Trump accountant breaks down in tears on stand at NY fraud trial: Live

Through tears, he told a defence attorney for his former boss Donald Trump and his co-defendants that he “gave up” his longtime accounting role with the Trump Organization following a crushing wave of legal threats against it.

“I just wanted to relax and stop being accused of misrepresenting assets for the company that I loved working for,” he testified in a lower Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday. “I’m sorry.”

Mr McConney is among more than a dozen defendants charged in a sprawling fraud lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused the former president, his two adult sons and chief associates of grossly inflating his net worth and assets to fraudulently obtain favourable financial terms over a decade in an effort to boost the family’s brand-building properties in its vast real estate empire.

Judge Arthur Engoron already found the defendants liable for fraud. In the eighth week of a trial stemming from the blockbuster lawsuit, attorneys for the former president have narrowed their defence: blame the accountants.

Alex Woodward has been following the trial for The Independent and filed this report.

Here are some highlights:

MASSIVE CARAVANS THROUGH MEXICO HEADED OUR WAY!!! CROOKED JOE BIDEN, WHO’S TOO BUSY USING LAW ENFORCEMENT TO GO AFTER HIS POLITICAL OPPONENT, HAS NO IDEA WHAT TO DO. WE ARE TRULY A NATION IN DECLINE! MAGA2024

Kim Reynolds of Iowa has gone from a popular Governor to the MOST UNPOPULAR GOVERNOR IN THE UNITED STATES, not an easy feat. Her Endorsement of Ron DeSanctimonious, who is 50 Points down to me in the Polls, has given him exactly ZERO “Bounce.” He is a wounded bird falling violently from the sky. I wonder what position Kim was promised in order to back someone who is sooo far down? I got Iowa “First in the Nation,” Ethanol security, and 28 Billion Dollars for our Great Farmers. I also protected Social Security and MediCare. DeSanctimonious and Birdbrain did NOTHING. MAGA!!!

Did Ron DeSanctimonious, whose Polls have fallen like a wounded bird from the sky, commit a major Campaign Finance Violation by paying for the Bob Vander Plaats’ useless endorsement? I don’t think so! Thank you Iowa for your love and support—Big Numbers. We will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The news was announced by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) on Monday.

The first debate will take place on 16 September at Texas State University in San Marcos. It will be followed by the second at Virginia State University in Petersburg on 1 October.

The final debate will take place just over a week later at The University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, on 9 October.

Mike Bedigan has further details.

Alex Woodward reports on the latest from the sprawling Fulton County racketeering case against Donald Trump and his 14 co-defendants as a key hearing leads to the fine-tuning of the terms of bond arrangements reached with the accused.

Harrison Floyd, the leader of Black Voices for Trump, has “engaged in a pattern of intimidation” against his co-defendants and witnesses since he was released on bond in August, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office.

But following a three-hour hearing on Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee declined to send Mr Floyd back to jail and directed the parties to draft an order that reels in his public statements.

Mr Floyd made “technical violations” of his bond agreement, but “not every violation compels revocation,” according to the judge.

Donald Trump is in “excellent” health, according to a note he shared on Monday on social media, as both he and his potential 2024 opponent Joe Biden face continued questions about their age and mental fitness for the White House.

“I am pleased to report that President Trump’s overall health is excellent,” the former president’s physician, Bruce Aronwald, wrote in a letter Mr Trump shared on Truth Social. “His physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional.”

The letter added that Mr Trump was showing improved results on certain tests, likely because of “weight reduction.”

You may recall this news item from Mr Trump’s surrender to the Fulton County Jail earlier this year:

“If Donald Trump is elected president again in 2024, I do fear that it will be the last election where we’re voting for democracy because if he is elected again, I don’t think we’ll be voting under the same Constitution,” Ms Hutchinson told Jen Psaki onInside with Jen Psaki.

Now she’s warning voters to choose wisely next year, should the election be another matchup between President Joe Biden and Mr Trump.

Ariana Baio has the story.

Last night, after posting a slew of 19 (!) campaign-style videos on his Truth Social platform account in which he stiffly barks at the camera about his current list of grievances, conspiracies, and twisted facts, Donald Trump posted another attack on Justice Arthur Engoron and the chief clerk in his New York civil fraud trial.

