NEW YORK — An old friend of Donald Trump testified as an expert witness for the defense team Tuesday in the former president’s Manhattan fraud trial, telling the courtroom that property valuations are more an art than a science.
Steven Witkoff, the chairman and CEO at Witkoff, a real estate developing and investing firm, was called in to testify about both the Trump Building at 40 Wall St. and Trump’s golf resort in Florida.
However, Manhattan Supreme Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Witkoff would be allowed to testify only about the 40 Wall St. property. The direct examination stopped abruptly shortly afterward, with the witness clocking in at just about an hour on the stand instead of the day of testimony the defense team had planned.
Witkoff recalled how he and Trump met decades ago at a deli. It was a classic New York meet-cute: Trump didn’t have cash on him, and Witkoff swooped in to buy the future president’s ham-and-Swiss sandwich.
From “the sandwich incident,” Witkoff said, eventually sprung a yearslong friendship that’s now culminated in his expert testimony for his old pal, which he is doing without pay.
The case, brought by state Attorney General Letitia James, accuses Trump, his adult sons and the Trump Organization of exaggerating the worth of their assets in order to secure better loan deals and boost their bottom line.
Engoron ruled before the trial that the defendants were liable for the top count of fraud.
The trial, which is expected to finish in mid-December, will determine if they are liable on the remaining six counts and how much they must pay in damages.
The AG’s office moved last week to block Witkoff, accounting expert Jason Flemmons and two other expert witnesses on the grounds that their testimonies would be irrelevant given the judge’s pretrial ruling.
Trump lawyer Chris Kise argued Tuesday that fraud requires intent — and that had not yet been proven by the court.
“Everybody is yelling fraud, fraud, fraud, fraud,” Kise said. “No. That has not been decided yet.”
Engoron countered Kise by asking him to clarify his argument: “So if it turns out that one (property) is overvalued and one is undervalued … it balances out and there is no fraud?”
Flemmons, a senior managing director at Ankura, followed Witkoff and testified that there are many ways to make a valuation on a property.
“And it wouldn’t be wrong to chose one (way) over the other?” defense attorney Jesus Suarez asked Flemmons, drilling this point in again and again.
“Asked and answered five times over,” Engoron said.
On Monday night, Trump took to his social media website, Truth Social, to rant about AG James.