Trump lawyer shot down as he tries to get prosecution's only expert witness dismissed
A lawyer for Donald Trump tried to get the prosecution's lone expert witness dismissed Wednesday as he started to give evidence expected to detail the impact the Trump Organization's inflated valuations had.
Attorney Chris Kise argued that Michiel McCarty didn't have the experience needed to qualify as a witness, and argued that he should step down from the witness stand, according to ABC News.
"McCarty said that he has worked as an expert witness on "dozens of cases" and testified at 15 trials. But he acknowledged that he had limited experience with the compilation of statements of financial condition," ABC reported.
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Kise immediately objected.
"It appears that he does not have the specific experience relevant to the purpose he is here," he said.
Judge Arthur Engoron disagreed and allowed McCarty to continue.
McCarty, the chairman and CEO of the boutique investment firm M.M. Dillon & Co., will testify about a report he prepared on the economic impact of false statements Trump allegedly made to secure better terms on loans and insurance, reported Law 360's Stewart Bishop.
“The subject loans made the banks lots of money, but the fraudulent [financial statements] cost the banks lots of money,” the report states. “Thus, accurate [financial statements] would have allowed the banks to make even more money than they did."
Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago, Trump National Doral Golf Club and Trump's former hotel at the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., each should have rated as "non-investment grade" projects, McCarty said, but loans for each of those properties were rated higher by lenders with "a risk premium of almost zero.”
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McCarty testified that the Deutsche Bank loan for the D.C. hotel had tougher economic restrictions than some of Trump's other loans, but he concluded the bank would have made $53.4 million in additional money if it had offered an interest rate based on the former president's actual wealth.
He said the lender would have made $17.4 million more on its loan for Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago if his financial statements had been truthful and accurate.