As always, I’ll do my best to live toot reports when they start. This will be the thread.
1/…🧵
Via Klasfeld:
Good morning from #NewYork.
Trump’s gagged, and his ex-accountant spills the beans.
Those are just two of the news items that came out of Day Two of the civil fraud trial.
Follow us for Day Three #TrumpTrial #legal
2/ Trump arrived at the courthouse and @atrupar posted a vid in which Trump says this AFTER a gag order was imposed on him:
Trump dehumanizes Letitia James as a "political animal"
And this AFTER his team failed to ask for a jury trial:
Trump: "If I had a jury we'd win this case very easily, but I don't have a jury ... this is the beginning of communism."
3/ Klasfeld: (ICYMI, this is a judge with a sense of humor as well as gravitas)
Trump's lawyer Jose Suarez tells the judge he's gotten the message: "I also understand that in the Great State of NY it's called a triplex," pronouncing it like "triple" instead of "tri-."
Co-counsel Chris Kise quips: "Judge, in the South, it's just called apartment."
Engoron asks if they have triplexes in South.
Kise replies: That's why we call it an apartment.
Bender's testimony begins shortly after that.
4/🙄 👉🏼After Engoron chides Trump's attorney against performative questioning by saying "There's no jury here," Trump audibly groans and mumbles a reaction.👈🏼🙄
Questioning turns to an engagement continuance form between Mazars and Trump Org from 2016-'17.
🙄 👉🏼 Trump keeps noisily (but, for those of us in the gallery, mostly inaudibly) complaining about the judge's remarks throughout the questioning. 👈🏼🙄
5/ Having a bad day, #Trump? 🎻
Via erica orden:
Trump is more animated today. Earlier, he shook his head & sighed after the judge made a quip about no jury being present. A few moments ago, he threw up his hands and muttered something after a lawyer asked the judge to instruct the witness, Donald Bender, to speak more clearly.
He is again throwing up his hands and muttering to his lawyer Alina Habba. He has been looking at papers she is handing him.
6/ Trump’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, cont’d.
Klasfeld:
Since the time of the last post, Trump appears to have taken out his frustrations on paper, jotting down notes and whispering to his lawyers. He sometimes shakes his head and points.
This is as animated and worked up as I have seen Trump inside a courtroom so far.
7/ Klasfeld:
Trump's settled down considerably.
Back to cross-ex.
Trump's lawyer Jose Suarez says the "buck stopped with you, Mr. Bender," a proposition the witness denies.
"We were not engaged—compilation did not require us to do" audits.
"We were not engaged to do method appraisals."
8/ Via Pagliery:
Trump's combative lawyer, Jesus Suarez, finally gets to the point after questioning Bender about accounting minutiae for an hour-plus.
Bender said he didn't closely examine each massive property listed in Trump's personal financial statements.
He failed his job, Suarez said.
9/ Suarez reads from an accounting manual that describes responsibilities:
"Ordinarily an accountant can compile personal financial statements based on the individual's representation of the estimated current values of assets and the estimated current amounts of liabilities..."
"At a minimum, however, the accountant should obtain an understanding of the methods by which the individual determined the estimated current values of significant assets..."
10/ Paglieri, contd:
Suarez is trying to recast Trump's lies as his accountant's incompetence.
We're on a short break, and the Trump campaign keeps pumping out attacks on this trial.
It's so unbecoming. [I won't post the screen grab]
11/ We're starting again. The judge warned that he'd start in 15 min, even if certain people aren't here on time. Lo and behold, Trump hasn't walked back in.
His lawyers are here.
Where is he?
👉🏼In what's become typical MAGA fashion, Trump's lawyers are now trying delay tactics
***during*** the trial.👈🏼
Suarez keeps asking insanely long questions about accounting arcanum, repeating them for each year from 2020 back to 2011.
👉🏼Judge has had enough.
"Jesus!" he exclaims.👈🏼
12/ Kise & Robert argue they must repeat questions for each year, as case depends on a possible date cutoff (statute of limitations).
They cite how this is a "big case."
👉🏼Judge doesn't care, says they're wasting time & tells them to ask if answers for all years are the same.👈🏼
Trump just walked in, forcing the judge to pause for a minute.
He sat back down, and Kise is whispering in his ear.
13/ Klasfeld:
Notable in his 1st post-gag order Truth Social posts & remarks:
* Not a word about Engoron or, most relevantly, his staff.
* Toned down (but not eliminated) personal attacks generally.
* Silence on his (limited) muzzling.
(He's not forbidden from complaining about the case.)
14/ Paglieri:
Suarez at it again.
"In 2013 with Trump Tower, you were able to determine that the statement of financial condition did not fail to disclosure the estimated current value of that asset?"
"For Niketown in 2013, you were able..."
"And in 2013 as it relates to 40 Wall St, you..."
Judge: "Counselor, can we lump this all together against using the same principles?"
Suarez agrees. Then keeps at it.
💥Judge: "I don't talk just to hear myself. I'm precluding you from doing this."
15/ Trump's lawyers, oy!!
Klasfeld:
Suarez keeps going line by line, Engoron curtly cuts him off, telling him to streamline. Trump's lawyer keeps insisting it's necess in light of witness's testimony.
