Former US President Donald Trump departs throughout a break within the civil fraud trial in opposition to the Trump Organization, on the New York State Supreme Court in New York City on December 7, 2023. Former US President Donald Trump was again in courtroom on December 7, 2023, for his New York civil trial on fraud allegations, as soon as once more condemning the method as unfair. Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his two eldest sons are accused of inflating the worth of their actual property belongings to obtain extra favorable financial institution loans and insurance coverage phrases. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP by way of Getty Images)
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
The political motion committee backing the 2024 marketing campaign of former President Donald Trump paid at the very least some of nearly $900,000 in compensation to an expert witness in Trump’s main New York civil fraud trial, the witness mentioned Friday.
The Trump Organization paid the rest of the fee for the work performed by the protection witness, New York University Accounting Professor Eli Bartov.
Bartov, whose full-throated denial of any fraud by Trump and his co-defendants has been praised by the previous president, mentioned the compensation didn’t have an effect on his testimony, NBC News reported.
The determine presents a peek into how a lot cash is being spent on only one small slice of Trump’s authorized battles, that are being waged in civil and prison courts in quite a few states and at a number of ranges of authorities.
It will not be uncommon for specialists to be paid by the social gathering asking for his or her involvement in a lawsuit.
It can be frequent for the opposing social gathering — on this case, attorneys for the workplace of New York Attorney General Letitia James — to level out that cost so as to undermine an expert’s credibility.
Such seems to be the case with Bartov within the $250 million fraud trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. James accuses Trump, his two grownup sons, his firm and its prime executives of falsely inflating the values of his belongings on key monetary data.
Bartov mentioned on the witness stand Friday that he has tallied 650 billable hours at a fee of $1,350 per hour. That provides up to $877,500 in compensation, a determine Bartov confirmed.
Bartov additionally reiterated his disclosure, in a late July deposition, that he had been paid by each the Trump Organization and by Save America, the management political motion committee backing Trump’s 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
Trump was in courtroom Thursday for the primary day of Bartov’s testimony. Bartov is predicted to resume testifying on Tuesday — at some point after Trump takes the stand as the ultimate non-expert witness for the protection.
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