Trump civil fraud case: Judge fines Trump $354 million, says frauds 'shock the conscience'

The former president was found to have defrauded lenders.

Former President Donald Trump has been fined $354.8 million plus approximately $100 million in interest in a civil fraud lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel him to the White House. In the decision, Judge Arthur Engoron excoriated Trump, saying the president's credibility was "severely compromised," that the frauds "shock the conscience" and that Trump and his co-defendants showed a "complete lack of contrition and remorse" that he said "borders on pathological."

Engoron also hit Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump with $4 million fines and barred all three from helming New York companies for years. New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump and his adult sons of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" to inflate Trump's net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The former president has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal.


Summary of penalties

Donald Trump and his adult sons were hit with millions in fines in the civil fraud trial and barred for years from being officers in New York companies. The judge said the frauds "shock the conscience."

Donald Trump: $354 million fine + approx. $100 million in interest
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
Donald Trump Jr.: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Eric Trump: $4 million fine
+ barred for 2 years from serving as officer of NY company
Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg: $1 million fine
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company
Former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney:
+ barred for 3 years from serving as officer of NY company
+ barred for life from financial management role in NY company


0

Donald Trump Jr. concludes testimony

Donald Trump Jr. has stepped down from the stand after testifying yesterday afternoon and this morning.

Trump Jr., who appeared comfortable and often smiled at the judge during most of his direct examination, began to invoke attorney-client privilege toward the end of his testimony, when he was asked about conversations within the Trump Organization after executives there learned of the New York attorney general's probe.

"Did you have anything to do with the statements of financial condition?" the judge intervened to ask Trump Jr. about the documents at the center of the AG's case.

"No, I did not, your honor," Trump Jr. said.

Defense lawyers declined to cross examine their own client.


Trump Jr. says he didn't 'do anything' with triplex info

Donald Trump Jr. testified he largely ignored a 2017 email from a Forbes magazine reporter who asked about the false claim that Donald Trump's triplex apartment in Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet -- about three times larger than its actual size.

Forwarded the message by a Trump Organization executive in 2017, Trump Jr. replied, "Insane amount of stuff there," according to material entered into evidence.

Asked about the email, Trump Jr. said he largely ignored the lengthy email and did not act on it.

"I don't know if I would spend hundreds of questions' worth of time answering questions from Forbes magazine," Trump Jr. said. "I have no specific recollection of doing anything with it."

Despite the error being called out, Trump Jr. and then-CFO Allen Weisselberg still signed off on Trump's 2016 financial statement that falsely claimed Trump's triplex was 30,000 square feet and worth $327 million, according to the New York attorney general's complaint.

Judge Engoron later paused the proceedings for the court's morning break. On his way out of the courtroom, Trump Jr. stopped to chat with the court's sketch artist.

"He said, 'Make me look sexy,'" the artist, Jane Rosenberg, told reporters.

Rosenberg famously sketched Trump Jr.'s father during his arraignment in the Stormy Daniels case, with her work landing on the cover of New Yorker magazine.


I 'signed accordingly,' Trump Jr. says of financial statements

Donald Trump Jr., back on the stand for the second day, testified that the signatures on some of the statements of financial condition at the center of the case were his, but he denied working on them or having intimate knowledge of their contents.

"I would have checked with our legal department. If they assured me in their expert opinion that these things were fine, I would have been fine with that and would have signed accordingly," Trump Jr. said.

Assistant attorney general Colleen Faherty asked if his answer would be the same -- that he had no specific knowledge of the financial statements -- for each of the years between 2017 and 2021, when he was trustee of the revocable trust that held his father's assets.

"Rinse and repeat," Trump Jr. responded. "I think we could save each other a lot of time and effort -- yes, it would be the same thing."


Donald Trump Jr. resumes testimony

Donald Trump Jr. is back on the witness stand for his second day of testimony.

When he entered the courtroom, he briefly walked by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is seated in the first row of the court's gallery.

His entrance was followed by a brief photo opportunity for news photographers before court got underway.

After Trump Jr. quipped during yesterday's photo op that he should have worn makeup, Judge Engoron jokingly asked him during the photos this morning, "Did you remember for today?"


House Republicans call for probe of Cohen after his testimony

House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Michael Turner and House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik have requested that the Department of Justice investigate Michael Cohen for perjury following his testimony in the trial last month.

During his trial testimony, Cohen said that he lied to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in 2019 when he said that Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg did not ask him to inflate Trump's personal statement.

"So, you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?" defense attorney Alina Habba asked in court.

"Yes," Cohen responded.

Shown his 2019 testimony in court, Cohen subsequently reversed himself and said that his 2019 testimony was truthful, explaining the contradiction by clarifying that Trump speaks like a "mob boss" and that he indirectly asked for his statement to be inflated.

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland sent today, Stefanik and Turner requested that the Department of Justice open an investigation into Cohen potentially committing perjury.

"That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling," they wrote. "His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation."

Last week, Stefanik sent a separate judicial complaint to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct related to the conduct of the judge overseeing Trump's trial. In a statement to ABC News, a court representative said in response that the judge's actions "speak for themselves."