Summary
Here’s a quick overview of what happened during Donald Trump Jr’s second moment on the witness stand at his father’s New York fraud trial:
Much of the hours-long testimony was spent going through a presentation of the history of the Trump Organization and its property portfolio. Trump Jr showered praise on the company and his father, painting a picture of a successful real estate mogul who turned decrepit properties into luxury real estate holdings.
Trump Jr described his father as an “artist” who used his real estate company as his creative canvas. Trump Sr was able to find “sexiness within a real estate project”.
Prosecutors voiced multiple objections throughout the testimony, but judge Arthur Engoron ultimately said because there’s no jury “I’ll allow some leeway here,” and allowed Trump Jr ramble on about the company.
Cross-examination lasted around five minutes, where prosecutors offered a brief reality check for the court, pointing out that the Trump Organization had a loan for 40 Wall Street transferred to a loan servicer and that the owner of the Trump Hotel in Waikiki is paying to remove the Trump name from the hotel.
We are closing this blog for the day. Thanks for reading.
On his way out of court, Donald Trump Jr made brief comments to the cameras outside, briefly railing against attorney general Letitia James.
“It’s just a really sad state of affairs for the state of New York,” Trump Jr said. There is “no actual person complaining other than the attorney-general herself.”
Meanwhile in the courtroom, Sheri Dillon, who was a tax lawyer for the Trump Organization and helped the company with appraisals, is back on the witness stand. She was last on the stand October 27.
“It’s like a reunion,” judge Arthur Engoron joked when Dillon took the stand.
Updated
Donald Trump Jr put under brief cross-examination after lengthy properties presentation
Cross-examination of Donald Trump Jr ended in about five minutes. Prosecutors largely used the cross-examination as a time to voice a few reality checks about the hours-long Trump property presentation that was shown to the courtroom.
Trump Jr said that the occupancy of 40 Wall Street is at 90%, but prosecutor Colleen Faherty pulled up a document that said that the tower was at 77% occupancy.
The document she pulled up was the transfer of a loan for 40 Wall Street going to a special servicer after being put on a watch list as “cost and vacancies increased”.
“Does this refresh your recollection,” Faherty asked Trump Jr.
“Nope,” he responded, looking at the agreement.
Trump lawyer Christopher Kise objected to the document over “relevance”, causing judge Arthur Engoron to throw up his hands.
“You’re going to question the relevance of this after a whole morning of ‘relevance’?” Engoron said, referring to the defense’s lengthy real estate presentation.
Faherty then asked Trump Jr about the Trump Hotel in Waikiki, which is managed and operated by a separate company that paid to use the Trump name.
“Isn’t it true that the owner of the Trump Hotel [in Waikiki]… said that it will rename the property and is buying out of the name?” Faherty asked. “Is it correct that it is ditching the Trump name?”
“If they want to buy it out for millions of dollars, I’m okay with it,” Trump Jr responded.
Faherty quickly said prosecutors had no more questions and ended cross examination.
Updated
Prosecutor Colleen Faherty is already digging into Donald Trump Jr. She pulled up a picture from the presentation of Trump’s golf course in Los Angeles.
“You testified this course is right on the Pacific Ocean, is that correct?” Faherty asked. Trump confirmed.
“Didn’t the 18th hole literally fall into the ocean?” she asked. Trump Jr mumbled a response.
Trump lawyer Clifford Roberts just finished his questioning. The last question he asked Donald Trump Jr was about the future prospects of the Trump Organization. "
“Depends on what happens in November,” Trump Jr said, noting that they will be “sued to oblivion for the forseeable future but they will “do what we need to do”.
“Change skylines,” he said. “Inquire incredible assets.”
Cross-examination is starting.
There have been many moments during Donald Trump Jr’s testimony so far that has felt like he has been giving the courtroom – and judge Arthur Engoron, a marketing presentation.
Talking about the Albemarle Estate at Trump Winery, Trump’s hotel in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump Jr tried to mention a bit of US history.
A picture showed the asset with what appeared to be a hill overhead. Trump pointed out that over that hill is “where Jefferson escaped to during the Revolutionary War”.
“Very cool history there,” Trump Jr said, turning to Engoron, who kept a neutral expression.
Updated
A promotional video of Trump Links at Ferry Point in the Bronx was just shown, a bizarre moment when music reminiscent of a Home Depot ad started playing over speakers in the courtroom.
