Throughout the 10-week trial in New York, the prosecution and defence have contested the value of Mr Trump’s private club in Florida - as well as the line between legitimate real estate valuations and fraud.
The trial is now coming to a close, but before it even started, Judge Arthur Engoron, a Democrat, ruled the financial documents at the core of these allegations “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business”.
The former president had been expected to return to the witness stand on Monday, but announced in a social media post on Sunday evening that he had nothing more to say in a case he describes as politically motivated.
The attorney general’s case claims this is fraud, that the Trump Organization knew about Mar-a-Lago’s deed restrictions and ignored them to come up with values as if it were purely a private residence.
Trump’s legal team called luxury Florida real estate broker Lawrence Moens as a witness, and he told the court Mar-a-Lago was worth more than $1bn.
After this week’s final testimony, and a long break before closing arguments in January, Judge Engoron will deliver his ruling on the remaining fraud charges as well as any penalties.
The original article contains 1,265 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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Throughout the 10-week trial in New York, the prosecution and defence have contested the value of Mr Trump’s private club in Florida - as well as the line between legitimate real estate valuations and fraud.
The trial is now coming to a close, but before it even started, Judge Arthur Engoron, a Democrat, ruled the financial documents at the core of these allegations “clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business”.
The former president had been expected to return to the witness stand on Monday, but announced in a social media post on Sunday evening that he had nothing more to say in a case he describes as politically motivated.
The attorney general’s case claims this is fraud, that the Trump Organization knew about Mar-a-Lago’s deed restrictions and ignored them to come up with values as if it were purely a private residence.
Trump’s legal team called luxury Florida real estate broker Lawrence Moens as a witness, and he told the court Mar-a-Lago was worth more than $1bn.
After this week’s final testimony, and a long break before closing arguments in January, Judge Engoron will deliver his ruling on the remaining fraud charges as well as any penalties.
The original article contains 1,265 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!