Trump Org Trial Breaks Down In Shouting, ‘He Lied To Get Those Loans!’ Witness Sent From Court

It’s winter in New York City but there was a lot of heat generated today at the Centre Street Courthouse and not for the first time in the history of this trial. The prosecutor in the Trump Organization fraud trial got into a screaming match with Trump attorney Christopher Kise, the second time that both blood pressures and voices have risen in the past month. ABC News:

State attorney Kevin Wallace, challenging the testimony of an expert witness for the defense, angrily argued that Trump used fraudulent means to gain access to favorable loan rates through Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management division.

The exchange came during Wallace’s cross-examination of defense expert Robert Unell, who disputed the state’s claim that Trump’s alleged misstatements cost lenders $168 million in lost interest because, Unell said, the loan rates the state used in their calculation were higher than the rates Trump was entitled to when he used a personal guarantee as a private wealth client.

“Once you are in the private bank, you are in this sort of rarified air, and you get access to these rates … it is a flawed premise to say you have to compare it to the outside air,” argued Trump attorney Chris Kise after Judge Arthur Engoron removed Unell from the courtroom so the attorneys could hash out the permissibility of Wallace’s argument.

Shouting at Kise for repeatedly making lengthy objections, Wallace argued that Trump would have not qualified for the private bank rates had he not fraudulently overstated his assets.

“The court has found that Mr. Trump committed fraud,” Wallace said. “To get into the private wealth group, he committed fraud.”

“He lied to the private wealth group to get these loans. Therefore, we are looking at what the interest rate would have been had he not had access to the group he lied to,” Wallace said of the state’s calculation.

Overruling Kise’s objection, Engoron said that he supported Wallace’s theory.

“I think his explanation is correct,” Engoron said.

Trump lying in order to gain favorable rates is indeed the gravamen of this dispute. Robert Unell, the defense witness, is an expert in commercial real estate, we are told. He’s disputing the state’s expert witness, Michiel McCarthy, who testified that Trump’s alleged deceptions cost his lenders $168 million in lost interest. Both Christopher Kise and Trump have said that there “are no victims” except for Trump, who is always the victim. But if in fact $168,000,000 in lost interest can be found, whomever lost it is most certainly a victim.

Another wild day in court. Judge Engoron said yesterday that this trial may stretch into the New Year. Won’t that be grand? The Iowa Caucus will get rolling on January 15, followed by New Hampshire on January 23, and Trump’s employees and relatives will still be hashing through his fraud, so that the State of New York can determine an appropriate fine.

And then of course there’s the January 6 case which is set for March 4, in Washington, D.C., the day before Super Tuesday. Fun for the entire family, right?

I don’t know whether I’m blessed or cursed to be living at this time in American history. Right now I’d say it’s even money.