Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Good morning from New York.

The fifth week of Trump's civil fraud trial kicks off with a prior witness resuming his testimony: Raymond Flores, an ex-Trump Org VP who recently described his communications with Eric Trump.

Background, @TheMessenger 🔗 themessenger.com/politics/eric-…

NYAG's counsel Andrew Amer:

"We recall to the stand Raymond Flores."

Amer is showing Flores Trump's spreadsheet supporting his statement of financial condition for June 30, 2018.

NYAG's counsel plays a voicemail that he identifies as the voice of Trump Org controller Jeff McConney, left for Flores "on Christmas Eve to come up with additional reasoning to come up with a 4% cap rate" for one of the properties.

Three days later on Dec. 28, 2020, Flores made a change to the value the 4-6 East 57th Street, according to the NYAG.

The witness asserts he doesn't remember making any changes in response to McConney's call.

NYAG's counsel wants to play another voicemail: this time, from Raymond Flores to Patrick Birney on Aug. 2, 2021.

In the brief message, Flores can be heard saying that Eric asked Flores to reach out to Birney about the statement of financial condition.

Questioning turns to Mar-a-Lago:

NYAG displays a chart with its valuations on Trump's statements of financial condition from 2011 through 2021.

The NYAG says that Trump fraudulently valued Mar-a-Lago as though it were a private residence despite swearing off its use as anything other than a private club in the deed.

Asked whether he understood MAL was valued as a private residence, Flores says he doesn't recall.

(The judge also found before trial that Trump fraudulently valued MAL this way, in the order dissolving his NY properties.)

Email from Tony Garcia to Raymond Flores on Nov. 13, 2020:

Subject: "Calls from the Media"

“Just an FYI, we got calls from the media about the appeals for Mar A Lago and Doral.”

Background on MAL appraisal appeal that year: 🔗themessenger.com/politics/trump…

Amer notes that the filing designates the property as "Commercial," not residential.

This is a screenshot of where Trump Org acknowledged MAL is a "Commercial" property.

NYAG's counsel shows Flores the Trump Org's withdrawal of the appeal, with its tax rep saying he "agrees" with the $26.6M appraisal in 2020.

(We were the first to report this detail on Sept. 28, shortly before trial began.)

https://x.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1707481694201151739?s=20

NYAG's counsel shows an email from the tax rep who submitted that document, Marvin F. Power and Company senior consultant Michael Corbiciero, to Flores on Nov. 17, 2021.

The subject of the email is: "Mar-a-Lago Homestead Exemption."

The email states:

"Last year, we briefly discussed the possibility of filing for a homestead exemption on the Mar-a-Lago property since President Donald Trump had legally declared Palm Beach and the Mar-a-Lago property as his personal residence."

The email rattles off how Trump would need to "meet certain requirements" to qualify for that exemption, like transferring ownership to him as an individual instead of his company.

The email continues:

"Currently, this property is assessed as a private club with the current assessed value at $359/sqft. The surrounding residential properties are assessed on average of over $2,000 per sqft with a recent sale just over $3,000 per sqft."

Recall:

The heart of the fraud allegations concerning Mar-a-Lago is that Trump valued it as though it were a personal residence, knowing he agreed to restrictions for its use as a private club.

That's the context for these documents from his tax rep.

NYAG concludes direct examination.

No cross.

This witness is excused.

Morning recess.

The next witness up is David Cerron, an assistant commissioner for business development and special events at the New York City Parks Department.

The witness is examining records regarding Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point.

Here's how Trump Org described the property in 2012, per business records that the NYAG attached to the lawsuit.

NYAG introduces the licensing agreement between Trump Ferry Point LLC and the City of New York from 2012.

NYAG displays a letter from Trump's accountants to New York City park authorities claiming:

“This compiled financial statement showed a net worth in excess of $4,000,000,000, and cash and marketable securities in excess of $250,000,000.”

NYAG says Trump actually had a much lower net worth that year, and the use of the word "compiled" before financial statement indicates the accountants didn't investigate the underlying data.

Cross-ex brings forward a new Trump lawyer:

Jennifer Hernandez from Continental PLLC, which is Chris Kise's firm.

Hernandez calls the witness's attention to other portions of the agreements previously entered into evidence.

News

"Judge Postpones Ivanka Trump’s Testimony For a Few Days in Civil Fraud Trial"

She's now slated to take the stand after her father. @TheMessenger

themessenger.com/politics/ivank…

The next witness testimony is a video deposition of Claudia Mouradian née Markarian, an ex-VP and senior underwriting officer for commercial surety at Zurich North America.

She's being questioned by NYAG's counsel Andrew Amer.

Notable part of her testimony:

NYAG's counsel shows the witness a transcript of Allen Weisselberg's deposition.

That passage states:

Q: Did at any point in 2018 you inform a Zurich underwriter that the valuations contained in the statement of financial condition were in fact performed by appraisers?

Weisselberg: I don’t recall saying that no.

Referring to that passage, Mouradian says: “It’s not consistent with what he told me at the meeting.”

She says that information would have been "material" to her consideration.

One of her last lines of testimony showing in the video deposition for the day:

"[W]e’re expecting our customers to be truthful to us when we’re underwriting them."

Trial adjourned for the day.