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Former President Donald Trump shared a document on his Truth Social page stating that the Manhattan judge presiding over his civil fraud trial refused to allow him to appear in court.
In the post, Trump said he pulled the document from his jacket pocket during sometimes raucous testimony on Monday but was denied permission to read it. Trump identified the document as a disclaimer, which he then claimed vindicated him in the $250 million civil fraud case that New York Attorney General Letitia James had brought against him.
“This is the Paper that I wanted to submit that the Judge refused to take, because he doesn’t want anybody to know about the Disclaimer Clause at the beginning of each Financial Statement,” Trump wrote in his social media post.
Attached to the post was a document titled “Disclaimers Provided to Banks in Each Financial Statement.” The document instructs the reader that “considerable judgment is necessary to interpret market data and develop the related estimates of current value.”
“Users of this financial statement should recognize that they might reach different conclusions about the financial condition of Donald J. Trump,” the document concludes.
Trump asked Judge Arthur Engoron at one point during his testimony if he could read from the document.
“I would love to read this, Your Honor, if I could? Am I allowed to do that?” Trump asked, but Engoron shot it down.
The Post added:
Trump is accused of lying on yearly “statements of financial condition” by claiming he was worth billions more than he actually was to get better loan and insurance term from 2011 through 2021.
Banks considering lending money to Trump were given the allegedly falsified financial filings and often gave him lower interest rates because of his exaggerated wealth, New York Attorney General Letitia James claims in her suit.
But the real estate tycoon has argued that he can’t be held liable for any inaccuracies on the forms because a clause includes a section that essentially says recipients of the financial statement have to do their own accounting.
Engoron said he had already rejected that as a defense during a September ruling. “Read my opinion again — or for the first time, perhaps,” he sniped.
In the Sept. 26 decision, the judge said the disclaimers “do not insulate defendants from liability,” adding that they actually even “put the onus for accuracy squarely on defendants’ shoulders.”
Eventually, Trump became fed up while testifying and tore into the judge and attorney general.
After giving his testimony in hushed tones for the previous two hours, Trump became obviously agitated and spoke out loud, accusing Engoron and James of “trying to hurt” him.
The real estate tycoon called James a “political hack,” accusing her of using “this case to become governor” and having used it to gain her current post.
Then Trump went after Engoron, pointing at the jurist and proclaiming, “Everybody’s watching this case. He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me.”
“The fraud is on the court and not on me,” he continued to rant.
“When you rule Mar-A-Lago is worth $18 million and she rules it’s worth $25 million, either people are very stupid or there’s a fraud. The fraud is on behalf of the court.”
In a decision from days before the trial began, Engoron found Trump responsible for some of James’ main fraud allegations against Trump and cited a Florida official’s appraisal of the Palm Beach golf club at a maximum of $27 million while Trump has claimed it’s worth as much as $1.5 billion.
“He said I’m a fraud because I didn’t value my property correctly,” Trump continued to loudly ramble. “He’s the one who didn’t rule my property correctly.”
Trump insisted he did a “great job” as president.
Finally, AG lawyer Kevin Wallace asked, “You’re done?”
“I’m done,” Trump responded.
