Donald Trump rails at his NYC fraud trial

Molly Crane-Newman and Josephine Stratman, Tribune News Service

Donald Trump’s blockbuster fraud trial reached a dramatic finale at closing arguments Thursday when the former president made an end-run around a judge’s strict orders to get his two cents on the record. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron shot down Trump’s unheard-of request to personally deliver a summation on Wednesday because he wouldn’t promise to veer off topic — but the GOP presidential front-runner still managed to get his way.

Once his lawyers had finished their closing arguments, his attorney, Chris Kise, made a final plea to the judge to let the former president speak. When Engoron then asked Trump if he would abide by the previously laid out ground rules — which commanded him not to enter new testimony or evidence, “deliver a campaign speech,” or disparage the judge, his staff, Attorney General Tish James, and the court system — an emotional Trump didn’t give him an answer, instead launching into a tirade defying the judge’s directive on nearly every level.

“When you say don’t go outside of these things, we have a situation where I’m an innocent man, I’m being persecuted by someone running for office, and I think you have to go outside of the bounds,” Trump said. “This is a fraud on me. What’s happened here, sir, is a fraud on me.” Engoron, who started his day dealing with a bogus bomb threat at his Nassau County home, let Trump riff for around six minutes before a stunned courtroom, cutting him off when he chided Engoron’s “agenda” and told the judge, “You can’t listen for one minute.” “Mr. Kise, please control your client,” Engoron then said.

With that, Trump left the 60 Centre St. courthouse with his Secret Service entourage and son Eric, his codefendant, as the judge adjourned for lunch. Trump headed to his Wall Street skyscraper to address reporters instead of sticking around for the AG’s closing argument. The stakes couldn’t be higher for Trump in the AG’s civil fraud lawsuit threatening his future as a business tycoon in his native New York. Among other remedies, James is seeking to forfeit a staggering $370 million in illegal profits and to permanently bar Trump, his former finance chief at the Trump Org, Allen Weisselberg, and controller Jeffrey McConney from the real estate industry. She wants to bar his sons for five years.

Trump’s inherited real estate empire is already on its way out of his grasp following Engoron’s pretrial ruling finding him liable for the top fraud claim. Days before the trial started Oct. 2, the judge found him, his sons, Eric and Don Jr., and former top executives at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, engaged in persistent and repeated fraud for years by ballooning the value of his properties by billions — like Mar-a-Lago, Fla., and his eponymous Fifth Ave. skyscraper — to reap lucrative loan terms they weren’t entitled to in deals with banks, lenders, and insurance companies.

Engoron expects to issue a written verdict on the remaining six claims in the coming weeks, which will determine whether Trump and his crew carried out their fraud intentionally, falsified records, committed insurance fraud, and engaged in other criminality. The case is civil, but the allegations are that they committed crimes.

Trump had his mic drop moment, but the AG had the last word.

State lawyer Kevin Wallace said the low-interest rates Trump and his crew got from misvaluing his buildings and the savings they generated “kept the company afloat” while burning cash. Amid their financial woes, Wallace said the fraudulent statements empowered them to spend hundreds of millions on renovating Trump properties, including $225 million on transforming the Old Post Office in Washington, D.C., into a luxury hotel — later selling it for $370 million.

“I think I’ve heard that number before,” Engoron quipped, referring to the alleged ill-gotten gains the AG seeks.

Wallace said Trump’s insistence he did nothing wrong to the present day signaled to the judge that the wrongdoing could happen again, noting it continued while they were under investigation by the AG and the Manhattan district attorney. He said the defense’s entire case relied on a “murderers’ row” of experts because they couldn’t dispute the facts.

After Wallace, AG lawyer Andrew Amer told Engoron he had heard ample evidence of Trump and his associates’ fraudulent intentions. “The evidence of defendants’ intent is beyond clear and convincing,” he said. “It’s overwhelming and conclusive.” The three-month trial, which Trump attended nine times, saw him put under a limited gag order on the second day for trashing the judge’s principal law clerk online. He was fined $15,000 for breaking it twice. It also featured two stints on the witness stand from the ex-president — for three minutes and just over three hours, respectively — with Trump using his time under oath to rail against the judge and AG James and his ex-fixer, Michael Cohen, who he came face-to-face with on Oct. 24 for the first time since Cohen’s federal conviction and prison sentence for paying off a porn star at his behest to win the 2016 election.

Cohen came up throughout the defense’s closing arguments.

Kise, who said his client was “part of the fabric” of New York real estate and should get a medal for his work, not the “corporate death penalty,” argued Cohen was the only witness who directly pointed the finger at Trump, and as a “serial liar,” should be discounted. He repeated Trump’s chief argument that banks didn’t lose out by doing business with him and did their own homework without relying solely on his statements.

“He’s a whale client. He’s one of 10 or 25 people in the world that the bank wants to welcome through its doors,” Kise said, later adding, “This entire case is a manufactured claim to pursue a political agenda.” Alina Habba, who delivered a brief but aggressive closing argument as Trump looked on intently, took a shot at AG James, seated in the front row, and told Engoron he was being used as a pawn to further her political agenda. The AG closed her eyes and shook her head when Engoron asked if she wanted to object to Habba’s jabs.

Representing the Trump sons, Cliff Robert asked Engoron not to take away their livelihoods and said the AG’s case was “a press release wrapped up in a lawsuit.” Lawyers for the state said ample evidence proved they knew they were signing off on bogus numbers and, if they didn’t, had engaged in “gross recklessness.” Trump, still to go on trial in four criminal matters, is miles ahead of his Republican contenders in the 2024 presidential race even as his legal troubles reach soaring new heights. He’s pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges. Next Tuesday, the day after the Iowa caucuses, he’ll again go on trial against E. Jean Carroll for a jury to determine how much he owes for defaming her. Habba told The News Thursday he’s planning to attend.