“That’s how Trump likes to do thing, ahead of schedule,” Eric Trump said in the video, which also featured Donald Trump Jr.
“I would like to object, your honor,” prosecutor Kevin Wallace immediately said as the video ended. “Obviously hearsay.”
We’re back from lunch and buckle up, we finally made it to 2014 in the slideshow put on by Trump’s defense team, a timeline of Trump Organization’s property portfolios.
Trump just said about the Turnberry golf course in Scotland is the “oldest, most exclusive golf course anywhere in the world.”
Some oversaturated pictures of the golf course are being shown to the courtroom: a lighthouse in sunset, the bright green of the turf, a blue cloudy sky – quite a contrast to the dimmed lighting in the courtroom.
Updated
Forbes’ Dan Alexander did a quick fact check on the slideshow that Trump’s defense team has been using during Donald Trump Jr’s testimony. It appears the slideshow inaccurately said the building is 72 stories, though it’s actually 63 stories.
4/ Trump team displays misleading information in the court room, referring to 40 Wall Street as a "72 story" building. It's 63 stories, according to a bond prospectus filed with the SEC and an NYC tax document. More detail here: https://t.co/lIi8glr8R5 pic.twitter.com/aszNNUD1mk
— Dan Alexander (@DanAlexander21) November 13, 2023
It also said that the building is “directly” across from the New York Stock Exchange, which is inaccurate – it’s around the corner from the stock exchange.
Trump Jr has been flying through the Trump Organization’s various properties, trying to establish his father as a “genius” real estate mogul.
There was a brief back-and-forth with judge Arthur Engoron and prosecutors, who were objecting to the use of a valuation from Newmark real estate group that valued the Trump Doral golf course in Miami at $1.3bn in 2022.
Prosecutors argued that the presentation was hearsay and was outside the period of the case. Engoron said: “It’s completely irrelevant but there’s no jury here”.
When prosecutors kept pushing, Engoron told them: “Do you want to risk a reversal over one stupid document?”
It’s clear that prosecutors are losing patience with Trump Jr’s testimony, but Engoron is maintaining that the Trump team wants this all on the record – even if it doesn’t necessarily help with their case – so he’ll let them get it on the record.
And we’re on for lunch break! Court will be back in session at 2.15pm.
Updated
Can confirm this is the vibe in the courtroom for the last hour and a half.
I kinda feel like Don Jr. is not so much testifying in his own defense, but rather is trying to sell me a condo.
— Stewart Bishop (@stewartbishop) November 13, 2023
We’re still in the middle of Donald Trump Jr talking about Trump Organization properties developed in the late-2000s.
Trump Jr has been speaking highly of the properties and frequently lavishing praise on them, saying certain buildings are among the “tallest” in their cities and that the properties are seen as the “best” by experts.
Prosecutors objected Trump Jr referring to praise from other people and the other accolades he is constantly mentioning.
“I’m not speculating, these are things that actually happened,” Trump Jr said, turning toward judge Arthur Engoron.
Engoron overruled, saying: “Because there’s no jury, I’ll allow some leeway here.”
Updated
We are well into over two hours with Donald Trump Jr on the stand, and the bulk of his testimony so far has been him talking about the Trump Organization’s real estate portfolio, in the style of a marketing presentation.
Each slide contains a picture of a property, sometimes a ballroom or a golf course. Sometimes a picture of a Trump executives will appear.
“I won’t comment on that picture, I will refrain,” he said when a picture of Eric Trump came up on the slide. “A lot of Photoshop,” he joked.
When talking about Trump’s golf course in Los Angeles, Trump Jr said: “I can’t think of a single hole or a single lot that doesn’t have a view of the Pacific Ocean.”
Updated
A picture of Trump lawyer Alina Habba at a UFC match over the weekend is making the rounds as Habba is clearly wearing a “FJB” necklace and is holding up a clutch bedazzled with “Maga”.
It seems like Habba left those accessories at home today.
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and Trump lawyer Alina Habba at the UFC match.
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 13, 2023
Habba is holding a MAGA clutch and wearing a “FJB” necklace. pic.twitter.com/b4n8SIDbfm
Updated
It seems like Donald Trump Jr is trying to use a different vocabulary than his father, who often invokes the word “beautiful” to describe his various properties.
“It’s just a sexy place,” Trump Jr said of Trump Tower. “He really created a market for a sexy condominium.”