Engoron asks how much longer cross-ex will be.
Suarez says it's end today
NYAG's lawyer: "TODAY?"
NYAG's lawyer: "There's no jury. I don't know who we're performing for."
Engoron: "Mr. Bender is not on trial here."
Kise: I would disagree w that.
Habba jumps up and echoes Kise's remark
17/ Folks....
Paglieri:
👉🏼Things are blowing up here. Suarez is trying to be as repetitive as possible.
The judge is starting to raise his voice.
"You're not allowed to waste time. That is what this is becoming."
Kise: "We will attempt to streamline this as much as possible."
Judge: "Doesn't seem like that yet."
Kise: "The devils in the details. I'm sorry, but it is."
👉🏼Judge: "This is ridiculous! To the reporters: I'm pounding the bench again. this is ri•di•cu•lous!"
18/ AG lawyer Kevin Wallage wonders: "There's no jury. I don't think we're performing..."
Judge: "Mr. Bender's not on trial here."
Kise: "I would very much disagree with that. He was the CPA. He has certain responsibilities under the AICPA standards. If he didn't meet those..."
Judge: I do this for every trial and never get an objection.
19/ Habba: "This trial's different, because we don't even have clarity on the years in question. This is insane. we haven't gotten one answer out of him. He has no memory as we sit here."
Kise: "The government brought a case accusing my client of a staggering fraud... that is year by year... in this year they made these changes, in that year they made those changes..."
"We will attempt to streamline this as much as possible."
👉🏼Judge: "Doesn't seem like that yet!"
20/ Judge: "There's no point in going through each line. I'm just being logical here."
Kise: "Let me make sure I understand..."
His tone is so condescending.
Kise: "Youre asking us to go line by line, but just ask the same question for each line?"
"I've never had to negotiate how to ask questions."
The transcript cannot capture Kise's tone here. He's talking to the judge as if he's a law student.
21/ [Trump's strategy, they got nothin' else:]
Kise: "I think it makes a poor record, frankly."
Trump's lead lawyer here is repeatedly foreshadowing a massive appellate fight that will try to render this entire 3-month trial null and void.
Judge: "I'm just being logical here. I'm not going to let you ask every single line. You're not going to get away with this."
You could cut through the tension in this courtroom with a butter knife.
Kise: "For the record, I object to this."
22/ Wait. Trump... LIED? 🤥
Klasfeld:
Some news:
Trump intends to fly out to Florida soon, despite telling a judge there that he'd be in New York all week
Back to Paglieri, cont'd from above toot:
And yet! Suarez kept doing it. Are Trump's lawyers being this brazen because he's watching them?
Judge Engoron's tone of voice dropped.
"I have a thick skin, but it's really being pierced here."
23/ Via journalist Ahmed Baba:
It’s important to note Trump isn’t required to be there. This is a choice.
He’s there for a few reasons:
1. Intimidation of witnesses & the judge (not working)
2. To spread lies outside the courtroom, rally his base, & fundraise
3. To micromanage his defense lawyers, who suck
24/ Yup. Mission accomplished.
Via Klasfeld:
Reminder:
Trump vowed to be here all week in order to bump his scheduled deposition in his lawsuit against Michael Cohen from this past Tuesday until Oct. 9.
He succeeded in delaying it.
Lunch break. Back at 2:15 p.m. ET.
He only showed up to avoid giving a deposition in his suit against Michael Cohen in Florida who had to change the deposition this weekend in NY to accommodate trump's request because he wanted to attend the trial all week in NY.
Guess who's running back to Florida ?
You're doing great! Keep up the good work!
You're doing an amazing job. Don't worry about replies. Your hands are full.
Trump seeks to dominate with his behaviour.
He took a downer?
'"We were not engaged—compilation did not require us to do" audits.
"We were not engaged to do method appraisals."'
I'm not sure that I know what that means.....
Bender testified at length about compiling TFG statements and that it was TFG responsibility to accurately assess the values. The forms stated disclosures from Mazars.
https://abc7news.com/donald-trump-civil-trial-news-letitia-james/13854487/
Makes more sense now. The firm was hired to do the taxes only and as such, took the client's word for things. That's standard throughout the tax preparation industry.
I wonder what this agitation is about. The behaviour is disruptive.
Fingers crossed!
"I wonder what this agitation is about."
That he has to endure, in his opinion, this witch hunt... and he's an asshole who's actiling like a first grader....
Master thespian he is not.
it's a thought, Lindsey graham is already trying to spin this web.
Graham: We’re not going to let New York get away with this. This judge is a joke!
@IAmPoliticsGirl
It's starting to feel that not having a jury trial wasn't a mistake, but a deliberate attempt to set up a "villain" in the judge so they could paint him as corrupt, and spin THAT story rather than accept that Trump actually did the things he did. This is a nightmare for the rule of law.
Quote Acyn @Acyn
·
Oct 2
true story... and there would be 12 people with death threats.... 😢
I hope the motherfucker is blasted as flat broke as I am.
He’s got the emotional maturity of an infant. 🙄
I see Trump is trying the "Toddler" strategy.
Laffy
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