Posted on 12/07/2023 6:43:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Former President Donald Trump doubled down on calling New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against him a “witch hunt meant to influence an election” after an expert witness testified there was “no evidence” the 2024 presidential candidate committed fraud.
James, a Democrat who campaigned on the promise to sue Trump, filed a civil case alleging the Republican, his children, and the Trump Organization “grossly” inflated their assets in financial statements by billions of dollars.
Arthur Engoron, a judge of the Supreme Court 1st Judicial District in New York, was quick to escalate James’ unfair appraisal of Trump’s $739 million Mar-a-Lago home from $75 million to between $18 million and $27.6 million. The Democrat used the lowball appraisal in a sweeping ruling in September that sought to hinder Trump from conducting business in the state of New York.
Bartov, who was tasked by the defense with reviewing the president’s financial assets, rejected Engoron’s assessment and warned that real estate values are subjectively determined.
“If somebody tells you that an evaluation is objective, this person has to have their head examined,” he said.
“My analysis shows the statements of financial condition for all the years were not materially misstated,” he further asserted.
The only discrepancy Bartov discovered in Trump’s records was the valuation of his Manhattan triplex apartment, which appeared to have tripled in value over one year. The veteran accountant noted that the $80 million to $180 million difference between 2011 and 2012 appeared to have been an “error” but assured the court that “there is no evidence here of concealment.”
“It’s true this is an error. But it is no fraud,” he said, noting that accounting “errors like that” are often “inevitable” and that outside auditors clearly missed it.
Bartov concluded that James’ case has “no merit.”
Trump celebrated the expert in a press conference at the courthouse on Thursday but warned, “Nothing will have any bearing on what this judge does.”
“This case should be over. This case should have never been brought. This was a political witch hunt by an attorney general who is out of control and tried to get elected governor and failed. But this is a political witch hunt, and our country should be ashamed of what’s going on,” Trump said.
He once again identified the case as a partisan scheme dreamed up by Democrats who want to hamper his 2024 chances.
“What they’ve done is they’ve weaponized justice,” Trump said. “This is coming from the White House because I’m beating Biden by a lot.”
In October, Engoron giddily muzzled Trump from his First Amendment right to scrutinize the partisan campaign to undermine and break up the Trump Organization. A state appeals judge temporarily suspended that gag order in November when Engoron had already fined Trump and his legal team a total of $15,000 over a social media post and criticism of the judge’s principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, a leftist partisan with ties to several high-profile “get Trump” Democrats.
Despite previous attempts by Trump’s legal team to get a mistrial based on the “tangible and overwhelming” bias plaguing the proceedings, the trial is scheduled to continue on Monday.
Expert witness vs expert witness. I go with the Kangaroos.
All valuations are subject to interpretation until an arms-length sale happens. “Market value” makes Karma look like a kitty cat.
There are no aggrieved parties. Everything was done according to the contract. The bank is responsible for verifying/disputing the value of the assets - they apparently had no reason to as they did not and issued the loans. The loans were paid back according to the terms of the loans. No one that was a party to the transactions filed any complaints or alleged any wrongdoing.
This is a completely manufactured, political case. And the AG Letitia James even openly campaigned on doing this. If ever there was a fishing expedition to create a legal case out of thin air, this is it. The only fraud that has occurred are the actions of Letitia James.
The law under which Trump is being prosecuted is intended to protect borrowers from lenders.
It has been turned on its head under the pretense that it is intended to protect lenders from borrowers.
$80 million to $180 million could have easily have been a typing error that survived proof-reading
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