Trump and his sons don’t danger going to jail however withstand $250 million in penalties and potential elimination from the administration of the household firm.

An argumentative Donald Trump clashed repeatedly with the choose on Monday as he took the stand within the New York civil fraud case threatening to cripple his actual property empire.

“This is not a political rally,” New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron instructed the previous president after admonishing him to maintain his solutions quick.

“Please, just answer the questions, no speeches,” Engoron stated earlier than asking one in every of Trump’s legal professionals, Christopher Kise, to “control your client,” according to CNN.

Trump, the first former US president to take the stand as a defendant in a court case in more than a century, complained in testimony about what he called a “very unfair” and “loopy trial” brought by Democrats “coming after me from 15 totally different sides.”

Trump, his eldest sons Don Jr and Eric, and other Trump Organization executives are accused of exaggerating the value of their real estate assets by billions of dollars to obtain more favorable bank loans and insurance terms.

Testifying under oath, Trump dismissed allegations that the company’s statements of financial condition were fraudulent and said “they have been probably not paperwork that the banks paid a lot consideration to.”

He said the value of the “Trump model” was also not considered in the valuations of his real estate assets.

“I grew to become president due to my model,” Trump said under questioning from Kevin Wallace, a lawyer for the New York attorney general’s office which brought the case.

Before taking the stand, Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, spoke to reporters outside the courtroom, denouncing the case as “election interference.”

“It’s a really unhappy scenario,” he said. “It normally takes place in third world nations and banana republics.”

‘Numbers, my friends, don’t lie’

New York state Attorney General Letitia James told reporters before Trump’s arrival that the former president had “persistently misrepresented and inflated the worth of his belongings.”

“Before he takes the stand, I’m sure that he’ll interact in name-calling and taunts and race-baiting and name this a witch hunt,” James said. “But on the finish of the day, the one factor that issues are the info and the numbers.

“And numbers, my friends, don’t lie.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked James, who’s Black, as “racist,” and has additionally gone after Engoron, calling the choose “unhinged” and a “Trump-hating radical left, Democrat operative.”

Engoron has responded by slapping Trump with $15,000 in fines for violating a partial gag order imposed after he bashed the choose’s clerk on social media.

Trump’s testimony follows that of his sons Don Jr. and Eric, who took the stand final week and blamed accountants for any inaccuracies within the monetary statements of the corporate.

According to The Washington Post, the previous president to testify publicly as a defendant was Theodore Roosevelt, who took the stand throughout a 1915 libel trial.

Trump has already given testimony twice in reference to this case, each instances in closed-door depositions.

First of many trials

Trump and his sons don’t danger going to jail however withstand $250 million in penalties and potential elimination from the administration of the household firm.

Even earlier than opening arguments, Engoron dominated that James’s workplace had already proven “conclusive evidence” that Trump had overstated his internet price on monetary paperwork by between $812 million and $2.2 billion between 2014 and 2021.

As a outcome, the choose ordered the liquidation of the businesses managing the belongings in query, such because the Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street skyscrapers in Manhattan.

That order is on maintain pending attraction, however its probably sweeping penalties spotlight the excessive stakes for the previous president.

The enterprise tycoon’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who left the Trump Organization in 2017 to turn into a White House advisor, just isn’t a codefendant within the case however has additionally been ordered to testify, probably as quickly as Wednesday, as reported by CNN.

The civil fraud trial is one in every of a number of authorized battles Trump faces as he seeks to recapture the presidency.

In March, Trump who was impeached twice whereas in workplace, faces a trial on costs that he conspired to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 election, which he misplaced to President Joe Biden.