Trump trial updates: Expert witness Eli Bartov claims ‘no fraud’ in New York civil case – The Independent

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Court appearance comes on the heels of troubling ‘dictator’ comments
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Donald Trump at a Fox News townhall on 5 December 2024
Donald Trump was back in court on Thursday at the Trump Organization’s New York fraud trial, in his ninth appearance at the courthouse. As the trial nears its conclusion, Mr Trump will testify again on Monday — still under a gag order after a judge denied an attempt to fast-track an appeal.
Before lunch, there was a testy exchange between defence expert witness Eli Bartov and a lawyer for the attorney general’s office in which accusations of paid testimony and fabricated fraud allegations were hurled. In a lighter moment, the former president stopped to speak with the courtroom sketch artists and, inspecting their work, noted he should lose some weight.
Meanwhile, in the federal election case against Mr Trump, his lawyers have filed an appeal against Judge Tanya Chutkan’s denial of a motion to dismiss under presidential immunity. They have also asked for a stay in proceedings that could potentially delay the trial from its March start date.
Elsewhere, as 10 pro-Trump fake electors in Wisconsin settled a civil case against them for their part in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, a grand jury in Nevada indicted six Republicans for a similar scheme.
A New York man who took part in the January 6 Capitol riot is running for the Long Island and Queens congressional seat that was represented by ex-Rep George Santos until his expulsion.
At his trial, Philip Sean Grillo made the bizarre admission during his testimony that he didn’t know that Congress convened inside the US Capitol.
The Queens resident was found guilty on Tuesday of obstruction of an official proceeding – a felony – in relation to the riot that temporarily ground the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory to a halt.
Grillo was also found guilty of several misdemeanours such as entering restricted grounds and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, a DoJ press release stated. He was detained on 23 February 2021.
‘I’m here to stop the steal. It’s our f****** House!’ Philip Sean Grillo said on Jan 6, unaware that Congress convened in US Capitol
Former California police chief Alan Hostetter went on a conspiratorial rant moments before a federal judge sentenced him to more than 11 years in prison for conspiring to bring weapons to the US Capitol during the January 6 riot.
The 58-year-old, who represented himself at trial, told the court on Thursday that the January 6 insurrection was an “obvious set up” that was faked by “crisis actors,” and claimed that Ashli Babbitt, a rioter killed by a police officer at the Capitol, was actually still alive.
Josh Marcus reports.
Former police chief incited mob on January 6, according to officials
A few weeks after the Iron Bowl, Republican presidential candidates descended on Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to tussle for the second-place spot in the race for the White House.
NewsNation hosted the fourth and final 2023 debate of the 2024 primary campaign, none of which frontrunner Donald Trump has attended. Florida Gov Ron Desantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy launched attacks at former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley while all but ignoring Mr Trump.
Ms Haley aggressively pushed back on broadsides while also continuing her feud with Mr Ramaswamy, whom she called “scum” in their last face-off. She emerged from the debate mostly unscathed, and her campaign has racked up key endorsements and donations recently. Still, Mr Trump’s position as the clear frontrunner remains unchanged, and the debate amounts to a campaign for runner-up.
With the Iowa caucuses a month away, the clock is running out for any of these candidates to prove they can at least put up a formidable fight against Mr Trump, let alone challenge President Joe Biden.
Here are the winners and losers from the fourth GOP primary debate.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis surprised some when asked during the fourth Republican debate who he would draw inspiration from as president and his response was President Calvin “Silent Cal” Coolidge.
Mr DeSantis chose the 30th president as his lodestar on Wednesday night while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie picked President Ronald Reagan, the 40th commander-in-chief, while former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley went all the way back to the first, citing President George Washington. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy pointed to Thomas Jefferson, the third president.
Mr Coolidge got his nickname “Silent Cal” for his reserved and quiet manner in social situations, with at least two people allegedly reacting to his death with questions like “How can they tell?” and “How do they know?”
Gustaf Kilander has the story.
‘He’s one of the few presidents that got almost everything right. He understood the proper role of the federal government under the Constitution,’ DeSantis says
Love him or loathe him, America wants to know!
Ex-president Donald Trump faces 91 felony counts across four prosecutions as he runs for 2024 election
The House has voted to censure New York Rep Jamaal Bowman for setting off a fire alarm in a US Capitol office building without there being an emergency.
