Trump witness undermined credibility with payment remarks: Ex-prosecutor

A financial expert who testified in Donald Trump’s defense in his civil fraud trial was essentially paid a “handsome sum” to say what the former president wanted, according to a legal expert.

Former Southern District of New York prosecutor Kristy Greenberg was reacting to the reports of how much New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov was paid after he appeared in court to defend Trump in the $250-million lawsuit. The former president is accused of filing fraudulent financial statements inflating the value of his properties for years.

On Thursday, Bartov told the New York court that there is “no evidence whatsoever” that Trump or his family committed fraud with their financial documents. On Friday, it was revealed that Bartov was paid $1,350 an hour for his services, and that he worked about 650 hours on the case to defend the former president, putting his total at $877,500.

Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil trial, has already ruled that Trump did commit fraud while filing his financial statements, and the proceedings will now mainly determine the size of the penalty against Trump and his real estate company.

Speaking to MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Greenberg suggested that the money Bartov was paid would “100 percent” make it easier for Engoron to consider that the accounting expert’s testimony lacks any real credibility.

“He says he spent 650 hours on this and you wonder what he’s actually looking at over that time,” Greenberg said, while noting that the prosecution’s expert witness, Michiel McCarty, chairman and CEO at the investment bank M.M. Dillon & Co, was paid about $350,000 for his testimony, according to ABC News.

“And clearly [Trump] was getting what he paid for, because he’s somebody who’s going to come out and say there’s no fraud.”

Greenberg went on to suggest that Engoron may not take Bartov’s testimony into account too much when considering the facts of the case.

“The judge gets what happened here, that he was paid a handsome sum and he said the things that Trump wanted him to say,” Greenberg said.

“Pointing to so many different examples and saying, ‘Well, there’s no such thing as an objective valuation. This is art, not science.’ No, it’s math.

“Looking at Seven Springs for example, you realized profits on seven homes, zero were built, looking at tripling the size of an apartment, looking at Mar-a-Lago, where they’re valuing it as selling a private residence, when really the deed says it’s only a social club. These are objective facts, that is fraud, and that’s not an inadvertent mistake,” she added.

“And so they got an expert, they paid him a lot to be able to say something that I think quite a lot of experts would not have been prepared to say.”

Bartov and Trump’s legal team have been contacted for comment via email.

During Thursday’s proceedings in the civil trial, attorney general’s counsel Kevin Wallace said Bartov’s testimony was “pure speculation” from someone that Trump’s team “hired to say whatever it is they want.”

Bartov fiercely denied the accusations. “I’m here to tell the truth. You should be ashamed of yourself, talking to me like that,” Bartov shouted at Wallace.

Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP presidential primary, denies all wrongdoing in the case and accuses New York Attorney General Letitia James of carrying out a politically motivated “witch hunt” with her investigation.

Speaking outside the court on Thursday, Trump told reporters: “[Bartov] found absolutely no fraud, accounting fraud of any kind. This is a highly respected man. I don’t know him, but he’s an expert witness.”