Donald Trump New York Fraud Trial: EX-POTUS Reveals Eye-Opening Role in Valuing His Property, Rants on Judge

By Rick Martin First Posted: Nov 06, 2023 07:36 PM EST

Donald Trump finally admitted in court while under oath that he intended to "induce lending" with his financial statements that have officially been deemed fraudulent during his New York fraud trial.

During questioning, a lawyer working for the New York Attorney General asked Trump about a loan agreement he had signed with Deutsche Bank in 2012. There, Trump agreed that his fraudulent financial statements were intended to induce banks to make banks loan him money.

As The New Republic pointed out, this admission is key to New York Attorney General Letitia James's case against the former president, who was very combative throughout the testimony. Trump basically admitted in court that these fraudulent financial statements were to make banks lend him money and his company, the Trump Organization, was likely able to secure much lower interest rates due to him inflating the valuation.

Trump initially tried to repeat the strategy of his sons and pin the responsibility of inflating his assets to the accountants. However, he also claimed that he could have conjured any number he wanted for his net worth assessment.

"I'd like to go back to the statement of financial condition, it says Donald J. Trump was responsible for designing and implementing internal controls relative to the presentation of these statements. What did you do on this?" asked one of the AG's lawyers. However, Trump just blamed the accountants.

"I could have just put a number down. But I got expensive lawyers," he explained.

While he answered some of the AG attorneys' questions, Trump went into tangents, accused the judge of being political, and was combative with Judge Arthur Engoron that the New York Supreme Court judge threatened to kick Trump out.

Donald Trump Struggled To Explain Why Mar-a-Lago's Value Was Inflated

One of the most contentious points during the testimony was when Mar-a-Lago, Trump's famous Florida resort, was brought up. Attorneys for the AG pointed out that the "deed of development rights" has outlined that "the Club and Trump intend to forever extinguish their right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use." However, Trump claimed that the language in the deed is not legally binding.

Trump was asked if he intended to comply with a deed of development rights for Mar-a-Lago, according to the New York Times. Trump stated that he did intend to comply with the deed but added he could still use it for residential purposes.

Trump then talked about Mar-a-Lago, claiming that it was undervalued, saying under oath, "I thought that Mar-a-Lago was very underestimated, but I didn't do anything about it," but could not explain why his valuations differed from valuations made by assessors.

New York AG Letitia James Seen Laughing at Donald Trump During His Testimony at the Fraud Trial

With Judge Engoron already ruling that Trump's financial statements were fraudulent, Trump went scorched earth and resorted to theatrics while on the stand, grandstanding to play up some political points as he attacked New York AG Letitia James and the judge himself.

When Trump claimed in court that his 40 Wall Street property "is hundreds of millions of dollars more than what she says. She doesn't even know what 40 Wall Street is," AG James was seen laughing at that remark.

According to NBC News, she later posted a message that read, "Don't tell, I can see it from my office window."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Trump 'loses it' on witness stand as empire wobbles in fraud case - MSNBC