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


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Attorney continues to press Eric Trump on financial statement

Eric Trump grew visibly irritated as he appeared to struggle with his testimony regarding his father's statement of financial condition.

Resisting state attorney Andrew Amer's efforts to show he was familiar with the document at the center of the case, he at times raised his voice and punctuated his short answers with phrases like "obviously," "clearly," and "as I previously testified." Other times he responded with lengthy equivocations, prompting Amer to exhort him to keep his answers to "yes or no."

"You don't have to give a speech about that," Judge Engoron implored Eric Trump at one point.

Amer repeatedly asked variations of the same question: Was Eric Trump aware of his father's statement of financial condition?

"This is not something I ever recall seeing or working on," Eric Trump said in one clip from his deposition that was played in court. "This is accounting, and that is not what I do on a daily basis."


Eric Trump appears to contradict deposition

After acknowledging in his testimony that he provided Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney with information for his father's statement of financial condition, Eric Trump was shown video from his own deposition where he appeared to contradict his testimony in court.

"I have no recollection of ever providing Jeff material to be used in a statement that I've ever seen," Eric Trump said in the deposition he gave state attorneys during their probe.

"I don't think it would have ever registered" what the material was for, Eric Trump said in court today, responding to his own statement during his deposition.


Eric Trump clarifies testimony about email

Eric Trump clarified his earlier answer regarding his involvement in his father's statement of financial condition, in which he was asked if he recalled a 2013 email from then-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney asking him for notes for the statement.

"I clearly understood I sent notes to Jeffrey McConney," Eric Trump testified.

"I don't think that it ever registered [that] it was for a personal statement of financial condition," he said.


Eric Trump acknowledges email about financial statement

Eric Trump responded angrily when a state attorney questioned his previous statement that he was unaware that information he provided was being used in his father's statement of financial condition.

"We're a major organization. A massive real estate organization," Eric Trump said, raising his voice, before acknowledging he was aware of his father's financial statements, which are at the center of the case.

State attorney Andrew Amer pressed Eric Trump about a 2013 email in which then-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney told Eric Trump, "I'm working on the notes to Mr. Trump's annual financial statement..."

"Is it correct that when you received this email in August of 2013, you understood that your father had an annual financial statement and you understood that Mr. McConney was asking you for information to assist with notes for that financial statement?" Amer asked.

"Yes," Eric Trump said.


Trump Organization executive says CFO had final say

Trump Organization executive Patrick Birney testified that CFO Allen Weisselberg and controller Jeffrey McConney had the final say on Trump's financial documents when he worked under them.

"I was not the final decision maker," said Birney, who was an assistant vice president at the time.

Birney joined the Trump Organization in 2015, a few years after he graduated from the University of Michigan. He began helping with Trump's statement of financial condition in 2016 and eventually took over preparing the vital financial document, though he acknowledged in court that he initially lacked some basic knowledge about accounting and finance.

Asked if he ever had valued a property using a capitalization rate, he replied, "I don't think so."

Birney said he would often turn to McConney if he needed specific documents, and that he reviewed drafts of the statement with Weisselberg.

"He would review drafts with me that I would provide him," Birney said. He later added, "Allen Weisselberg had the authority to approve everything."