Donald Trump arrives for civil fraud trial opening in NYC

"Stunning": Court reporters hint at “rumblings” of potential Trump settlement talks in NY fraud case
Igor Derysh | Salon
Wed, November 15, 2023 at 7:14 AM MST

Rumors of potential settlement talks on Tuesday swirled around the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial is taking place.

Frank Runyeon, a reporter for Law360, on Tuesday cited a “very curious” 25-minute delay in the trial resuming after an afternoon break. Trump attorney Alina Habba walked out of the chambers "alone” before the New York attorney general’s team went in, Runyeon wrote on X/Twitter, linking the incident to Trump recently complaining about a “low-ball settlement offer.”



Trump's attorneys have already appealed Judge Arthur Engoron's pre-trial summary judgment holding Trump, his eldest sons and his company liable for persistent fraud and have signaled that they plan to push for a mistrial.

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin, who has been reporting from the courthouse during the weekslong trial, also reported “rumblings that the private conversations we’ve observed between each side and the court reflect some sort of settlement negotiation.”

Rubin noted that Habba would make sense as Trump’s proxy in potential settlement talks because aside from being his outside counsel she is also listed as the legal spokesperson and general counsel for his Save America PAC. “She just might be the best positioned to negotiate on behalf of Team Trump,” Rubin wrote.



“Why do folks believe the private conversations today between each side and the judge reflect settlement conversations? In part because of Trump’s Truth Social post” on Monday, Rubin wrote in another post.

Trump on Monday claimed that Judge Arthur Engoron “asked me to settle for a MUCH LOWER AMOUNT, at a settlement conference, but I said NO, I DID NOTHING WRONG!”

Trump two weeks earlier also claimed that the attorney general’s lawyers “want to settle.”

“Why should I be forced to settle when I did nothing wrong?” he wrote.

Rubin noted that the only publicly reported settlement conversations date back to September 2022, before the lawsuit was actually filed.

“Moreover, that reporting discusses many settlement overtures from the Trump Organization to the attorney general, but does not reference any settlement conferences before Judge Engoron. So what is Trump talking about and when did it happen? Stay tuned,” Rubin wrote.



Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman tweeted that we should learn soon if settlement talks are indeed happening.

“This would be an absolutely stunning development, but I can’t think of a better explanation for Kise’s being outside the court room for so long mid trial,” he wrote.

The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery also reported on Tuesday that Habba met privately with the judge, “probably seeking a settlement to quietly end his bank fraud trial.”

But Pagliery predicted that it would be “a cold day in hell when the Trumps & New York AG agree to shelve this trial.”

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“The judge might drown Trump in fines ranging from $250 million to a gazillion dollars. And the entire Trump Org could end up in receivership soon,” he wrote. “What would the Trumps counteroffer?”

New York attorney Paul Golden told Newsweek that while Trump settled his Trump University case in 2018, "it is possible the public would view a settlement of the current fraud case very differently."

"In the event Trump is considering settlement, and thus far we have not seen any evidence of it, he would have a great many issues to consider, including how a potential settlement would affect his brand, his businesses, and real property, and what kinds of fines would be at stake,” Golden said, adding that the case is "unusual in one major respect: most attorneys never have to consider whether a settlement would affect one's client's ability to win the presidency."

Experts testify for the defense in Trump NYC fraud case
Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News
Tue, November 14, 2023 at 5:34 PM MST

NEW YORK — An old friend of Donald Trump testified as an expert witness for the defense team Tuesday in the former president’s Manhattan fraud trial, telling the courtroom that property valuations are more an art than a science.

Steven Witkoff, the chairman and CEO at Witkoff, a real estate developing and investing firm, was called in to testify about both the Trump Building at 40 Wall St. and Trump’s golf resort in Florida.

However, Manhattan Supreme Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Witkoff would be allowed to testify only about the 40 Wall St. property. The direct examination stopped abruptly shortly afterward, with the witness clocking in at just about an hour on the stand instead of the day of testimony the defense team had planned.

Witkoff recalled how he and Trump met decades ago at a deli. It was a classic New York meet-cute: Trump didn’t have cash on him, and Witkoff swooped in to buy the future president’s ham-and-Swiss sandwich.

From “the sandwich incident,” Witkoff said, eventually sprung a yearslong friendship that’s now culminated in his expert testimony for his old pal, which he is doing without pay.

The case, brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, accuses Trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization of exaggerating the worth of their assets in order to secure better loan deals and boost their bottom line.

Engoron ruled before the trial that the defendants were liable for the top count of fraud.

The trial, which is expected to finish in mid-December, will determine if they are liable on the remaining six counts and how much they must pay in damages.

The AG’s office moved last week to block Witkoff, accounting expert Jason Flemmons and two other expert witnesses on the grounds that their testimonies would be irrelevant given the judge’s pretrial ruling.

Trump lawyer Chris Kise argued Tuesday that fraud requires intent — and that had not yet been proven by the court.

“Everybody is yelling fraud, fraud, fraud, fraud,” Kise said. “No. That has not been decided yet.”

Engoron countered Kise by asking him to clarify his argument: “So if it turns out that one (property) is overvalued and one is undervalued … it balances out and there is no fraud?”

Flemmons, a senior managing director at Ankura, followed Witkoff and testified that there are many ways to make a valuation on a property.

“And it wouldn’t be wrong to chose one (way) over the other?” defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked Flemmons, drilling this point in again and again.

“Asked and answered five times over,” Engoron said.

On Monday night, Trump took to his social media website, Truth Social, to rant about AG James.

“Racist A.G. Letitia James is smirking all day long from her seat in Court, as New York continues to set records in murder and other violent crimes, and businesses flee to other States,” the ex-president wrote about James, who is Black.

On the stand Monday, Donald Trump Jr. rambled on about the history and various properties of the Trump Organization. Aided by a glossy presentation that was ripped straight from the company’s marketing materials, he waxed on about the “sexy” and “spectacular” high-end properties for more than three hours. However, he barely broached the subject of financial statements or loan agreements.

“My father is an artist with real estate,” Don Jr. said on the stand. “He sees things other people don’t.”

Also Tuesday, the former president dropped his appeal to move his criminal case related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels from state to federal court.

The court filing, in the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, did not give a reason for the decision, but just said his lawyers sought “to dismiss his appeal in this case.”

_____________

Trump's defense concludes its case in New York fraud trial
Graham Kates | CBS News
Tue, December 12, 2023 at 1:06 PM MST·

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump ended a month-long procession of more than a dozen witnesses Tuesday with testimony from a feisty, combative accounting professor named Eli Bartov, who proclaimed that New York Attorney General Letitia James' case against Trump is "absurd."

Bartov's appearance marked the end of the two sides' core cases in the civil fraud trial. The state is expected to call two brief rebuttal witnesses before the case shifts to a new phase. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Jan. 11, and the judge plans to issue his ruling a few weeks later.

The trial has been a lengthy, tense standoff between Trump and James, who were often in the room as their lawyers clashed. From the beginning, they took turns lashing out at each other to the media gathered outside.

How the Trump fraud trial unfolded

Trump attended opening statements on Oct. 2, taking his motorcade downtown from Trump Tower on a nearly 80 degree day to proclaim James and the case "a disgrace." She would later call his comments "baseless" and his statements to the press, "a show."

It was the first of nine appearances he'd make during the case, in which he, two of his sons and their company are accused of reaping more than $250 million through an alleged scheme designed to misrepresent his wealth to banks and insurers. All of the defendants deny wrongdoing.

The next day, on Oct. 3, Trump published to his social media site a derogatory post about a clerk who works for Arthur Engoron, the judge in the case.

The post earned Trump a gag order, setting in motion a parallel fight that left him seething at the limits a judge can impose on a defendant. He and his campaign twice violated the order, and he paid $15,000 in fines.

The state presented its case first and called more than 20 witnesses, including Trump himself, his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, as well as lesser-known defendants who formerly worked for the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney. Ivanka Trump was originally a defendant in the case, but allegations against her were dismissed by an appellate court due to the statute of limitations.

Throughout Trump's appearances at the court, he often addressed members of the press who were squeezed into two pens outside the courtroom. He offered commentary on topics ranging from the case and judge, to Capitol Hill and his opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. On Oct. 25, though, he mentioned "a person who is very partisan sitting alongside" Engoron.

