Trump’s a long time of testimony present some clues about how he’ll combat for his actual property empire

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has testified in court docket as a soccer proprietor, on line casino builder and airline purchaser. He bragged in a deposition that he saved “hundreds of thousands of lives” by deterring nuclear conflict as president. One other time, he fretted in regards to the risks of flung fruit.

Conditioned by a long time of trials and authorized disputes, Trump is now poised to reprise his position as witness underneath extraordinary circumstances: as a former Republican president preventing to save lots of the actual property empire that vaulted him to stardom and the White Home.

Trump is about to testify Monday at his New York civil fraud trial, taking the stand in a deeply private matter that’s central his picture as a profitable businessman and threatens to value him management of marquee properties similar to Trump Tower. His extremely anticipated testimony within the trial of New York Legal professional Normal Letitia James’ lawsuit follows that of his eldest sons, Trump Group executives Eric and Donald Trump Jr., who testified final week. His eldest daughter, Ivanka, is set to testify on Wednesday.

As court docket ended Friday, a state lawyer teased the previous president’s look. Requested who could be testifying Monday, Andrew Amer instructed the decide: “The one witness might be Donald J. Trump.”

Trump has testified in court docket in at the least eight trials since 1986, based on an Related Press evaluate of court docket data and information protection. He additionally has been questioned underneath oath in additional than a dozen depositions and regulatory hearings.

In 1985, he was known as to testify earlier than Congress as proprietor of the USFL’s New Jersey Generals and he testified on behalf of lawyer and buddy Roy Cohn at a state disciplinary listening to that led to Cohn’s disbarment. In an early flash of his firebrand persona, in 1986, Trump instructed New Jersey’s on line casino fee that plans for freeway overpasses close to one in all his casinos “could be a catastrophe. It could be a disaster.”

These testimonies, captured in 1000’s of pages of transcripts and a few on videotape, supply clues to the strategy Trump is more likely to take when he testifies in Manhattan.

They present clear parallels between Trump as a witness and Trump as a president and present candidate for the workplace. His rhetorical fashion in authorized proceedings through the years bears echoes of his political verve: a mixture of ego, attraction, defensiveness, aggressiveness, sharp language and deflection. He has been combative and boastful, however typically imprecise and susceptible to hedging or being dismissive.

Testifying within the USFL’s antitrust lawsuit towards the NFL in 1986, Trump denounced allegations that he had spied on NFL officers at one in all his lodges, calling the declare “such a false interpretation it’s disgusting.”

In 1988, as he sought to purchase Japanese Air Strains’ Northeast shuttle service, Trump turned on the charisma, flashing a large smile on the decide’s feminine legislation clerks and shaking fingers with the bailiff throughout a break in his testimony at a federal court docket listening to in Washington. Trump testified that his $365 million buy, later permitted, could be a “main enhance in morale” for workers.

On the stand in a boxing-related case in 1990, Trump described a Mike Tyson combat he deliberate for one in all his casinos in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey, as “one of many biggest rematches you would have.” Accused by two males of chopping them out of a riverboat playing challenge, Trump professed ignorance, testifying in 1999: “I used to be shocked by this complete case. I had no concept who these folks have been.”

Trump was briefly known as to the witness stand within the New York case final month to elucidate feedback exterior of court docket that the decide mentioned violated a restricted gag order.

Earlier than that, he final testified in a courtroom in 2013, two years earlier than launching his profitable presidential marketing campaign. An 87-year-old suburban Chicago widower had sued him over adjustments to contract phrases for a resort and condominium tower she had purchased models in as an funding. Trump grew more and more agitated as his testimony wore on, at one level elevating his arms and bellowing: “After which she sued me. It’s unbelievable!”

Chicago lawyer Shelly Kulwin cross-examined Trump on behalf of the plaintiff, Jacqueline Goldberg. He mentioned the tenor of Trump’s testimony contained in the federal courthouse in Chicago echoed the bruising ebb and move later seen at marketing campaign rallies and on TV.

“His demeanor was calm at first, after which argumentative, defensive, off-topic, speechmaking. Precisely what he does at this time,” Kulwin mentioned in an interview.

“Based mostly on my expertise with him, you higher be capable to have tremendous tight questions, with paperwork to assist them, in order that he can not wiggle round,” Kulwin added. “I might strategy the decide and have him admonished earlier than he even received on the stand: ‘Mr. Trump, this isn’t a political marketing campaign. These folks, you’re not attempting to get their vote. This can be a judicial continuing.’”

Goldberg misplaced to Trump however mentioned she didn’t remorse suing him, testifying: “Someone needed to stand as much as him.” She died in August at age 97.

Trump has attended seven days of the New York trial, quietly learning witnesses from the protection desk whereas additionally lashing out on the case, the decide and state attorneys in entrance of TV cameras within the hallway. He’s known as the case a “sham,” a “rip-off,” and “a continuation of the one biggest witch hunt of all time.”

Opining in regards to the case on social media, he thrills in what he calls the trial’s “Perry Mason” moments — testimony and arguments he feels have helped his facet — as he pays homage to the basic TV courtroom drama.

