First Post-Trump Trial Day in New York Fraud Case Turns Up Heat on Ex-President’s Former Accountant

With former President Donald Trump no longer in the courtroom, trial proceedings appeared dramatically different in his $250 million civil fraud trial. 

The maze of barricades encircling New York County Supreme Court looked less like a labyrinth. Security, though a constant feature of the state court system, relaxed considerably, and press interest waned. 

Even Trump’s attorneys appeared to make headway cultivating a collegial relationship with attorneys for New York Attorney General Letitia James and soothing tensions with Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is presiding over the case without a jury. 

At the end of Wednesday, Trump’s attorney Jesus Suarez estimated that his questioning of the trial’s debut witness — his client’s former accountant Donald Bender — would stretch through the end of the following day. 

That former estimate frustrated the judge, who accused Trump’s attorneys of needlessly prolonging the proceedings with questions that he suggested were performative.

“There is no jury here,” Engoron said.

Appearing to take the admonishment to heart, Suarez streamlined (without dulling the edge of) his grilling without his client in the room. 

Suarez pressed Bender about the witness’s apparently shaky memory, his interviews with New York prosecutors, and one-time close relationship with the Trump Organization’s controller Jeffrey McConney, a co-defendant in the case. 

According to Suarez, Bender responded to questions from both the state and the defense with variations of "I don't know" and "I don't recall" 89 times. 

The Trump attorney questioned whether the lapses were medical in nature, a proposition that Bender denied. 

Testing that denial, Suarez displayed a Mazars memorandum about the importance of their accountant to their relationship with the Trump Organization.

"Donald Bender is unique and an integral part of engagement,” the memo said, calling him “irreplaceable.”

“All of this is contingent on the physical and mental health of Donald Bender," the memo said later. 

Before becoming the AG’s debut witness, Bender served as a defense witness in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against the Trump Organization, which ended in the company’s felony conviction and $1.61 million fine. Suarez suggested that Bender’s civil testimony was colored by his brushes with criminal prosecutors. 

“Did the District Attorney threaten you with prosecution?” Suarez asked. 

“No, they did not,” Bender replied. 

“Did they threaten Mazars with prosecution?” the Trump lawyer pressed.

“Not that I'm aware of,” the witness hedged.

Attorney Clifford Robert, who represents Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., followed his co-counsel’s lead, asking pointed questions about Bender’s memory and his meetings with criminal prosecutors. Robert led off his cross by asking Bender about the nearly “90” times that he claimed not to remember the answer to a question. 

Bender quibbled about Robert rounding the number up, and Robert pounced on the witness’s sharp recall of the number.

Saying Bender is "good with numbers," Robert told him: "You're an accountant. I'm a lawyer." Bender listened attentively to the combative questioning, pointing out fine-tuned discrepancies.

This is a developing story and will be updated.