The judge was incensed. His clerk, who was the subject of the social media post that sparked the gag order, sits directly next to him at all times during proceedings. About an hour later, Engoron called Trump to the stand.

Engoron questioned Trump under oath. Trump claimed he was referring to the witness, his arch nemesis and former "fixer" Michael Cohen, who sat about five feet away from the judge. Engoron didn't buy it. Earlier in the case, Trump had been fined $5,000 when his campaign neglected to remove a reproduction of the offending social media post. This time, Engoron fined him $10,000.

"Do it again, it'll be worse," Engoron said.

On Nov. 6, James' team called Trump to the stand. With the fate of his company on the line, Trump clashed with Engoron and hurled insults at James, who was sitting in the front row.

He repeatedly gave long-winded answers to questions about Trump Organization property valuations and other issues. The judge's patience wore thin, but Christopher Kise, one of Trump's attorneys, encouraged him to allow Trump to give answers in his own way.

"With this witness I would suggest it's far more efficient to listen to what he has to say and take it in," Kise said, prompting laughter from lawyers working for the attorney general. Engoron was not amused. His anger appeared to boil over, and his microphone struggled to handle the sudden change in volume as his voice rose.

"No, I'm not here to hear what he has to say," Engoron said, a line that would later be used in Trump campaign solicitations. "I'm here to hear him answer questions. Sit down!"

On Nov. 16, a New York appellate judge temporarily halted the gag order against Trump, while an appeal was considered. Within hours, Trump and his campaign staff began attacking the clerk again, primarily through social media posts. Before the appeal was rejected and the gag was reinstated on Nov. 30, the clerk experienced a deluge of threats, often antisemitic, according to a court security officer who submitted an affidavit.

Trump's team tried again to have the order lifted, to no avail. The matter is still pending before an appeals court.

Trump was expected to testify Monday, but ultimately, an extensive security apparatus and the national media were assembled in the blustery weather for a no-show. Trump announced late Sunday he had changed his mind about taking the stand one more time.

On Tuesday, he said it's because he was barred from criticizing the judge's clerk.

"I wanted to testify on Monday, despite the fact that I already testified successfully…." he wrote on his social media site, before adding, "the Judge, Arthur Engoron, put a GAG ORDER on me, even when I testify, totally taking away my constitutional right to defend myself. We are appealing, but how would you like to be a witness and not be allowed free snd [sic] honest speech."

Trump’s NYC civil fraud trial comes to a standstill after more than 10 weeks
Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News
Wed, December 13, 2023 at 3:36 PM MST·

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s monthslong civil fraud trial came to a standstill Wednesday as lawyers for the New York attorney general concluded their case against the former president, his adult sons and top executives more than 10 weeks after it began.

After hearing from the state’s final rebuttal witness, an accounting expert, Judge Arthur Engoron adjourned proceedings shortly after noon until Jan. 11, when he will hear summations from both sides. He’s expected to receive closing briefs on Jan. 5 and file a written verdict a few weeks later. The AG’s office called 27 witnesses overall.

Putting aside the bitter courtroom feuds that have dogged the trial since its outset — resulting in a gag order prohibiting Trump and his attorneys from remarking on Engoron’s court staff — defense attorney Chris Kise thanked the judge and court employees for pulling off “what is truly an extraordinary effort even in the (New York State) court system.”

Engoron thanked both sides and said it was “amazing” they started on time in October.

“I know how much work that took,” he said. “I wish you all a happy holiday season, and see you next year.”

Trump, who attended nine days of the trial, including two stints on the witness stand, wasn’t in court Wednesday. On Monday, the Republican front-runner for president was set to testify in his defense in the case threatening his family’s real estate empire but bailed the night before.

His lawyers called 19 witnesses in their defense case, contending throughout the trial that he and his co-defendants didn’t intend to mislead financial institutions and that they were covered by a disclaimer on the annual statements that tallied his net worth, provided as proof he was good for the money as he sought hundreds of millions of dollars in loans. They posited that valuing buildings is an art, not a science, and that banks and lenders profited by doing business with him.