In 1990, Trump testified in a dropping effort in a lawsuit over his firm’s failure to make pension contributions on behalf of about 200 undocumented Polish employees employed to tear down a constructing to make method for Trump Tower. A 12 months later, he was in court docket once more in Manhattan, testifying towards a person who claimed he had a contract to develop Trump’s board sport and was owed 25% of income from “Trump: The Recreation.”

Trump received that one and one other lawsuit in 2005, the place he testified {that a} building firm had “fleeced” him by overcharging him by $1.5 million for work at a golf course in New York’s Westchester County.

Trump’s present New York trial hinges partly on how a lot he and different Trump Group executives have been concerned in valuing his properties and calculating his wealth for the annual monetary statements that got to banks, insurers and others to make offers and safe financing.

James alleges the statements inflated Trump’s internet value by billions of {dollars}, making him seem to lenders as a extra worthy credit score threat and permitting him to acquire higher curiosity and insurance coverage charges. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. testified that they relied on an out of doors accounting agency and the Trump Group’s finance workforce to arrange the statements and that they assumed these statements have been correct.

Trump testified in a deposition in a case in April that he by no means felt his monetary statements “could be taken very severely,” and {that a} disclaimer on them warned folks doing enterprise with him to do their very own homework.

He insisted the banks that James alleges have been snookered with lofty valuations suffered no hurt, received paid in his offers and “to this present day don’t have any complaints.” Trump decried the lawsuit as a “horrible factor,” telling James and her employees “you don’t have a case.”

Earlier than the trial, the decide dominated that the statements have been fraudulent. He set in movement punishment that shifts management of some Trump firms to a court-appointed receiver. An appeals court docket has put that on maintain, for now.

The nonjury trial, now into its second month, considerations allegations of conspiracy, insurance coverage fraud and falsifying enterprise data. James, who’s suing Trump, his firm and prime executives, together with his eldest sons, is looking for $250 million in penalties and a ban on the defendants doing enterprise in New York.

When questioned previously about his enterprise and monetary dealings, Trump has typically deflected duty and blame. In a 2013 deposition over a failed Florida condominium challenge, Trump blamed an worker for paperwork that mentioned he was creating a challenge when, in actuality, he wasn’t.

“I’ve a lady that does it,” he mentioned. He then began parsing the wording at challenge, saying: “However you recognize, creating, the phrase develop, it may be utilized in quite a lot of completely different contexts.”

One other chorus in Trump’s depositions is his incredulity that he could be taken so severely for hyping up his actual property tasks.

“You at all times need to put the absolute best spin on a property you can,” Trump mentioned in a December 2007 deposition in his lawsuit towards a journalist he had accused of taking part in down Trump’s wealth. “No completely different than every other actual property developer, no completely different than every other businessman, no completely different than any politician.”

Trump’s penchant for puffery is bound to return up on Monday. He and his firm are accused of inflating his property values and utilizing a wide range of strategies to maximise the outcomes. For years, he even listed his Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan as being 3 times its precise dimension. He now claims his monetary statements undersold his wealth and that his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida is value greater than $1 billion.

Trump is portraying the civil fraud case and his 4 felony instances as prongs of political persecution designed to impede his candidacy because the 2024 Republican front-runner for president. He has referenced his political standing in prior authorized settings, together with throughout a 2016 deposition when he famous, unprompted, how he had defeated his Republican main opponents.

“I clearly have credibility as a result of I now, because it seems, grew to become the Republican nominee working towards, now we have a complete of 17 those that have been largely senators and governors, extremely revered folks. So it’s not like, you recognize, like I’ve mentioned something that may very well be so dangerous,” he mentioned.

In his April deposition, Trump soberly described the presidency because the “most essential job on this planet” earlier than bragging about saving lives by stopping North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un from launching a nuclear assault.

In an October 2021 deposition, Trump waxed about weapons of a distinct type, warning of the risks posed by tomatoes and different fruit, which he feared could be thrown at him on the marketing campaign stage.

“You get hit with fruit it’s — no, it’s very violent stuff,” he mentioned. Trump was testifying in connection to a lawsuit filed by a gaggle of protesters who mentioned they have been roughed up by Trump’s personal safety guards when he was working in 2015.

Trump had been requested a couple of rally during which he instructed the gang: “In case you see somebody on the brink of throw a tomato, simply knock the crap out of them, would you.”

“It was mentioned kind of in jest. Purchase possibly, you recognize, somewhat reality to it,” Trump mentioned of his remarks.

“It’s very harmful stuff. You will get killed with these issues,” he warned. “I wished to have folks be prepared as a result of we have been placed on alert that they have been going to do fruit. And a few fruit is rather a lot worse than — tomatoes are dangerous by the way in which. But it surely’s very harmful.”

__

Tucker reported from Washington. Related Press author Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

___

On X, previously often called Twitter, observe Michael Sisak at x.com/mikesisak and Eric Tucker at x.com/etuckerAP and ship confidential suggestions by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips