Donald Trump, the former President, posted on his Truth Social page a document claiming that the Manhattan judge presiding over his civil fraud trial had disallowed him from appearing in court.
Trump stated that he had attempted to read this “disclaimer” out loud during the chaotic testimony on Monday, to exonerate himself from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million case 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.
According to the New York Post, President Trump asked Judge Arthur Engoron if he could read from the document during his testimony.
“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.
During the September ruling, Judge Engoron rejected the defense offered and stated that it did not absolve them of liability. He further urged those involved to “Read my opinion again – or for the first time, perhaps.”
After two hours of testifying in a hushed tone, Trump became visibly agitated and accused Engoron and Attorney General James of attempting to harm him.
He also referred to James as a “political hack” before claiming she had used this case to gain her current post and become governor.
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.
“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.”
Prior to the commencement of the trial, Engoron determined that Trump was accountable for a few of James’ primary fraud accusations, referencing a Florida official’s estimation of the Palm Beach golf club at a maximum value of $27 million as opposed to Trump’s proclaimed worth of up to $1.5 billion.
“He said I’m a fraud because I didn’t value my property correctly,” Trump continued. “He’s the one who didn’t rule my property correctly.”
AG lawyer Kevin Wallace asked, “You’re done?”
“I’m done,” Trump responded.
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