The judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's civil business fraud trial denied two motions by the Democratic New York attorney general to block testimony from at least one expert who valued Trump's Mar-a-Lago property at a $750 million minimum.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron ruled before the trial began that Trump inflated the value of his properties, including his Palm Beach County, Florida, estate, by more than 2,300% when his annual statements listed it in 2018 for at least $426 million. In 2020, a local tax appraiser rebuffed that estimate by finding its value at $27.6 million.
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Engoron on Friday rejected state attorney Kevin Wallace's argument that two experts Trump sought to bring forth to testify would offer impermissible legal opinions. One witness Trump is seeking to bring for his defense is Lawrence Moens, one of the top real estate brokers in Palm Beach.
"He is extremely different than a doctor [explaining] how he might conduct a surgery. He is providing evaluation advice," Wallace said about Moens's testimony, arguing he "uses gut feelings," according to reporters who were in the courtroom Friday.
Moens testified in a pretrial deposition over the summer that he could "dream up anyone from Elon Musk to Bill Gates and everyone in between" who may be hypothetically willing to buy Trump's home in the future.
"If they want the best house in the country, that would be one of the top two or three that would be available if they were for sale," he added, according to a transcript.
Moens said at the time that famous billionaires like Gates and Musk could be willing to put up between $750 million and $1 billion for the property.
"I wish he'd let me sell it, but it's not for sale," Moens said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges that Trump engaged in efforts to trick banks into giving him better interest rates when the Trump Organization valued its property at high levels, with company executives valuing assets between $500 million and $739 million in 2018.
Trump has fixated on the value of his Florida resort home in recent weeks as part of his defense that his net worth statements actually underestimated its value.
The trial, which may last into early January, is about whether the valuations of Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties fit into the legal definition of fraud under New York criminal law and, if so, how much money he owes back to the state. James is seeking $250 million in civil damages.
While Engoron never assigned a value to Mar-a-Lago, he cited a valuation by Palm Beach County appraisers in September that placed the property's worth between $18 million in 2011 and $27.6 million in 2021.
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Moens is expected to testify on Tuesday and will likely be questioned on whether he can give an impartial review of the Florida property's worth. Trump has a documented relationship with Moens and has paid him for work, including a $95 million sale in 2008 of Trump's starter Palm Beach oceanfront mansion to Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.
Another witness, John Shubin, is expected to testify about the deed of Mar-a-Lago that the state says limits the estate's value because it restricts the use of the property to a club.