What Happened This Week In Donald Trump’s Civil Fraud Trial : Trump’s Trials : NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

From NPR, this is TRUMP’S TRIALS. I’m Scott Detrow.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Chanting) We love (ph) Trump.

DONALD TRUMP: This is a persecution…

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Felony violations of our national security laws.

TRUMP: We need one more indictment…

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Criminal conspiracy.

TRUMP: …To close out this election.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: He actually just stormed out of the courtroom.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

DETROW: Once a week, we talk through the latest developments in the multiple legal cases former President Donald Trump is facing. There are four criminal cases, of course, two of them tied to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Another one focuses on those classified documents that ended up stacked in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, among other places. And the fourth, that’s the case over hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

But this week, we are focused on Trump’s New York civil fraud case. The judge in the case has already ruled the Trump Organization committed fraud for years, inflating the value of its properties. And Donald Trump took the stand this week. What’s at stake in the case? The Trump Organization’s ability to carry on doing business in New York is on the line. And there’s also a chance of Trump being slapped with a $250 million fine. And this week, the former president himself, as well as his daughter Ivanka Trump, testified in the trial.

So that’s the news this week. But first, I’m just going to take a moment to tell you what we’re trying to do in this podcast. Each week, we’re going to be joined by a legal expert to help us break down what happened and what matters. And we’ll do that in just a moment. But first, also with me every week will be NPR’s senior editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro. Hey, Domenico.

DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.

DETROW: Imagine you and me doing a podcast together.

MONTANARO: I know. It feels like long primary night hours.

DETROW: So now we’re going to be talking about courtroom stuff each week. And let’s start how we’re going to start each episode – what happened this week in about one minute or so? What do people need to know?

MONTANARO: Well, it’s pretty obvious. Donald Trump had to take the stand, where he was forced to defend himself and the company that he made and that made him. And the Trump that we got on the stand was the Trump we’re used to seeing.

DETROW: Which was an open question, because at times in the past, when he’s been deposed in other legal settings, he has acted different. But he didn’t here. He was campaign Trump.

MONTANARO: Right. He was combative. He was defensive and not necessarily truthful. I mean, even on the stand, when asked about the square footage of his Trump Tower apartment, he couldn’t give a straight answer. I mean, bottom line is Trump used his time on the witness stand to lean into this narrative…