NEW YORK – Former President Donald Trump has misplaced his newest bid to finish the industry fraud lawsuit he faces in New York as he campaigns to reclaim the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling Monday denying the Republican’s latest request for a verdict in his desire in a lawsuit introduced by means of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
And in doing so, the pass judgement on pushed aside the credibility of certainly one of Trump’s expert witnesses on the trial, a professor who testified that he noticed no fraud within the former president’s monetary statements.
The trial is focused on allegations Trump and different corporate officers exaggerated his wealth and inflated the price of his belongings to safe loans and shut industry offers.
In the three-page ruling, Engoron wrote that the “most glaring” flaw of Trump’s argument used to be to think that the testimony equipped by means of Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and different expert witnesses could be accredited by means of the courtroom as “true and accurate.”
“Bartov is a tenured professor, but the only thing his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote.
Bartov, who used to be paid just about $900,000 for his paintings at the trial, stated in an e mail that the pass judgement on had mischaracterized his testimony.
Trump took to his protection, calling Engoron’s feedback about Bartov a “great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications” as he excoriated the judge’s decision.
“Judge Engoron challenges the highly respected Expert Witness for receiving fees, which is standard and accepted practice for Expert Witnesses,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
During testimony earlier this month, Bartov disputed the lawyer normal’s claims that Trump’s monetary statements have been stuffed with fraudulently inflated values for such signature belongings as his Trump Tower penthouse and his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida.
Bartov stated there used to be “no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud.”
But Engoron, in his ruling Monday, famous that he had already dominated that there have been “numerous obvious errors” in Trump’s monetary statements.
“By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility,” the pass judgement on wrote.
In an e mail to The Associated Press, Bartov stated he by no means “remotely implied” on the trial that Trump’s monetary statements have been “accurate in every respect,” simplest that the mistakes have been inadvertent and there used to be “no evidence of concealment or forgery.”
Bartov additionally argued that he billed Trump at his usual charge.
Closing arguments are scheduled for Jan. 11 in Manhattan.
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Associated Press reporter Michael Sisak in New York contributed to this tale.