I do so wish this trial was being televised. This is exactly what the American people need to see is Don Don the Clown making a fool out of himself in a court of law, interrupting a witness on the stand and his lawyer harassing said witness to boot. It’s strictly taboo for a defendant to start talking when a witness is being questioned, but of course Donald Trump thinks he’s above the law. And who knows what Trump’s lawyers think. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Doug Larson takes the stand for a second day. Read yesterday’s post on Larson to get up to speed. Larson did not do the appraisals that Trump claimed that he did, so in essence he hung Trump out to dry yesterday. Now he’s back again for more testimony and it’s getting ugly.
It's the 2nd day in a row that Trump has appeared at this trial in person, which means the NYPD has set up a complex maze of metallic barriers, no doubt to confuse terrorists and engineering students, around multiple blocks surrounding this Manhattan courthouse.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Back on the witness stand today is Doug Larson, a former executive of real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, who carried out appraisals on Trump’s building at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan on behalf of lenders.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
An objection from the AG’s side of the courtroom, didn’t catch which lawyer.
“Objection, can the defendant stop talking during the witness testimony,” the attorney says, in reference to Trump.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
That was outburst one. Let’s see if they continue because if they do, Trump can be cited for contempt of court.
Things just got serious. Trump’s attorney accuses Larson of lying on the witness stand. Yesterday, Larson said he didn’t know that Trump insiders were listing him as an expert source in Trump’s statements of financial condition, which the AG says were fraudulent.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Suddenly, Fields accuses Larson of committing perjury, he says that yesterday Larson testified that he didn’t work with McConney on capitalization rates, but an email from that year indicates that he did.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Trump attorney Chris Kise stands up, and says Larson should be advised of his 5th Amendment rights.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Yesterday, we saw some of Trump's statements of financial condition, in which Larson was listed as an expert source on the valuation process. Larson said he didn't know at the time.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
An attorney for the AG's office (I didn't catch which one) says the whole thing is a stunt by Trump's side.
"This is a performance,” the lawyer says. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Justice Engoron brushes it all off.
“Mr Kise…my role is to get the witness to testify. If he perjured himself yesterday or he perjured himself today, I don’t care. I just want him to testify,” the judge says.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
“Get the witness back here as soon as possible,” the judge says.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
“I must have, because he says there are valuations for me," Larson says.
He later adds that this was a long time ago, and he's unsure.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Fields wraps up his cross.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Man, this is starting to resemble something out of Perry Mason. Did the appraiser lie yesterday? Or is he lying today? Or, even if he is lying, are the figures correct and bottom line, that’s all that matters?
An attorney for the AG's office is back up for redirect.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Kise, Trump’s attorney, objects.
“Now he’s just reading things for the press!" Kise says. “That’s completely improper.”
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
Next up on the witness stand is Jack Weisselberg, son of former Trump Org. CEO Allen Weisselberg.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) October 18, 2023
It’s getting pretty wild. Court transcripts will be available at some point and more details of Larson’s testimony will come out but for the moment, here’s the flavor of how today in court is going for Trump.
Trump’s problem is that he’s coming up against facts and reality in a court of law, where those are the only things that count. His usual lies, spin, and bullying don’t work at all – and even weaken his case.
His house of cards is ending up as a shuffled pack lying around him.
I love his comment that “they won’t show all the evidence.” Of course they’re going to show all the evidence. Trump has been conning people for so long that he’s got himself conned into believing that evidence exists when it doesn’t.
And it’s driving him completely nuts that he’s being revealed as broker than he says he is. That he hates like death.
If there is actually eny evidence to show he’s innocent – HE’d have it (and so would his lawyers)
The only reason it hasn’t been produced is thet (a) it actually doesn’t prove his innocence or (b) it just doesn’t exist
Everything Trump says now is obviously a lie, as considered by the courts, because 99.9% of the time it really IS … If Trump actually began to tell the truth, there could be several people in the Courtroom hauled out by the emergency response team … 🙂
If Trump was NOT so infantile and completely stupid, he could swing better deals for himself, NOW we see that he is totally bonkers over his precious numbers, that stupidly, he has skewed so much for so many years …
If he had to repay New York for all his crimes, along with bank leveling and other caustic calls against him, is there enough cash left in his pockets to keep him out of prison? I don’t think he has a prayer of a clean slate … He’s so crazy worried about being found out as poor and incompetent as a business person, he overlooks the things WE might be thinking of, like how many years are his stupid stunts going to add to his sentence …
By signing a few documents, the AG’s and Judges can pass extraordinary difficult terms to Trump’s sentence time and place, how thin is the ice Trump is standing on now, talking over a witness response is first, a very wrong thing for ANYONE to do, and now He has pissed off so many people that are holding his future in their hands, any BIG hit on Trump is well deserved, too bad he has only himself to blame, as his stunts will be noted as cause for his situation and all those will be listed in the Nation’s Archive Records … The future generations will be shocked at how many people actually voted for him over the years, along with all the things he has gotten away with …