Donald Trump Jr talks about his father's 'artistry' in real estate
We’re back, and already Donald Trump Jr is back to talking about the Trump Organization’s properties. Now he’s talking about the Trump international golf course in Palm Beach.
“That is the artistry that comes to fruition over and over. He took raw swampland that no one for decades had ever seen value you and turned it into … one of the finest golf clubs in the world,” he said.
Trump lawyer Clifford Robert certainly came up with his line of questioning with plenty of praises in mind.
“This additional to detail, how would you describe this in terms of the other holes in the course?” Roberts asked, when asking Trump Jr about details in the Palm Beach golf course.
“He just sees that other people don’t,” Trump Jr said.
Updated
Donald Trump Jr said that his father was “on the leading edge of creativity” when Trump came up with the concept of the condominium hotel.
“A buyer can own a one-bedroom hotel,” Trump Jr explained on the stand, occasionally turning toward to a stone-faced Judge Arthur Engoron, a dramatic picture of the Trump hotel in New York City displayed for the courtroom. “When they’re not there, it’s generating income from them.
Engoron overruled a standing objection from prosecutors over Trump Jr talking so extensively about the history and portfolio of the company. Trump Jr has been talking about the properties for nearly an hour.
We’re on a 15-minute break.
Updated
If you need a refresher of Donald Trump Jr’s testimony earlier this month, it was a lot of light-hearted jokes and “I don’t recall”.
Pressed on his role in creating the financial statements at the heart of the case, Trump Jr said: “The accountants worked on it. That’s why we pay them.”
At one point, prosecutors pulled up an email from a Forbes reporter to the Trump Organization that included questions about the actual size of Trump’s triplex penthouse apartment in Trump Tower. Trump told the magazine that the unit was 33,000 sq ft, but documents had shown it was closer to 11,000 sq ft.
“Insane amount of stuff there in regards to the Forbes inquiry,” Donald Jr wrote to other Trump Organization executives in response to the inquiry.
When asked whether the Trump Organization conducted their own investigation into the matter after Forbes inquiry, Trump Jr said the organization received “hundreds” of questions from the magazine.
Given that he’s kicking off the defense’s case, Trump Jr will probably appear to remember a lot more this time around, though on cross-examination, he will likely maintain that he was removed from the case’s financial statements.
Updated
Don Jr claims Trump was key to making gyms in hotels commonplace
Ever been to a gym in a hotel? Donald Trump Jr thinks you should thank his father, who was a pioneer in making things that are “commonplace today in luxury real estate”, like gyms.
“Maybe someone had put a gym in a building somewhere, but no one did it at the scale of my father,” Trump Jr said.
For anyone who has seen HBO’s Succession, Trump Jr’s testimony so far is starting to feel like “HBO Presents: Succession – Live!”
Multiple photos of Trump’s properties – including several that are in the center of the case, including Seven Springs in Westchester and 40 Wall Street – are being put on for the courtroom. Think shiny lobbies and ball rooms, apartments dotting the west side of a Manhattan. Donald Trump Jr is talking about how the company worked on “creating height and creating views”.
His father “sees the things that other people don’t,” Trump Jr said when asked about Seven Springs. “That is his canvas where he creates, and he’s a creative guy.”
When Trump Jr recalled real estate experts telling them the company that what they were doing with their properties was “genius”, prosecutors immediately objected for hearsay. Prosecutors are visibly whispering and laughing among each other, shaking their heads throughout this part of his testimony.
The picture that Trump Jr is painting of the Trump Organization is of a massive real estate company that changed the game of the industry.
“At the time that these were being build, you didn’t have projects like this being built,” he said of a property.
Updated
After more back-and-forth between prosecutors, who appear to be getting impatient with Trump Jr talking about the history of the company, judge Arthur Engoron overruled their objections.
“Let him go ahead and talk about how great the Trump Organization is,” he told them.
The courtroom is being treated to a history of the Trump Organization, with pictures. Donald Trump Jr said that his grandfather was the “son of immigrants” who eventually started doing garage and apartment develops in Queens.
“My father learned a lot of the business from him” but also saw Manhattan as “the ultimate frontier to do that”. Trump Jr said the his father “changed the skyline of New York” and exhibits a “Horatio Alger” story.
A picture of a young Trump with his father, Fred Trump, in Central Park, the New York skyline behind them, was put on in front of the court.