The former president wrote: “Regardless of what we say to show our TOTAL INNOCENCE, and it has been proven in many ways, and many times over, this political, Trump Hating Judge, together with his horrendous, seething with ANGER Law Clerk, with her illegal campaign contributions, will find me guilty as hell.”

Mr Trump has already been found liable for fraud and there is no “guilty” because it’s not a criminal case. While the former president was not restricted from attacking the judge, the gag order was specific in its intention to protect court staff. This is now the third time since it was lifted that he has attacked the court clerk.

Here’s the full post in its bizarrely-capitalised glory:

A Rigged Trial going on against me by a corrupt N.Y. State Attorney General and an out of control Judge. They brought Values down to a FRACTION of what they are really worth, like Mar-a-Lago, and then called me a Fraud. They are the FRAUDSTERS, and the whole system is CORRUPT. I didn’t even include one of my most valuable assets, BRAND VALUE, in my Financial Statements. Also, this Psycho Judge refuses to acknowledge the fact that I have a 100% Disclaimer Clause on the First Page of my Statements – “DO YOUR OWN DUE DILIGENCE.” But it all doesn’t matter, because regardless of what we say to show our TOTAL INNOCENCE, and it has been proven in many ways, and many times over, this political, Trump Hating Judge, together with his horrendous, seething with ANGER Law Clerk, with her illegal campaign contributions, will find me guilty as hell. NO JURY ALLOWED, A STATUTE NEVER USED FOR THIS BEFORE, A RIGGED TRIAL, A RACIST & CORRUPT ATTORNEY GENERAL, A TRUMP HATING JUDGE, ELECTION INTERFERENCE!

Alex Woodward reports on the background of the New York gag order:

Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer Michael Cohen has asked a Manhattan judge to quash an “wildly overbroad” subpoena issued as part of the former president’s criminal hush money trial, The Messenger reports.

Mr Cohen’s request is also backed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has also asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to reject the subpoena on similar grounds.

“The subpoena issued to Mr Cohen is an obvious and blatant act of witness intimidation, and merely the latest incident in a years-long pattern of harassment and retaliation by defendant Trump,” the 33-page motion from Mr Cohen’s lawyers states.

Both Mr Cohen and the DA’s office note that the former president sued Mr Cohen for $500m before backing down and withdrawing the lawsuit.

The DA says the Trump camp’s aim is to gather evidence for if he ever were to refile the suit.

“Ever since Mr Cohen accepted criminal responsibility for his actions including actions taken on behalf of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Defendant Trump — and began providing information to authorities in numerous investigations of Defendant Trump and his various business entities, Defendant Trump has repeatedly abused the judicial system in an effort to silence Mr Cohen,” attorney Danya Perry wrote on behalf of her client, Mr Cohen.

Here’s the latest on the hush-money case regarding the creation of falsified business records for reimbursing Mr Cohen for payments to silence porn star Stormy Daniels concerning her alleged affair with Mr Trump.

There are a significant number of former Trump administration officials, staffers, and aides who have become vocal critics of former president Donald Trump, his 2024 campaign, and the prospect of him returning to the White House.

They are running against him (Chris Christie, Nikki Haley, Mike Pence), are testifying against him (Cassidy Hutchinson, Bill Barr), or are more than willing to eviscerate him on cable news (John Bolton, Chris Christie, Bill Bar, Cassidy Hutchinson, Olivia Troya, Stephanie Grisham, etc…).

The Washington Post asked in an article earlier this week whether their declarations that he shouldn’t be president would make a difference, and tapped former White House counsel Ty Cobb, who defended Mr Trump during the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Once a loyal soldier for the former president, he gave this withering quote in the Post article saying it was imperative that people vote against him:

“He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation,” Cobb wrote in an email. “Our adversaries and our allies both recognize that even his potential reelection diminishes America on the world stage and ensures continued acceleration of the domestic decline we are currently enduring. If that reelection actually happens, the consequences will extinguish what, if anything, remains of the American Dream.”

Here’s Cassidy Hutchinson speaking on MSNBC earlier this week: