The persecution of the former president proved profitable for one key witness for whom roughly half of nearly $1 million was said to have come from political donations.
(Video: MSNBC)
Though not required to be present, former President Donald Trump appeared again in a Manhattan courtroom Friday for the $250 million civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Testimony from a New York University professor emphasized how integral the legal battles had become in vying for a return to the White House when the expert witness remarked on a source of his ongoing payments.
NYU accounting professor Eli Bartov took the stand Friday to assert he found, “no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud,” along with a breakdown of where the $900,000 he had received so far for his services had originated.
Joining MSNBC’s Alex Witt Saturday, correspondent Chloe Atkins explained, “So, as you said, Trump’s key star witness, which is an NYU accounting professor, conceded on the stand, it was this major development, that his fees for testifying on behalf of the defense were split between the Trump Organization, which is the defendant, and Trump’s Save America PAC.”
“Now, I want to remind folks that it’s not unusual for a defendant to pay an expert witness to testify on their behalf during a trial. However, it does show this pattern from Trump’s PAC paying his legal bills and his legal battles that have been taking place for some time now,” she remarked.
“Now, this accounting expert said on the stand that he would invoice the Trump Organization, but then the bank statements would either say that they were paid by the Trump Organization or Trump’s PAC, Save America,” added Atkins.
According to an FEC filing, an initial payment to retain Bartov as legal counsel had been made from the Save America PAC on April 25, 2023 in the amount of $40,500. Following that, a July deposition featured the professor explaining that though he had been retained by Morian Law, PLLC, he had been submitting his invoices to The Trump Organization.
“Who actually made the payment,” Bartov said, “sometimes it’s The Trump Organization. Sometimes is somebody else.”
“He went on to specify, “…all I’m telling you is what I see in my bank statement. So sometimes I see the Trump Organization. Sometimes I see Save America.”
At that time, he asserted “maybe 100,000 or 150 came from Mr. — from The Trump Organization, it says on my statement ‘Trump,’ and maybe 250 or 220 — maybe, yeah, about, came from what it says on the statement, ‘Save America,’ maybe it’s Mr. Trump, I don’t know, but it says ‘Save America.'”
Bartov had disclosed that his hourly rate was $1,350 and that as of this week, he had devoted around 650 hours to the president’s civil fraud case.
Outside the courtroom, Trump himself remarked on the testimony and said, “This is a highly respected man. I don’t know him, but he’s an expert witness and he found no fraud whatsoever.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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