Trump Looks On As Defense Expert Claims There’s ‘No Evidence Whatsoever’ of Fraud

Donald Trump nodded approvingly toward his attorney after his final defense expert testified on Thursday that the fraud case against the former president, his family and his business lacks any evidence.

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” Eli Bartov, a research professor of accounting at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Before trial began, Bartov estimated in a deposition that he was likely paid roughly half a million dollars for his expertise.

"This is a highly respected man," Trump told reporters at a makeshift press conference. "I don't know him, but he's an expert witness. And he found no fraud whatsoever."

New York Attorney General Letitia James claims that Trump fraudulently inflated his net worth on financial statements by hundreds of millions to billions of dollars a year. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron broadly credited those allegations before trial, in a ruling ordering the dissolution of Trump’s New York real estate empire.

But Bartov claims that the Trump Organization’s books complied with generally accepted accounting principles, known as GAAP.

“I couldn’t find a single GAAP provision that was violated,” Bartov testified. “I couldn’t find one.”

Over at the defense table, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba smiled at the former president after that line. 

Sharply critical of the attorney general, Bartov remarked on her allegations: “Some of them really border on the absurd.”

From 2012 through 2016, Trump estimated that his New York penthouse was nearly three times larger than it was. The Trump Organization claimed the triplex was 30,000 square feet, when it was actually 10,966 square feet. After Forbes reported on the discrepancy in 2017, Trump revised the estimate and its value on statements of financial condition.

Referring to Trump’s penthouse, Bartov conceded the triplex was “inflated”: “There’s no question about that."

Describing that as an “error,” Bartov added: “Errors like that are not unusual.” 

Throughout his testimony, Bartov back the defense's view that financial statements are inherently "subjective." The same word appears 28 times in Bartov's affidavit and expert report, submitted to the court in August, before trial began.

Shortly before the lunch recess, the attorney general's counsel Kevin Wallace slammed Bartov's testimony as “pure speculation from someone they hired to say whatever it is they want.”

"You make up allegations that never existed," Bartov snapped at Wallace.

He added later: "You should be ashamed of yourself, talking to me like that."

Bartov's affidavit shows that he was paid at a rate of $1,350 per hour. In a deposition from July, Bartov estimated that he spent 250 hours preparing his report and 150 hours preparing a rebuttal report. That would amount to an estimated $520,000. Bartov then backed off from his estimated number of hours to suggest he may have been paid "a little bit less." Experts are commonly compensated for their testimony — and questioned about the reliability of their testimony based on how much they make.

Trial testimony is often billed at a higher rate than in pre-trial proceedings. It's not currently clear how much Trump's legal team paid Bartov in total, since that time. He has not yet been cross-examined, and his testimony will resume during the afternoon session.

The judge's pretrial ruling found Trump liable on the first of seven counts of the attorney general's lawsuit, accusing the former president, his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and his business associates Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney of violating a New York consumer protection law. The ongoing trial will determine Trump's liability on the other six counts.

If Trump, his sons, and his business associates lose, the judge could force them to pay hundreds of millions of dollars and bar them from ever acting as a director or officer of a New York corporation.