Prosecutor Andrew Amer jumped in saying that the defense team is going back into the early 1900s, “Is there a waiver for the statute of limitations?” he asked, garnering laughs from the courtroom.
Updated
Trump lawyer Clifford Roberts just put up what appears to be a slideshow presentation about the Trump Organization, including a first slide that is titled “The Trump Story”, stylized like a marketing presentation.
Prosecutor Colleen Faherty quickly raised an objection. “I don’t know what this document is. It appears to be a hearsay document,” she said.
Roberts replied saying that it is important for the court to understand the history of the Trump Organization given that the attorney general is threatening to put the company out of business.
“The court needs to understand where the company came from and where it’s going,” he said.
After back and forth with prosecutors and the defense, Engoron is letting the slideshow go into evidence, saying that he understands the “big-picture” purpose of the presentation.
Donald Trump Jr is still showering the Trump Organization with praise on the witness stand.
When talking about his father, Trump Jr just said, “My father has been good at finding value, doing something differently” and – this one was a bit jarring to hear in court – finding “sexiness within a real estate project”.
“He built some of the most incredible assets in the world,” Trump Jr said.
Note that Judge Arthur Engoron, sitting a few feet away from him, pretty much ended the Trump Organization’s ability to do business in New York with his pre-trial summary judgment, currently going through an appeals court.
Donald Trump Jr was asked by his lawyer Clifford Roberts about how the Trump Organization has been structured since 2021 (when Trump was booted from the White House, but that wasn’t mentioned).
Trump Jr emphasized that his father stepped away from the business during his presidency but said as of 2021, “he could get involved and he chooses to on certain things.”
He noted that he and brother Eric Trump are “much more responsible than prior to 2017”, noting that Eric is involved in the day-to-day operations and is the “big-picture deals guy”.
Judge Arthur Engoron asked Trump Jr to slow down when talking. Trump Jr cracked a joke during the exchange, telling the judge with a laugh: “I would say it’s good to be here, but I would assume the attorney general would sue me for perjury if I said that.”
Donald Trump Jr is back on the stand
Donald Trump Jr is back on the stand and is being questioned by Clifford Roberts, his lawyer who is also representing brother Eric Trump.
Right now, he’s listing off the Trump Organization’s early real estate achievements, building a handful of the “biggest” or “largest” properties in certain cities and praising his father’s business sense.
“He gave opportunities to a lot of people who didn’t have [other] opportunities,” he said of his father.
Trump Jr is talking very quickly and excitedly. It’s worth noting that the broader questioning is by his lawyer, the more leeway prosecutors will get with cross-examination.
Updated
Judge Arthur Engoron walked in and very quickly after, he allowed photographers to take pictures of Donald Trump Jr with his lawyers. It feels very much like deja vu from the first time he took the stand.
“The defense team must be looking good today,” Engoron said, noting that the photographers took longer than usual.
When the defense team said Trump Jr’s name, calling him to the stand, Engoron said: “I would say ‘Who’s he?’ but I already made that joke.”
Updated
Donald Trump Jr enters courtroom with defense team
Donald Trump Jr just entered the courtroom with his defense team. Because he is a defendant on the case, he can enter the courtroom before being called on as a witness. (Typically, the witness must only enter when called.) The judge should be appearing soon as the court session starts at 10am.
Updated
Good morning, I’m in the courtroom of Donald Trump’s New York fraud trial. We’re in the seventh week of the trial, and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, is expected to take the witness stand for a second time, kicking off witnesses called by Trump’s defense team.
The last time he was on the stand, multiple documents were presented to Trump Jr where he signed off on the fairness and accuracy of the financial statements at the center of the case. But when asked to recall ever working or discussing them with other executives at the company, Trump Jr said the statements were largely left to the company’s accounting and legal departments.
Expect more of that line of argument today, along with Trump Jr being asked by his team about the relationships the Trump family had with banks. The defense is arguing that banks, particularly Deutsche Bank, who was a big lender to the Trump family, actively pursued relationships with the family and profited off the loans they gave to the Trump family.
And because the defense team is putting Trump Jr back on the stand, this also means that prosecutors will get a second chance to question Trump Jr about his role at the company in cross-examination. Depending on how long Trump’s lawyers take in questioning Trump Jr, cross-examination could start this afternoon.
We’ll be following the trial live. Stay tuned for updates.
Updated
