The New York trial judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial wrote a
scathing denial of the former president’s latest attempt to toss the state attorney general’s case against him — potentially a preview of a tough outcome for Trump as the trial process winds down.
Judge Arthur Engoron slammed Trump’s accounting experts and rejected key points of the defense in an order Monday denying a motion for a directed verdict filed by Trump’s attorneys after trial testimony ended last week.
It would be a “glaring flaw” to assume testimony from Trump accounting experts Eli Bartov and Jason Flemmons are true and accurate, the judge wrote.
The case record proves there are many material misstatements on Trump’s personal financial statements, according to Engoron.
“Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote. “By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility.”
Engoron added: “Defendants also trot out two of their standard canards, that valuations are subjective and that the law only penalizes ‘material’ deviations. These both fall into the category of ‘Let no one be fooled.’”
A valuation can be based on different criteria and analyzed different ways, the judge said, “But a lie is still a lie.”
