An often-irate former President Donald Trump testified Monday in the high-stakes $250 million civil fraud trial in New York that could lead to the dismantling of his sprawling business empire, and used his time on the stand to engage in several blistering attacks against the judge and lawyers in the case whom he maintained were "unfair."
"He rambled, he hurled insults, but we expected that," state Attorney General Letitia James said after Trump wrapped up his day on the witness stand. She said the evidence shows Trump inflated his financial statements to enrich himself and his family and predicted that "justice will be served."
Trump told reporters inside the courthouse, "I think it went very well," and that he showed what a "scam" the case was. "I think it’s a very sad day for America. But anyway, this is a case that should have never been brought and it’s a case that should be immediately dismissed," he said.
Trump was sworn in shortly after the court was called into session, and he was soon ranting about the lawyer questioning him from James' office.
“You and every other Democrat … coming after me from 15 different sides … all haters,” Trump complained to his questioner, Kevin Wallace. He later complained that "people don’t know how good a company I built because people like you are going around demeaning me." He also blasted James as "a political hack" and said the case "is a disgrace." Trump was largely calmer during his afternoon testimony, before erupting again about James, who was seated in the front row.
"There are murderers on the streets of New York, and the attorney general is sitting here all day long," Trump snapped.
Trump was testifying before state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron — whom he has mocked on his Truth Social platform as "crazy, totally unhinged, and dangerous." His account continued posting jabs at the judge and James while he was testifying Monday.
Trump wasted little time on Monday sparring with the judge from the stand. After Engoron chided him for giving nonresponsive answers, Trump said, "The judge will rule against me because he will always rule against me." Engoron said that comment was not true, and asked Trump to "please answer the question. You can attack me all you want but just answer the question."
After more tangents, he told Trump's lawyers, "I beseech you to control him" and that if Trump continued to sidestep questions, "I will take every negative inference that I can." At another point, he warned Trump's lawyers, "This is not a political rally."
Trump later appeared to completely lose his cool about the judge, going off on a tirade from the stand. "He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me!" Trump yelled, referring to the judge’s Sept. ruling allowing the trial to proceed. Engoron ruled in September that Trump committed fraud for years, overstating his net worth by billions.
There’s no jury, so Engoron will be the one who ultimately decides the outcome of the trial, including whether Trump, his sons and his company should pay any penalties.
"This is a very unfair trial, very unfair. I hope the public is watching," Trump complained after the judge told him to answer questions. He later called the judge "very hostile."
Follow live updates from the trial.
His testimony was often repetitive, with Engoron telling his lawyers he sounded like a "broken record." Trump used his time on the stand to repeatedly bring up one of his most frequent complaints: his claim the AG's office had undervalued his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago.
The attorney general's office had noted the Palm Beach County assessor appraised its market value to be $18 million to $27.6 million from 2011 to 2021, while Trump’s balance sheet put its value at $426 million to $612 million — a number Trump testified he thought was too low.
“The values are far bigger than what they are on the financial statements,” Trump said, adding it was "50 to 100 times" more valuable than the AG said. "I don’t know how you got that number," he added, calling it "absolutely crazy."
He returned to the topic unprompted later in his testimony. "The tennis court is worth more than $18 million," Trump said.
Trump repeatedly distanced himself from and downplayed the importance of his annual statements of financial condition, which the AG's office maintains were exaggerated sometimes to the tune of billions of dollars in order to help Trump get more favorable rates on loans and insurance policies. He claimed he barely paid attention to the statements — which say, “Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America” — and that banks didn't pay it much mind either.
Trump also suggested to Wallace that his financial statements had been too conservative. “My net worth is financially more than what were on the financial statements. Therefore you have no case,” he said.
He said he relied on information from his accountants and "I was not involved in any way," although other witnesses, including former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and Trump's accountant Donald Bender have testified otherwise. Trump also said the statements were "valueless" to the banks because of what he described as a disclaimer clause.
The clause reads: “The estimates presented herein are not necessarily indicative of the amounts that could be realized upon the disposition of the assets or payment of the related liabilities.”
"Some call it a 'worthless clause.' They always hold up in court, except maybe in this court. It says do your own due diligence, do your own work," Trump said.
In his pre-trial ruling, Engoron had shot down that argument, which Trump had made in his April deposition. He told Trump on Monday, "We are not going into that."
The courtroom was at full capacity ahead of the trial, with the number of photographers in the hallway outside the highest it had been since the beginning of the trial. Some friends of the judge and his clerk sat in the front row of the courtroom excited to witness history.
After court wrapped up for the day, Trump lawyer Chris Kise said, "In 33 years, I have never had a witness testify better. An absolutely brilliant performance by President Trump. He’s not backing down."
Trump’s previous sworn testimony related to the case has already been problematic for him.
He was first deposed while James was investigating the case in August 2022 and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination close to 450 times. He was deposed again in April after James filed her bombshell suit alleging that he and his company inflated their assets to the tune of billions of dollars to get more favorable rates from banks and insurers.
Trump spent about seven hours in the deposition answering questions from the attorney general's office and disavowing responsibility for his financial statements, which held themselves out as being prepared "in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted" in the U.S.
Engoron cited some of Trump’s deposition testimony in his September ruling allowing the trial to proceed.
"The defenses Donald Trump attempts to articulate in his sworn deposition are wholly without basis in law or fact," he said.
Trump's attorneys did not cross-examine him Monday, and he's expected to be called as a witness by his lawyers when they present their case, which is scheduled to begin Monday. The trial resumes Wednesday with the testimony of Ivanka Trump, who's expected to be the last witness for the AG's office.
The former president also took the stand once very briefly previously in the fraud trial while he was in court last month for his former lawyer Michael Cohen's testimony. Engoron asked Trump whether he was referring to the judge's law clerk when he complained to reporters about "a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside" the judge. Engoron had barred Trump from talking about his court staff after Trump smeared the clerk on social media.
Trump said under oath he was talking about Cohen, but Engoron found his answer "not credible" and fined him $10,000.
The last time Trump testified in depth during a trial was in a civil case in Chicago in 2013. The Associated Press described his testimony at the time as “sometimes prickly, sometimes boastful.”
“I don’t want to be braggadocious: I build great buildings,” he said during his two days on the stand in the case, in which he was accused of duping an 87-year-old woman in a condo bait-and-switch at a Trump building in Chicago. The jury found in his favor.
Trump also is set to stand trial in four criminal cases next year: the federal classified documents case; the Fulton County, Georgia, election interference case; the Washington, D.C., election interference case; and the Manhattan district attorney's inquiry into hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.
At least one other former president has testified in court after having left office — Teddy Roosevelt did so twice.
In 1913, the 26th president was a plaintiff in a civil suit against a Michigan newspaper that had accused him of being a drunk. Roosevelt was later sued by a New York Republican Party boss he’d accused of being corrupt. Roosevelt won both cases.
