Donald Trump Jr. testifies for defense in New York civil fraud trial

Donald Trump Jr. returned to the witness stand Monday to give his family’s side of the story in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud trial against Donald Trump.

Trump Jr.’s testimony often appeared as a lengthy effort to rehabilitate the image of the Trump Organization in the eyes of Judge Arthur Engoron. The former president’s son gushed about the properties he said his father had transformed from dilapidated run-down tracts of land into spectacular and magnificent buildings and golf courses.

Trump Jr., a co-defendant in the case, was glowing as he described the company’s portfolio – lauding praise on his father as a visionary and a real estate “artist” and talking up the value of the buildings after six weeks of testimony from the attorney general alleging that the valuations of the properties were fraudulently inflated.

The testimony signaled how Trump’s lawyers plan to mount a defense in a case in which Engoron has already ruled the former president and his co-defendants were liable for fraud. Engoron is now deciding six additional claims and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Here are key takeaways from Monday’s day in court:

Trump Jr. boasts about the Trump Org. portfolio: Trump lawyer Cliff Robert spent most of the day asking Trump Jr. to walk through nearly the entire portfolio of the Trump Org.

Trump Jr. discussed the various projects around the world over the past several decades, narrating a sleekly produced promotional timeline from the company’s website. He described various golf holes, clubhouses, architecture and other features of the Trump properties as beauty shots were displayed in the courtroom.

While talking about the Seven Springs resort, a Westchester, New York, property that’s part of the attorney general’s case, Trump Jr. said the property was “spectacular” and a “potential canvas for [his] father’s art.”

“He’s an artist with real estate. He sees the things that other people don’t,” Trump Jr. said of his father.

The Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, was swampland before his father took it over. “No one for decades had seen any value in it,” Trump Jr. said, and his father turned it into “one of the finest golf clubs in the world.”

And of the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Florida, Trump Jr. said: “He saw a jewel in the rough and wanted to bring it back to its former glory.”

At one point, Robert even played the company’s promotional video of the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx, featuring golf legend Jack Nicklaus praising the course.

Read more takeaways from Trump Jr.'s testimony here.

Before leaving the stand, Donald Trump Jr. said the future of the Trump Organization may depend on next year's presidential election.

"I guess a lot of that depends on what happens next November,” Trump Jr. said. “We’ll probably be put on hold for a little while and sued into oblivion for the foreseeable future."

Trump attorney Cliff Robert also walked Trump Jr. through some of the more recent Trump Organization properties, including the Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office location in Washington, DC.

The property looked like "a war zone” before the General Services Administration awarded the project to Trump Organization, Trump Jr. said.

If you saw it at the time, he said, “You’d be disappointed that you could let a building that spectacular get that run down.”

Robert also asked Trump Jr. how many people Trump Org. employed in New York and the taxes the company paid. Trump Jr. said that the company employed about 1,000 people, and the number was higher counting subcontractors on building projects during the timeframe relevant to this case of 2011 to 2021.

Robert also asked how much Trump Org paid in taxes during that time. Trump Jr. said it was maybe tens of millions. "I don't know specifically, but it’s a big number,” he said.

Donald Trump Jr. completed his testimony in the civil fraud trial against him, his father, his brother Eric, and their company after a brief cross-examination by attorney Colleen Faherty of the New York attorney general's office, who questioned him about various issues with Trump properties.

Faherty asked Trump Jr. to confirm the 40 Wall Street loan was put on a servicer's watch list. Trump's legal team argued in an objection that the loan was put on watch because of Judge Arthur Engoron’s summary judgment, which found Donald Trump and his co-defendants were liable for fraud. 

The judge overruled the objection. “You’re going to start questioning relevance. I just gave you a whole morning of irrelevance,” he said.

Trump Jr. said he wasn't aware the loan was put on the watch list. Faherty then asked Trump Jr. if he was aware that the loan was put on a watch list in February, and he said he was not.

Faherty also pointed to a statistic in an article she showed the court that occupancy was at 77% at Trump's 40 Wall Street building. Trump Jr. had testified during direct examination that occupancy was somewhere higher than 90% last he checked.

She concluded her questioning by asking Trump Jr. about the fact Hilton is rebranding the Trump International Hotel Waikiki to remove the Trump name from the property. Trump Jr. responded that if the company wanted to pay millions of dollars to remove the name it was fine with him.

Trump attorney Cliff Robert has wrapped up his direct examination of Donald Trump Jr. after discussing the company's work at the Old Post Office building in Washington, DC.

Colleen Faherty will next cross-examine Trump Jr. for the New York attorney general's office.

Judge Arthur Engoron allowed Donald Trump’s attorney Cliff Robert to submit into evidence a February 2022 valuation of Trump's Doral Golf Resort & Spa that valued the property at $1.3 billion, over objections from the New York attorney general's team.