Kise told the court to look out for the defense’s fifth bid to end the trial later this week. Engoron told him Tuesday it would be a waste of time.

Before the trial started, Engoron found Trump, his sons, Eric and Don Jr., and former Trump Organization executives Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney liable for committing persistent and repeated fraud for years by inflating the value of Trump-owned assets in bogus statements submitted to banks and lenders as a means to enrich themselves illegally.

That decision, based on undisputed evidence provided by Trump and his confederates, found they ballooned his worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion in the two years leading up to his presidency and during it. It ordered they be stripped of certificates needed to run a business in New York, which won’t go into effect until they’ve exhausted their appeals.

Engoron’s verdict on the remaining claims will determine whether Trump and his crew concocted bogus business records, issued false financial statements, and committed insurance fraud — and whether they plotted to do all three in a series of criminal conspiracies. He will also decide how much they must repay. Attorney General Leticia James’ office is seeking to recover at least $330 million.

New York law mandates that Engoron decide the case and not a jury because of the nature of the penalty, which requires the return of illegal profits as opposed to monetary damages or other forms of punishment.

The case is one in a constellation facing Trump, 77, less than a year out from the 2024 election. He has pleaded not guilty to 91 felonies in four criminal cases and faces a slew of lawsuits.

Trump fraud trial judge evacuated from courthouse after testimony concludes
Tatyana Tandanpolie
Thu, December 14, 2023 at 8:16 AM MST

The lower Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump's civil fraud trial has taken place for the last 10 weeks was evacuated Wednesday afternoon after someone set papers on fire and used multiple fire extinguishers on the same floor as the courtroom, just four hours after testimony in the trial concluded. The presiding judge in the lawsuit, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, was in his robing room when he heard shouting on the floor. He was safely escorted from the courthouse and was unaware of any specific potential personal threat at the time he evacuated.

Two courthouse officials told Business Insider that a man ignited a small fire with a firework and then set off two or more fire extinguishers. The man, who was not a courthouse employee and was not identified, was arrested, the officials said. Fire and police personnel responded quickly to the incident. The judge and other courthouse employees were permitted to return to the fourth floor at around 5 p.m. to collect their personal items before leaving for the day. One officer told the judge and others heading upstairs to wear a mask if they had one because chemicals from the fire extinguishers had contaminated the area. No one was hurt, and it was not immediately clear what prompted the man to start the fire.

“Might have already erred”: Legal experts say judge may have imperiled ruling dissolving Trump Org.
Igor Derysh | Salon
Fri, December 15, 2023 at 7:05 AM MST

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial “might have already erred” in his ruling ordering some of his companies to be dissolved, legal experts told The New York Times.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled before the start of the trial that Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth and ordered some of his New York companies be dissolved. But legal experts told the outlet that Engoron “may have lacked the authority to dissolve the companies.”

An appeals court last week stayed the judge’s punishment while it reviews the order.

“President Trump very much appreciates the court’s consideration and ruling,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise said after the appellate court took up the case, adding that it would help “pave the way for a much needed, and deliberative, review of the trial court’s many errors.”

Engoron could also adjust the order himself, the Times report noted, and use his expected January verdict in the case to amend the punishment before the appellate court rules.

“The judge has extraordinary powers to fashion a remedy to curtail and punish the misconduct, meaning bad news for Trump,” Steven Cohen, a former top official at the New York attorney general’s office, told the Times.

In addition to the $250 million financial penalty sought by New York A.G. Letitia James, Engoron could ban Trump and his company from signing new commercial real estate deals or seeking loans from banks in the state. He could also bar Trump from running any company in the state.

But the part of the order dissolving some of his New York companies is “less likely to stick,” according to the report.

The order canceled a special type of business certificate that allows some of Trump’s New York companies to operate using certain names, according to the report. The order could force about 10 of the former president’s businesses to obtain new certificates but the order also referred to the “dissolution of the canceled LLCs,” or legal liability companies control Trump’s properties.

Legal experts told the outlet that a judge cannot dissolve an LLC unless one of its members seeks to do so.

“He’s going beyond what the statute seems to allow,” David Lowden, a lawyer who specializes in commercial transactions and corporate law, told the Times, predicting that the order would not destroy Trump’s empire but merely result in a “simple bureaucratic irritation, resolvable through paperwork.”

