Donald Trump arrived at a New York court today to attend his ongoing civil fraud trial, where his defence team is arguing that the former US President's family company did not manipulate the value of its properties to win favourable financing.
The trial, which kicked off in October, is one of several legal challenges the former president faces as he mounts a comeback bid for the White House.
The judge overseeing the trial, Arthur Engoron, has already ruled that Mr Trump and his adult sons manipulated financial statements to dupe banks and insurers into providing better loan and insurance terms.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million (€231m) in penalties and wants Mr Trump banned from New York state real estate business.
Mr Trump is expected to testify as the final defence witness on Monday. He has denied wrongdoing and says Ms James, an elected Democrat, is biased against him.
"This whole case is a fraud. What they've done is they've weaponised justice," he told news media outside the courtroom.
Over the past several weeks, Mr Trump's team has called bankers and others who did business with the Trump Organization to testify that they did not rely solely on Mr Trump's valuations in deciding to lend to his company.
New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, who does not work for Mr Trump's company, testified today that he found that the company had made an accounting error in one of its valuations. But he said he did not see any evidence of accounting fraud.
"There was no justification for any of these allegations," he testified.
Mr Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has appeared as a witness once already.
In defiant and rambling testimony last month, he complained of unfair treatment and acknowledged that he was involved in some of the documents at the heart of the fraud case.
He has also turned up at the trial on other occasions to watch the proceedings and air his grievances to TV cameras outside the courtroom.
Judge Engoron has imposed gag orders in the case restricting Mr Trump and his lawyers from speaking publicly about court staff, after Mr Trump published a photo of the judge's main law clerk with Democratic US Senator Chuck Schumer on social media and falsely called the clerk Mr Schumer's "girlfriend."
Judge Engoron said the post left the court "inundated" with threats from Trump supporters. Mr Trump is appealing the gag orders.
Over the past several weeks, bankers and others who did business with the Trump Organization have testified for the defence that they did not rely solely on Mr Trump's valuations in deciding to deal with his company.
Mr Trump says the questionable valuations did no harm.
"We did nothing wrong, there were no victims. The bank loves us," he said.
Mr Trump faces four unrelated federal and state criminal indictments, including two over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.He has pleaded not guilty in all of those cases.
None of them have dented his commanding lead in the race to challenge President Joe Biden in next November's election.
Trump to appeal judge's rejection of immunity claim in 2020 election case
Mr Trump also indicated today that he would appeal a US judge's ruling that the former president does not have immunity in the federal case accusing him of unlawful actions in seeking to overturn his loss in the 2020 US election.
Last week US District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump's bid to dismiss the case, finding no legal support for the position argued by his lawyers that former presidents cannot face criminal charges for conduct related to their official responsibilities.
A federal appeals court, and potentially the US Supreme Court, will now weigh the issue, which could lead to delays in the trial, which is currently scheduled to begin in March.
Mr Trump's lawyers, in a separate legal filing, argued that the entire case should automatically be halted until the appeal is resolved.
Prosecutors have accused Mr Trump of attempting to obstruct Congress and defraud the US government through schemes to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
Special Counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting the case against Mr Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
Mr Smith's team has argued that Mr Trump's immunity claims would improperly place US presidents above the law. A spokesperson for Mr Smith declined to comment on Mr Trump's planned appeal.
A Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement that Mr Trump "has absolute immunity from prosecution, and litigation, for carrying out his sworn and solemn duties as president."
Mr Trump has accused prosecutors of attempting to damage his campaign.