The vote fell almost exclusively on party lines, with 214 members voting to censure Mr Bowman and 191 members voting against it. Three Democrats voted to censure Mr Bowman, including Jahana Hayes of Connecticut, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington.
Mr Bowman defended himself in a speech on the House floor on Wednesday evening, saying that the resolution showed how unserious House Republicans are.
Read the full article
Donald Trump is well-known for a lot of things: his divisiveness, his career in real estate, The Apprentice, his lawsuits, for being the only president to be impeached twice. But perhaps nothing has infiltrated society more than Mr Trump’s unique linguistic style.
Whether he’s posting on Truth Social, speaking at a campaign rally, or testifying in court, Mr Trump never seems to be at a loss for words — and sometimes, he even makes up new ones.
From uttering gaffes to tweeting typos (like “covfefe”) to misreading words (like “Nambia”) to dismissing his opponent with a harsh nickname, his terminology quickly turns iconic.
Here, The Independent offers a dictionary guide to the Mr Trump’s most memorable phrases:
Trump’s gaffes, typos, and infamous phrases have become a staple of US politics. Kelly Rissman explains what (we think) his most iconic phrases mean
Uh oh… 😬
John Bowden writes:
Donald Trump is not the candidate he was in 2016.
Don’t just take it from Ron DeSantis.
The former president appeared for a town hall with Fox’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday, a day before the fourth GOP primary debate attended by his lower-polling rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination. But while Mr Trump remains in clear control of the Republican primary electorate, according to all available polling, he is objectively not pulling the same kind of audiences and presenting the same kind of spectacle that he could during his first presidential run.
Read on to find out how the three broadcasts stacked up:
Former president’s polling dominance remains while his ability to draw audiences falters
Justice Beryl Howell, the federal judge overseeing Rudy Giuliani’s trial to determine damages after defaming the mother-daughter election workers from Georgia, has posted the rules for next week’s trial.
Her filing also includes a summary of the case:
This is a civil case. Plaintiffs, Ruby Freeman and Wandrea ArShaye (“Shaye”) Moss, claim that Defendant Rudolph W. Giuliani defamed them, intentionally inflicted emotional distress on them, and engaged in a conspiracy with others to do the same.
Plaintiffs served as election workers at the State Farm Arena in Fulton County, Georgia during the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City, an attorney who has practiced law for decades, and a current media personality with his own radio shows and podcasts. Mr. Giuliani headed the Trump Campaign legal team during former President Donald J. Trump’s unsuccessful bid for re-election in 2020, and was part of the campaign to undermine the legitimacy of that election in battleground states like Georgia.
Mr. Giuliani publicly and falsely accused plaintiffs of committing various acts of election fraud, including: illegally excluding poll watchers under false pretenses; sneaking in and hiding illegal ballots in suitcases under tables; illegally counting ballots multiple times; and passing a USB drive with the intent of changing the vote count in the voting tabulation devices. Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss allege that Mr. Giuliani’s actions have caused them to suffer and continue to suffer extensive emotional and reputational harm, including because Mr. Giuliani’s actions made them targets for profane and vile threats.
The Court has already determined that Mr. Giuliani is liable for defamation per se, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and civil conspiracy, and that Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss are entitled to receive compensation, including in the form of punitive damages, for Mr. Giuliani’s willful conduct. The only issue remaining in this trial is for the jury to determine any amount of damages Mr. Giuliani owes to Plaintiffs for the damage caused by his conduct.
Read the full filing here.
Here’s Alex Woodward’s most recent report outlining the case:
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss can be awarded punitive damages, a judge has ruled
We just several minutes trying to figure out how to ask Mr Barkov what a “misstatement” is “from an accounting perspective,” with both the judge and attorney general’s counsel trying to come up with a better way to ask.
“It’s hard to find a synonym but that’s what it’s called, a misstatement,” Judge Engoron said.
Mr Bartov answered by saying essentially that a misstatement… is a misstatement. The answer is important because a misstatement could indicate fraud. Mr Bartov said he believes that “there was no evidence of intentional misstatements, i.e., fraud,” which again, the attorney general’s office is saying falls way outside the bounds of his testimony. He can’t speak to “intent”.
After more back-and-forth debate on intent, court concludes for the day.
The trial resumes at 10am on Friday.
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Former President Donald Trump Attends Fraud Trial In New York
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