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Other experts noted that the judge applies the order to all 10 of Trump’s New York companies that have the certificate, not just the smaller number cited by James’ complaint. Experts told the outlet that imposing a punishment on a company not accused of wrongdoing could prompt the appeals court to intervene.

“He may have bought himself an appellate problem,” Cohen said, “and fueled an otherwise dubious claim of bias.”

After 40 witnesses and 43 days of testimony, here's what we learned at Trump’s civil fraud trial
MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ | Associated Press Finance
Fri, December 15, 2023 at 12:44 PM MST

NEW YORK (AP) — After hearing from 40 witnesses over 2½ months, Judge Arthur Engoron sounded almost wistful as he presided over the last day of testimony in former President Donald Trump’s civil business fraud trial.

“In a strange way, I’m gonna miss this trial,” he said Wednesday.

Things aren't over yet in the case, in which New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.

Closing arguments are scheduled for early January. The judge has already ruled that Trump is liable for making fraudulent statements, but other claims and a potential final penalty still need to be decided. Trump denies any wrongdoing. He says the financial documents actually understated his net worth and came with caveats that should shield him from liability.

The trial has offered fresh insight into Trump’s finances, his dealings with lenders, his aspiration to be an NFL owner, and some of the fuzzy math — mistaken or intentional — at issue in the case.

The trial also gave a glimpse of the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner's political and legal strategies as his court and campaign calendars increasingly overlap. The first of his four criminal trials is scheduled for March.

So far, Trump's legal woes aren't denting his standing in the Republican presidential race. He leads by a wide margin in national and early-state polls. In fact, his lead is stronger than it was before his first criminal indictment in March.

Here are some other things we learned from the trial:

COURT AS A CAMPAIGN STOP

Trump wasn't required to be in court, except for the one day he testified, but he showed up eight times as a spectator.

Every time, he turned his appearance into a de facto campaign stop, griping outside the courtroom that he was being persecuted. He had the same message during his often defiant turn on the witness stand Nov. 6.

“This is a very unfair trial, very, very. And I hope the public is watching it,” Trump said. His testimony led a frustrated Engoron to warn, “This is not a political rally.”

Trump didn’t go to court last year when his company was convicted of tax fraud. Nor did he show for a civil trial where a jury found him liable for sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll and ordered him to pay her $5 million.

Why attend the fraud trial? "Because I want to point it out to the press, how corrupt it is,” Trump said.

Outside court, he frequently insulted the judge and even Engoron's chief law clerk. After Trump made a false, disparaging comment about the clerk's personal life on social media, Engoron imposed a gag order barring trial participants from commenting further about court staff.

The judge later found that Trump repeatedly violated the order and fined him $15,000.

TRUMP AND THE BANK

Much of the trial was devoted to the hundreds of millions of dollars Deutsche Bank loaned Trump’s company, starting in 2011.

The state says Trump rooked his way into the financing, at attractive interest rates, by padding his wealth. The defendants say they didn't and maintain the bank was delighted with the loans. All were paid off, the last of them during the trial.

Several Deutsche bankers testified that they expected unaudited financial statements like Trump’s to be generally accurate but understood them as estimates and internally made “haircuts” that at times lopped billions off Trump’s net worth, which still left it at over $2 billion.

Dueling experts debated whether those adjustments showed that the bank didn’t rely on Trump’s numbers and that he was rich enough to qualify for the loans anyway (as the defense contends) or whether the “haircuts” were essentially standard deductions that didn’t compensate for his alleged inflation (the state’s view).

As for the bankers' own views of their dealings with Trump, testimony was often oblique.

For example, when retired Deutsche Bank risk management officer Nicholas Haigh was asked whether the loans were a good credit decision, he demurred that it was “a subjective question” but said the bankers did a good job analyzing the information they had. But he also said the bank needs a true picture of risk to set interest rates.

Managing Director David Williams and former colleague Rosemary Vrablic said they hadn't been troubled by big gaps between Trump's and the bank's estimates of his assets.

A ‘WHALE’ OF A CLIENT

What was clear was that Deutsche Bank’s private wealth management division, which caters to rich people, was eager to lend to Trump.

