw no fraud in the former president’s financial statements.
The trial is centered on allegations Trump and other company officials exaggerated his wealth and inflated the value of his assets to secure loans and close business deals.
In the three-page ruling, Engoron wrote that the “most glaring” flaw of Trump’s argument was to assume that the testimony provided by Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and other expert witnesses would be accepted by the court as “true and accurate.”
“Bartov is a tenured professor, but the only thing his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote.
Bartov, who was paid nearly $900,000 for his work on the trial, said in an email that the judge had mischaracterized his testimony.
Trump took to his defense, calling Engoron’s comments about Bartov a “great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications” as he excoriated the judge’s decision.
“Judge Engoron challenges the highly respected Expert Witness for receiving fees, which is standard and accepted practice for Expert Witnesses,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
During testimony earlier this month, Bartov disputed the attorney general’s claims that Trump’s financial statements were filled with fraudulently inflated values for such signature assets as his Trump Tower penthouse and his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Bartov said there was “no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud.”
But Engoron, in his ruling Monday, noted that he had already ruled that there were “numerous obvious errors” in Trump’s financial statements.
“By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility,” the judge wrote.
In an email to The Associated Press, Bartov said he never “remotely implied” at the trial that Trump’s financial statements were “accurate in every respect,” only that the errors were inadvertent and there was “no evidence of concealment or forgery.”
Bartov also argued that he billed Trump at his standard rate.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Jan. 11 in Manhattan.
