Former President Donald Trump said Thursday his New York civil fraud case is a “fraud,” brought on because he is beating President Biden in the polls for the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s a fraud. The whole case is a fraud,” he said. “What they’ve done is they’ve weaponized justice and this is coming from the White House because I’m beating Biden by a lot. This is coming right out of the White House. You know it, I know it, they know it.”
The former president said that accounting professor Eli Bartov, whom his team brought in to testify about financial topics, found no evidence of accounting fraud. He also said he thought the case was going “very well.”
“He reviewed fully the documents that this horrendous attorney general [Letitia James] put forth and he found absolutely no fraud, accounting fraud of any kind,” he told reporters outside of the courtroom. “This is a highly respected man, I don’t know him, but he is an expert witness and he found no fraud whatsoever. And like everyone else, he said, ‘What are we doing here?’”
Mr. Bartov, who is a professor at New York University, testified that the former president’s financial records didn’t violate accounting principles. He said anything that looked problematic on the records was just an error.
“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” Mr. Bartov testified. Mr. Trump’s financial statements, he said, “were not materially misstated.”
Mr. Trump is in New York for the civil fraud case brought on by Ms. James, the Democratic state attorney general. The case alleges that he, his company and others mislead banks and insurers by exaggerating his net worth and the values of some of his real estate, such as Mar-a-Lago in Florida and Trump Tower in New York, to get larger loans and better insurance rates.
He is set to take the stand on Monday for the second time.
The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that fraud occurred, and the trial continues to decide on the damages. Ms. James is seeking more than $300 million and aims to stop the Trump family from doing business in New York
Mr. Trump has continuously said the case is politically motivated and has attacked Judge Engoron, Ms. James and others involved in the case.
“This is a political witch hunt,” Mr. Trump said. “This is meant to influence an election. This also comes from the White House, this is not just a state matter.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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