New York fraud case: Trump in court as trial probes financial statements
India TodayThe fraud trial that could block former President Donald Trump from doing business in New York drilled down Wednesday into the question of who — his company or hired accountants — bore responsibility for financial statements that the state calls fraudulent. But accountant Donald Bender, who prepared the financial statements for years, testified Tuesday that the Trump Organization didn’t always supply all the information needed to accurately produce the documents. Another accountant, Camron Harris, testified Wednesday that his work on the 2021 statement involved checking information provided by Trump’s company for “obvious errors” and formatting it for presentation. His firm’s work agreement with Trump’s company specified that the accountants would “not express an opinion or any conclusion nor provide any assurance on the financial statements.” Trump lawyer Jesus M. Suarez, in cross-examining Bender on Tuesday and Wednesday, sought to depict the accountant as sloppy. When Bender acknowledged on Tuesday that he missed a shift in information about the size of the Trump Tower penthouse, Suarez told the accountant that Trump’s company and employees were “going through hell” because “you missed it.” Bender retorted that it was the Trump Organization’s mistake, “and we didn’t catch it.” As the cross-examination wore on Wednesday with painstaking queries about specific aspects of individual financial statements, Judge Arthur Engoron pounded his fist and said the defense was ignoring his instructions to streamline the questioning.