Trump’s civil fraud trial begins in New York : NPR

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

In New York, former President Donald Trump sat in a courtroom at present simply ft from New York’s lawyer common, Letitia James, on the primary day of his $250 million fraud trial. James alleges that Trump engaged in a conspiracy to falsify property values to get higher charges on loans and insurance coverage. Trump’s attorneys say what he did isn’t fraud; it’s actual property. Effectively, NPR’s Andrea Bernstein was within the courtroom at present. She is exterior the courthouse now. Hey there.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN, BYLINE: Hey, Mary Louise.

KELLY: Hey. OK, so return. Begin with the courtroom. What was it like in there at present?

BERNSTEIN: So there have been these massively vital figures – the New York lawyer common, the as soon as and would-be future president and certainly one of his sons, Eric Trump, who largely runs the true property firm. They had been all collectively on this one New York courtroom, seen higher days. It type of made it really feel like a smaller New York story about enterprise and banking and accounting. There’s only one method into the courtroom for Trump, and that was by strolling proper in entrance of AG James. That is what she had stated about him simply moments earlier than, exterior the courthouse.

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LETITIA JAMES: Donald Trump and the opposite defendants have dedicated persistent and repeated fraud. Final week, we proved that in our movement for abstract judgment. At the moment, we’ll show our different claims.

BERNSTEIN: Trump additionally took his personal alternative to deal with the general public, talking to reporters in a chaotic scrum within the hallway exterior the courtroom. He referred to as the trial a sham and a rip-off and politically motivated.

KELLY: All righty. In order that was what Trump was saying, addressing the general public. What had been the lawyer common’s attorneys saying of their opening argument?

BERNSTEIN: So attorneys from her workplace sketched out the proof. They will lay out emails, video clips, which they are saying present a wide-ranging conspiracy to falsify property values, typically by a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, in an effort to get favorable financial institution charges. They are saying Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and others all took steps, individually and collectively, to outright lie about property values. And so they confirmed some emails they are saying will show the Trumps did this with intent. For instance, they stated when Donald Trump was caught mendacity in regards to the worth of his Trump Tower triplex, he, his sons and his workers pumped up the worth of different properties to make the steadiness come out even.

KELLY: However Trump’s attorneys are saying that this isn’t fraud. Increase on that.

BERNSTEIN: Proper. So his personal attorneys stated, look, there have been disclaimers far and wide. The financial institution ought to have accomplished its personal assessments. This lawyer, Charles Kise (ph) stated Trump’s statements had no materials influence. The financial institution did not lose cash. A lawyer for Trump’s firm, Alina Habba, went even additional than that. She stated she got here from an actual property household and, quote, “perhaps the lawyer common does not know that is regular follow, however the banks do their very own valuations.” She additionally stated that Mar-a-Lago might in all probability be bought for a billion {dollars} – that is billions with a B. And the decide pushed again on that. He stated, quote, “you’ll be able to’t take a look at a property 10 years later and say now what it is price. The purpose of a press release is to say what it was price then.”

KELLY: Andrea, let me skip forward and ask, what’s on for tomorrow?

BERNSTEIN: We count on extra testimony from Trump – from the accountant for Trump at Mazars USA. Developing – different executives and Michael Cohen, his former government vice chairman, can be testifying about how Trump did all this.

KELLY: And Trump himself – he was there. How did he react to all this?

BERNSTEIN: Yeah, he sat type of quietly, a bit hunched. It made him look small. And at one level on his method out, he appeared like he was attempting to disregard the lawyer common. However then he turned and checked out her and glared. I used to be sitting proper behind her, so I had a fairly good take a look at that.

KELLY: Wow. All proper. Tons extra to return. That is NPR’s Andrea Bernstein exterior the courthouse in New York. Thanks.

BERNSTEIN: Thanks.

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