Raw Story

Legal expert debunks Trump witness who tried to say bank was at fault for agreeing loans

Sarah K. Burris
December 7, 2023 5:20PM ET

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-fraud-trial-expert-debunked/

For me, the most interesting passages here are comments by legal expert Andrew Weissmann and accounting expert Jack Castonguay.

One current headline says, "Trump defense seeks to put GAAP on trial." GAAP stands for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. This gets into technical accounting matters. For what appears to be a good account of the technical question at the heart of Eli Bartov's testimony, see

Trump defense seeks to put GAAP on trial

The New York Attorney General’s $250 million civil fraud suit has no merit from an accounting perspective, NYU professor Eli Bartov testified Thursday.

Published Dec. 7, 2023
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https://www.cfodive.com/news/trump-defense-puts-gaap-trial/701928/

Evidently a lawyer for the New York State Attorney General's staff said "the defense had hired someone to say whatever they wanted." (I'm quoting a news article, not necessarily the lawyer.) This may not have been the smartest thing to say, since it could be taken as a slight against Prof. Bartov's integrity. It does seem to me, though, that the defense hunted around and found an expert or "expert" whose views were what they wanted; and it would be for accountants to judge whether those views would be commonly accepted by the profession. I take accounting professor Jack Castonguay's observations to be that they are not.

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#andrewweissmann #democrats #donaldtrump #elibartov #jackcastonguay #trump

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