Trump gets his way in closing arguments at NY fraud trial, calling himself a 'victim' in surprise remarks
David Dee Delgado/Getty Images
- Trump was allowed to make a five-minute statement during closings in the NY fraud trial on Thursday.
- He repeatedly called himself a "victim," and said instead of any penalties, 'they should pay me."
- "It's a great company," he said of Trump Org, "with some of the greatest assets in the world."
In a surprise turn of events in his New York civil fraud trial, Donald Trump was allowed to make a five-minute closing statement, time he used to repeatedly call himself a victim, accuse the state of pursuing a "witch hunt," and extoll the Trump Organization as "a great company."
"I'm an innocent man," the former president insisted, directly addressing the judge from his seat at the defense table.
"I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he added, in a reference to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who ran for office in 2018 promising to hold Trump and his Manhattan-headquartered real-estate empire accountable for fraud.
Just the day before, the judge, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, had denied Trump's request to deliver a statement on his own behalf in the AG's $370 million fraud lawsuit against him, his company, and his two eldest sons.
The judge had blamed Trump's failure to agree to limit his remarks, and not turn his statement into a campaign speech or personal attack on the court or the AG.
But five minutes before the 1 p.m. lunch break, Trump's lawyer, Christopher Kise, asked again for permission for his client to address the judge.
"I think all the people out there want to hear from him," Kise said.
"Well," the judge responded, sounding surprised. "This is not how it should have been done."
The judge then turned to Trump himself.
"Mr. Trump," Engoron began. "If I let you speak for five minutes, do you promise to comment on just the law and the facts," and not stray "outside" the bounds of what's allowed in closing statements.
Still seated, Trump leaned into the microphone before him. "Well, I think that this case goes outside," he began.
"There was no witnesses against us," he complained.
"The banks were happy as can be," he said. "They weren't defrauded. There wasn't one witness" who complained of being defrauded in the three-month trial, he added.
"This was a political witch hunt," he said. "We should receive damages for what they've taken this company through."
Trump spent one precious minute, out of his allotment of five, defending himself against a tiny corner of the case against him, in which the AG alleges he intentionally lied about the size of his triplex penthouse apartment atop Trump Tower.
"They do have a triplex, where they made a mistake and it was corrected, and it was de minimus," he said of the AG's finding that Trump tripled the size of the apartment in net-worth statements.
The judge has called the exaggeration intentional.
"A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud," he wrote in his consequential September pretrial finding that the defendants are liable for persistent fraud.
"I'm not sure what the number would have been," had it been correct, Trump told the judge on Thursday of the apartment's worth. But it would have been close to his estimate, he claimed.
Trump valued the unit at $327 million based on it being 30,000-square foot, trial evidence showed. It is actually 10,996.39 square feet.
"I'm an innocent man," Trump next protested. "I've been persecuted by somebody running for office," he said of James.
"This statute is vicious," he said. "It doesn't give you a jury it takes away all your rights and it is in fact a statute used for consumer fraud," he said of the state executive law the AG sued him under.
"There was a fraud on me," Trump complained.
The former president then went on to describe having "overpaid" his taxes by "close to $300 million," and to complain of New York, "they don't want me here. They don't want me any more," despite his having built things "all over the city."
"The person in the room right now hates Trump, and uses Trump to get elected," he said, apparently referring again to James.
"I t's a very big part of the case. I would say it's 100 percent," he said. "They found nothing and now she comes in and she says, 'We want to make the $250 million fine $370 million. For what?" he said, referring to the state's upward adjustment in proposed penalties.
The state's original lawsuit had sought $250 million from Trump and his defendants.
At this point, it was 1 p.m. The judge held up his phone, warning Trump that his time was up.
"You have your own agenda," Trump told the judge. "I certainly understand that. You can't listen for more than one minute."
"Mr. Kise," the judge told Trump's lawyer. "Please control your client."
But Trump kept speaking. "This is a suit, it seems I should have won many times," he said.
"Your honor, I've done nothing wrong. They should pay me for what we've had to go through," he repeated.
"It's a great company," he said of the Trump Organization. "It's a liquid company," he added. "With some of the greatest assets in the world."
Here, the judge held up his hand, and brought Trump's remarks to a close.
"This should have been done differently," he told the former president. "You would have had a lot more time.
"Thank you Mr. Trump," he added. "See you all at 2:15."
Closing arguments by two lawyers for the attorney general's office are scheduled for Thursday afternoon.