Former President Donald Trump’s request for an expedited grant of leave to appeal the gag orders in his civil fraud trial was denied Monday afternoon.

The gag order is now likely to still be in effect on Monday when Trump takes the witness stand in his own defense.

Trump’s lawyers requested that Judge David Friedman, who initially lifted the gag order, permit them to appeal the final decision that reinstated the gag order to New York’s Court of Appeals.

“You had a decision by a panel of judges. A single judge cannot undo a panel’s decision,” Lauren Holmes, a court attorney, said during a scheduling meeting Monday afternoon at the Appellate Division First Department.

Dennis Fan, a lawyer for the New York Attorney General, also declined to consent to expediting the briefing schedule.

“You just want to let this drag out until the end of the trial,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise said. “That’s what they are doing.”

Trump still has an avenue to appeal the decision to a higher court; however, the effort will take longer than his lawyers would like. Trump’s lawyers now face a deadline of Monday, Dec. 11 to file their papers to the First Department.

Frederick Chin, a real estate valuation expert, testified that developers often have more latitude to value their properties compared to appraisers.

According to Chin, developers consider the enterprise value of their assets, meaning how different properties managed by the same company – such as Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton hotels – increase in value as part of a collection of assets.

“The whole is worth more than the sum of its parts,” Judge Arthur Engoron said to summarize Chin’s testimony.

Chin added that developers also consider the long-term plan for how their assets might be impacted by outside circumstances, like the 2008 recession or the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everyone in this room has a different perspective on what the next day and the future holds,” Chin said, comparing valuing assets to looking into a “crystal ball.”

Former President Donald Trump will likely attend his civil fraud trial on Thursday, according to sources familiar with the matter. He is not expected to be in attendance on Wednesday when his son Eric testifies.

Trump last attended the trial on Nov. 6 when he testified as the last state witness. In total, the former president has attended the trial for eight of the 39 days the court has been in session.

Trump is scheduled to testify on Monday, Dec. 11, as the last witness in the case.

A defense expert in real estate valuation suggested that a developer's vision could add over a billion dollars of value to a vacant lot.

Frederick Chin, who was qualified as an expert in real estate valuation, argued that Donald Trump used the "as if" investment value of his properties, rather than their current "as is" market value. According to Chin, the "as if" valuation perspective allows a real estate developer to consider the long-term development plans of a property when determining its value.

For example, a vacant lot in the heart of New York City might have a market value of $500 million, according to Chin. A real estate developer who envisions a hotel on the property might see its investment value closer to $2 billion.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who frequently interjected into Chin's testimony, described the approach that resulted in a $1.5 billion difference in the value of a hypothetical vacant lot as a developer's "genius factor."

Donald Trump has lost his appeal to throw out the limited gag orders and associated fines in his civil fraud trial.

In a decision Thursday, New York's Appellate Division, First Department rejected Trump's request to annul and vacate the limited gag orders imposed by Judge Arthur Engoron that prohibit Trump and attorneys from commenting on the judge's staff.

In November, Trump's lawyers asked the Appellate Division to vacate the gag orders, citing a provision of New York state law to personally sue Judge Engoron. But the court said in today's ruling that the method used to appeal the gag orders was an improper application of the law.

"To the extent there may have been appealable issues with respect to any of the procedures the court implemented in imposing the financial sanctions, the proper method of review would be to move to vacate the Contempt Orders, and then to take an appeal from the denial of those motions," the ruling said, indicating that Trump should use the normal appellate process to pursue the vacating of the gag orders.

The court also determined that the "extraordinary remedy" requested by Trump's lawyers did not match the minimal potential harm from barring statements about Engoron's staff.

"Here, the gravity of potential harm is small, given that the Gag Order is narrow, limited to prohibiting solely statements regarding the court's staff," the decision said.