Donald Trump’s attorneys will start calling witnesses Monday in the New York fraud trial, with his namesake eldest son being the first expected to take the stand.
Defense attorneys submitted a list of up to 127 witnesses who could take the stand, although it’s not clear how many actually will, but Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg will likely return to the stand after previously testifying during the prosecution’s case, reported Forbes.
Jeffrey McConney, the former Trump Organization controller who is a defendant in the case, may also testify again, along with Patrick Birney, who previously testified that Weisselberg told him that Trump wanted his net worth to “go up” on financial statements, and David McCardle, who disputed in his previous testimony statements Eric Trump made under oath.
Others who might testify include Trump Organization executive Jason Greenblatt, whose emails indicted concerns about Trump’s net worth, and the former president’s longtime assistant Rhona Graff, outside counsel Sheri Dillon, and Rosemary Vlablic, the head of Deutsche Bank’s Private Wealth Management division.
The defense may call up to 12 expert witnesses to testify about accounting and real estate principles, but attorney general Letitia James’ office has disputed four of them because, they argued, their testimony isn’t relevant after Judge Arthur Engoron’s pretrial ruling that found Trump liable for fraud.
Engoron ruled against James, however, but he warned Trump’s attorneys that he would cut them off if they questioned the witnesses about matter he had already ruled on.