The judge allowed the document – a third party’s valuation of Trump’s Doral resort – to be used for a limited purpose even though it was dated outside the relevant time period in this case, telling Trump's team he’s tried to give them "the benefit of the doubt.”

The judge, nevertheless, noted, “I can’t see any relevance.”

The attorney general’s office argued that the document was not relevant to the case and could not be used later by an expert witness to offer a post-dated valuation of Doral, one of the properties that the attorney general alleges was fraudulently inflated in value on Trump’s financial statements.

Engoron, in a sign of his view about how to handle the defense’s presentation, asked the lawyers for the attorney general, “Do you want to risk a reversal over this one stupid document?”

After Engoron allowed the document to be admitted, Robert asked Trump Jr. if he was familiar with the 2022 valuation, before returning to questions about the various properties in the Trump Org. portfolio.

In Donald Trump Jr.’s narrative in court Monday, his father has taken over dilapidated buildings and properties and used his skills as a "visionary" to turn them all into one of the best in the city, the country and in some cases, the world.

When the Trump Organization took over the Trump Park Avenue building, Donald Trump Jr. oversaw the renovation project and testified Trump Org. created a space with one of the highest prices per square foot in the city at the time, he said.

Trump Jr. referred to the additions they added to the top of the Park Avenue building as being like the Louvre with glass cubes added to provide more light.

The Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, was swampland before his father took it over. "No one for decades had seen any value in it," Trump Jr. said, and Donald Trump turned it into "one of the finest golf clubs in the world."

Trump Jr. said that when the Trump Org. developed the Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles, his father “noticed a crown jewel and had to have it and turn it into something special."

Trump attorney Cliff Robert has spent the morning walking Trump Jr. through nearly all of the Trump properties to help build the narrative, including some of the properties that the New York attorney general alleges were fraudulently inflated in value on Trump’s financial statements.

During his questioning by the attorney general’s office earlier in the trial, Trump Jr. claimed he wasn’t familiar with the valuations of the properties included on the financial statements.

The New York attorney general's office will have the chance to cross-examine Trump Jr. again, and could raise his awareness of the value of the assets in question in this case.

Donald Trump Jr. has a penchant for superlatives, just like his father.

While talking about the Seven Springs resort, a Westchester, New York, property that’s part of the attorney general’s civil fraud case, Trump Jr. said the property was “spectacular” and a "potential canvas for [his] father’s art."

“He’s an artist with real estate. He sees the things that other people don’t," Trump Jr. said of the former president.

Trump attorney Cliff Robert is spending considerable time going through the various Trump properties, showing photos from a slick timeline of the Trump Organization that’s on the company’s website.

Robert is also using the history lesson to give Trump Jr. the chance to try to poke holes in the attorney general’s case.

Trump Jr. gave a detailed virtual tour of Mar-A-Lago — which he praised as "one of the few sort of American castles" — as his attorney walked him through property photos.

Trump's eldest son said with a smile that he was a bit upset when media reports about this case suggested that Mar-a-Lago was worth only $18 million.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled before the start of the trial cited tax assessor data that appraised the property at $18 million – a figure that has drawn repeated criticism from the former president. Engoron has said he was not valuing the property.

Judge Arthur Engoron sided with Donald Trump’s attorneys, overruling an objection from the New York attorney general’s office to admit a PowerPoint presentation showcasing the history of the Trump Organization.

Donald Trump Jr. walked through the history of the company, going all the way back to his great grandfather, who he says created hotels for miners during the gold rush in the Yukon territory in Canada.

The presentation, titled “The Trump story,” also included photos of Donald Trump with his father, Fred Trump, as well as sleek photos of various Trump buildings.

The PowerPoint included Trump's purchase of Mar-a-Lago in 1985, which Trump Jr. described as "one of the few sort of American castles."

“Since we've gone back to the early 1900s, is there a waiver of the statute of limitations?" Andrew Amer, a lawyer with the attorney general, said to laughs.

Assistant Attorney General Kevin Wallace objected to the presentation, claiming the text descriptions were coaching the witness.

But Engoron allowed the presentation.

"Having given you six weeks, you’re going to get me in trouble with Mr. (Chris) Kise — he’s going to say I always rule against him,“ Engoron said. “No let this stuff come in.”

More context: The judge agreed with the defense after weeks of rejecting objections from Trump’s lawyers during the attorney general’s presentation. But in the last few days, Engoron has sided with Trump’s team, including saying last week he’d let their experts testify because he doesn't want a retrial and doesn't want to be reversed.

The judge has also sided with Trump's lawyers during the trial, but this signals the judge is going to give a lot of leeway to both sides in their presentation.

 

So far in his testimony, Donald Trump Jr. has at times spoken quickly as he answered questions from Trump attorney Cliff Robert.

At one point, Judge Arthur Engoron had him pause for the court reporter to catch up, telling Trump Jr., “Welcome back.”