Testimony and internal documents showed the bankers courted him as a big-dollar “whale” of a client who could connect them to “the wealthiest people on the planet.” Alongside the loan deals came multimillion-dollar bank deposits from Trump, and the bankers envisioned “cross-selling” him lucrative, fee-based services such as estate planning.

There was little mention at the trial of Trump’s tempestuous prior relationship with a different part of Deutsche Bank. Amid the 2008 financial crisis, Trump defaulted on a loan that Deutsche’s commercial real estate division had provided for a Chicago hotel and condo skyscraper. He sued, accusing the bank of “predatory lending.” Deutsche countersued. They settled.

Not long after, Trump’s company again approached Deutsche’s commercial real estate group while bidding to buy the Doral golf resort near Miami.

But the Trump Organization found a considerably lower interest rate through Deutsche’s private wealth management bankers, who were introduced to the Trumps by the former president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The private bankers ultimately made loans for Doral, a Washington hotel and even the same Chicago skyscraper involved in the lawsuit.

The deals required guarantees that Donald Trump would pay personally if necessary, so they came with conditions about his net worth and, sometimes, liquidity. Hence the scrutiny of his financial statements, which he often was required to submit annually.

BIDDING FOR THE BUFFALO BILLS

Before vying for the White House, Trump tried to buy the Buffalo Bills, offering $1 billion for the NFL franchise in 2014. Emails aired at the trial shed new light on how Trump was seen behind the scenes.

Investment bankers involved in shopping the team said Trump’s history of owning Atlantic City casinos and his leading role, as owner of the New Jersey Generals, in the rival USFL’s 1980s antitrust lawsuit against the NFL gave him “little chance of being approved” by the league.

“That being said, his strong show of support doesn’t hurt the process,” then-Morgan Stanley executive K. Don Cornwell wrote to colleagues in April 2014.

“He probably does have the dough,” colleague Jeffrey Holzschuh wrote back, adding, “but never know the real facts with him.”

Trump claimed his net worth was over $8 billion in an initial offer letter but never provided his financial statements. Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen told the bankers the financial records would be released only when Trump was “the final bidder.”

Instead, at a presentation to the bankers, Trump handed out copies of one of Forbes magazine’s lists of wealthy celebrities, Cornwell testified.

The owners of the National Hockey League's Buffalo Sabres, Terry and Kim Pegula, ultimately bought the Bills for $1.4 billion.

While running for president in 2016, Trump told The Associated Press that had he bought the Bills, "I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing."

THE TRIPLED TRUMP TOWER TRIPLEX

He built it. He lived in it. Yet from at least 2012-2016, the former president’s Trump Tower triplex penthouse was valued in his financial statements as though it measured 30,000 square feet (2,800 square meters), nearly three times its actual size.

How did this happen, especially since Trump had signed a 1994 document that correctly listed 10,996 square feet (1,022 square meters)?

Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney said he got the 30,000-square-foot figure from Kevin Sneddon in the company’s realty sales arm. Sneddon said he got it from former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who said he didn’t “walk around knowing the size” of the apartment.

As for Trump, he maintained that “they just made a mistake." He also suggested the high number is “not that far off” when factoring in his access to the building roof.

“As we’re sitting here now, do you know how big your apartment is?” state lawyer Kevin Wallace asked.

“I have heard, obviously, because of the trial, they say 11-to-12-to-13,000 feet,” Trump replied.

After Forbes publicly reported the discrepancy in 2017, the Trump Organization adjusted the size and dropped the estimated value from $327 million to about $117 million.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE TRIAL?

The trial involves six claims, including allegations of conspiracy and insurance fraud. James is seeking penalties over $300 million and wants Trump banned from doing business in New York.

Both sides have until Jan. 5 to submit written arguments. They will return to the courthouse for summations Jan. 11, just four days before the Iowa caucuses start.

Engoron said he hopes to have a decision by the end of January.

Meanwhile, Trump's lawyers are appealing Engoron’s pretrial fraud ruling. They are preparing to appeal if they lose on the remaining issues.

When they said this week they were laying the groundwork for that, the judge quipped, “You’re going to appeal?”

___

Associated Press writers John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.