A defense witness at Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud trial compared him to Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. and quoted John Lennon during testimony — before the former president confirmed he’ll be back on the stand next week.
Lawrence Moens — a real estate valuation expert called by Trump’s team on Tuesday — quoted Lennon’s song “Imagine” while describing the real estate tycoon, who is on trial in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly exaggerating his assets for a decade.
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” Moens testified, citing the song lyrics, as he described Trump, 77, and compared him to the Founding Father and the iconic civil rights leader.
“He’s a dreamer for sure,” Moens said of the 45th president, according to an ABC News report. “If you have a dream and are a great American, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
Testimony then turned to Trump’s Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, which Moens described as “something breathtaking” and “amazing to see” as he explained that he had valued the Palm Beach estate at over $1.2 billion in 2021.
Mar-a-Lago has continuously come up at the trial after a Palm Beach County official pegged its market value in 2020 at just $27 million — while Trump claimed on yearly financial statements that it was worth as much as $517 million.
Moens, a longtime member of the famous club, told the court he thought Trump had actually undervalued the 17.6-acre waterfront property on the financial documents by half.
Later, Trump — who risks the loss of his business empire in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million suit against him — confirmed that he will be back on the stand Monday as the last witness in his defense case.
“I will be testifying Monday in this shameful, NO JURY ALLOWED ‘TRIAL,'” he wrote Tuesday night in a Truth Social post.
The 2024 GOP presidential front-runner — who is also likely expected to attend the proceedings Thursday, according to a source with knowledge of the case — already testified in November when he was called by prosecutors in James’ office.
Court was not in session Wednesday after the defense called off Eric Trump’s planned testimony in its case.
“I told my wonderful son, Eric, not to testify tomorrow at the RIGGED TRIAL … Eric has already testified, PERFECTLY,” Trump wrote in the Tuesday post.
“So there is no reason to waste any more of this Crooked Court’s time on having him say the same thing, over and over again.”
The former first son already testified in early November when he was called by the AG’s Office.
His older brother, Donald Trump Jr., has testified twice, and sister Ivanka has also testified once.
The former president and his two eldest sons are defendants in the case, along with other executives at family company the Trump Organization.
They have denied the AG’s claims and said they weren’t to blame for exaggerations on Trump’s annual statements of financial condition — at the heart of the AG’s case.
Ivanka — previously named as a defendant — was dismissed from the case when an appeals court found the claims against her were too old.
James claims that Trump pumped up his assets on these statements from 2011 through 2021 by billions in order to get better loan and insurance terms.
Trump and his sons have blamed accountants and lawyers for errors on the statements and said a disclaimer clause on the documents shielded them from inaccuracies.
With Post wires