Trump civil trial closing arguments: What to know

By Jeremy Herb, Kara Scannell and Lauren del Valle, CNN

(CNN) — Donald Trump plans to attend closing arguments for his New York civil fraud trial Thursday, where the former president’s business empire in the state is at stake.

Trump is not expected to speak in court, however, after Judge Arthur Engoron rejected a request because Trump would not agree to restrictions on what he could discuss.

The last-minute drama over Trump’s role at the final day of the civil fraud trial encapsulates what has been a bitter, argument-filled, three-month-long circus pitting Trump and his attorneys against both the New York attorney general’s office and the judge overseeing the case.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $370 million in damages and to bar Trump from doing business in the state, alleging that Trump, his adult sons and his company defrauded banks and insurance companies by inflating the value of Trump’s assets.

Engoron already ruled that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for persistent and repeated fraud before the trial began. The 11-week trial late last year was held to determine the scope of damages and six additional claims from the attorney general, including conspiracy, issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and insurance fraud.

Trump has railed against the trial, accusing the attorney general and the judge of participating in a political attack against him. He attended the trial over multiple days and testified at the trial, turning the witnesses stand and his statements outside of the courtroom into extensions of his campaign rallies.

“THIS IS A RIGGED AND UNFAIR TRIAL — NO JURY, NO VICTIMS, A GREAT FINANCIAL STATEMENT” Trump said on his Truth Social account Wednesday.

Engoron will not issue a decision on Thursday. He said he will issue a written order by the end of the month at the earliest. Trump’s attorneys have already appealed Engoron’s initial ruling against Trump and repeatedly made clear during the case that they plan to appeal his subsequent decision, too.

Here’s what to know about Thursday’s court session:

Attorney general seeks $370M in damages

James increased the amount in damages she’s seeking from Trump and his co-defendants in post-trial briefs filed last week, up from the $250 million sought before the trial.

The attorney general wrote that the total amount of disgorgement, or “ill-gotten gains,” was due to Trump saving $168 million from favorable interest rates and making $60 million in profit from its license of the Ferry Point golf course, as well as nearly $140 million in total profit from the sale of its lease for the Old Post Office building, Trump’s hotel in Washington, DC.

“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” the attorney general wrote.

The attorney general’s office argued that Trump, as owner of his company, had a “financial motive to defraud,” writing that his testimony about his knowledge of real estate made it “implausible he lacked peculiar knowledge of his own assets.”

During the trial, the attorney general’s office called Trump and his three children who served as executives at the Trump Organization as witnesses, as well as former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg and former controller Jeff McConney, who are both co-defendants in the case.

Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are also co-defendants; Ivanka Trump was removed as a co-defendant after an appeals court ruled that she fell outside the statute of limitations.

Trump lawyers say there are no victims or any intent to defraud

In their written briefs, Trump’s lawyers argued that most of the transactions in the attorney general’s complaint were beyond the statute of limitations, that Trump’s statements of financial condition did not contain material misstatements and that the attorney general’s claims did not demonstrate any real-world impact.

“There is no evidence in the record that the terms or pricing of any of the subject loans would have been different based on the purported misstatements alleged by Plaintiff,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Not a single witness from any bank (or anywhere else) testified to this at trial.”

Engoron has already rejected several of the arguments from Trump’s attorneys, including challenges to the statute of limitations and disgorgement, finding that both were legally appropriate.

And last month, Engoron issued a blistering opinion rejecting a motion from Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the case, writing that their arguments were unconvincing and the experts they called were not credible.

“Valuations, as elucidated ad nauseum in this trial, can be based on different criteria analyzed in different ways. But a lie is still a lie,” Engoron wrote.

Whenever Engoron issues his decision, Trump’s attorneys have made no secret of their intent to file an appeal. Throughout the trial, they told the judge they were taking actions to maintain an appellate record.

Two counts against Trump and his sons were dropped

The attorney general’s office dropped two counts against the former president, Donald Trump Jr, and Eric Trump.

In the original lawsuit they alleged all defendants engaged in a conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and insurance fraud by providing false financial statements to insurers to obtain favorable policies and rates.

In their legal papers submitted on Friday, the attorney general’s office clarified the insurance allegation, writing in a footnote, “The only individual defendants engaging in insurance fraud were Weisselberg and McConney, so counts six and seven do not apply to Trump, Eric Trump, or Donald Trump, Jr.”

Lawyers for Trump Jr. and Eric Trump argued in their legal briefs on Friday that neither were involved in conversations to obtain insurance and no evidence came in at trial to support the claim.

Trump attended trial repeatedly as campaign heats up

Trump’s New York civil trial was often heated, in a preview of what could unfold should any of Trump’s four criminal trials take place this year.

Trump testified during the attorney general’s case in contentious testimony that prompted an exasperated Engoron to at one point threaten to remove Trump from the witness stand for making political speeches and not answering questions.

Trump also voluntarily attended the trial as a spectator multiple days, repeatedly attacking the attorney general, the judge and the case against him while speaking on camera outside the courtroom.

Trump’s attacks on the judge’s clerk prompted Engoron to put in place a gag order on commentary about the judge’s staff. Trump was fined twice for violating the gag order, including when he spoke outside the courtroom during the testimony of his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

Trump’s attorneys last month appealed the gag order  to the state’s highest court, the New York Court of Appeals, after a lower appellate court denied his challenge to the gag order.

In his emails to Trump attorney Chris Kise about whether the former president speak on Thursday, Engoron warned Trump’s attorney about violations of the gag order.

“If he violates the current gag order against him, I will immediately direct court officers to remove him from the courtroom forthwith and will fine him not less than $50,000,” Engoron wrote.

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