Donald Trump may no longer be able to deliver an official summation in his civil fraud case, but as his trial draws to an end with closing arguments on Thursday, the stakes for the former president could not be higher — or more personal.
On top of the roughly $370 million he may be forced to pay, Trump’s lawyers must defend the legacy of the New York real estate empire their client spent a lifetime building. In September, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered the corporations underpinning those properties dissolved, including the eponymous Trump Organization that runs hotels, golf courses, residential properties and a branding operation around the globe.
Following an 11-week trial that began in early October on the remaining claims, New York Attorney General Letitia James and her legal team are far from done. Earlier this month, the state asked for a lifetime ban keeping Trump and his former business associates Jeffrey McConney and Allen Weisselberg from participating in the New York real estate industry. The former president’s oldest two adult sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. face a possible five-year ban.
Other injunctions would prevent Trump, his sons, McConney and Weisselberg from serving as an officer or director of any corporation in New York State.
In support of these severe penalties, the state attorney general points to Justice Engoron’s findings that Trump inflated his assets on statements of financial condition between $812 million and $2.2 billion dollars every year between 2014 and 2021. The attorney general alleges that Trump overvalued his assets by hundreds of millions of dollars a year between 2011 and 2013, but as these financial statements fell before the statute of limitations, they did not factor in the judge’s decision.
Trump’s lead attorney Christopher Kise has steadily hammered the same message in his client’s defense: Kise repeatedly said that there were “no victims” and “no reliance” by the sophisticated banks and insurance companies that received Trump’s financial statements, like Deutsche Bank and Zurich North America.
Engoron previously declared that the damage was to the integrity of the markets, and when trial kicked off, the attorney general’s counsel Kevin Wallace declared: "These are not victimless crimes."
Certain witnesses, like Deutsche Bank’s former risk management chief Nicholas Haigh and insurance writers, testified that they relied upon Trump’s financial statements in granting favorable terms on loans and insurance, the attorney general noted in their closing brief. The state’s top expert witness Michiel McCarty calculated the interest that Deutsche Bank would have made if they had a true picture of Trump’s assets at about $168 million.
Kise has long argued that lost interest calculations should be zero because the parties negotiated their terms and Deutsche Bank could be expected to perform due diligence.
Trump’s legal team and campaign did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication to confirm that he would attend the summations, now that Justice Engoron ruled that the former president will not be allowed to address the courtroom. Emails released on Wednesday showed that Trump refused to avoid turning his closing arguments into a “campaign speech.” One of the judge’s conditions amounted to a warning to enforce a gag order that has been in place since the second day of trial, which remains under appeal. The judge also refused to postpone those summations after former first lady Melania Trump's mother Amalija Knavs died.
Engoron cited the court’s significant security and logistical arrangements to accommodate Trump’s presence, which isn’t mandatory for closing arguments, but the former president’s allies cried foul. One loyalist, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who is seen as a potential vice presidential running mate for Trump in 2024, tweeted: “Despicable.”
Oral arguments have been scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EST, and it remains unclear whether the judge will rule from the bench — or issue a written ruling at some later date.