Arthur Engoron

With the testimony of Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump concluded in the $250 million financial fraud trial being conducted in Judge Arthur Engoron's New York courtroom, former Department of Justice official Harry Litman told an MSNBC host that it was a bruising week for the Trump family — and things don't look like they will get much better on Monday when the trial reconvenes.

Speaking with host Chris Jansing, the legal analyst suggested that the entire Trump family, whose fortunes are tied up in the beleaguered Trump Organization, likely realize the trial is not going their way.

Reacting to one of Donald Trump's highly paid lawyers complaining about Judge Arthur Engoron and his senior clerk passing notes during the $250 million financial fraud trial, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade couldn't help but laugh while appearing on MSNBC.

On Thursday, Trump attorney Christopher Kise complained about the notes being shared by the jurist and law clerk, Allison Greenfield, which led to a fiery exchange in which Engoron accused the Trump legal team of misogyny.

A court transcript released Friday reveals the errant remark made by a Donald Trump lawyer that angered the judge presiding over the former president's fraud trial.

Eric Trump's testimony was briefly upended when defense attorney Chris Kise commented about Judge Arthur Engoron's principal law clerk, which drew a rebuke about the former president and his legal team's "misogynist" obsession with the courtroom staffer, reported NBC News.

Eric Trump insisted during testimony in a New York fraud trial that his father's Mar-a-Lago resort was a private residence and not a club.

State attorney Andrew Amer questioned Donald Trump's second son for more than an hour Friday morning about the valuation of the former president's property in Palm Beach, Florida, and he testified that he was unaware that the club had been valued for tax purposes as a commercial property that was used as a social club, reported ABC News.

After Eric Trump's disastrous testimony on Thursday in the $250 million financial fraud suit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, one CNN legal analyst suggested Donald Trump throw in the towel and continually plead the Fifth Amendment when he takes the stand next week.

Speaking with CNN hosts Kate Bolduan and John Berman, former prosecutor Elie Honig said Eric Trump's testimony could not have gone more poorly after he was tripped up over his knowledge of Trump Organization financial statements.

As Honig pointed out, with the younger Trump about to be grilled again on Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron has good cause to not take anything he says seriously or as being an approximation of the truth.

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That prompted CNN's Bolduan to point out that Engoron has already ruled that the Trump Org and its executives are guilty of financial fraud and the trial proceedings, at this stage of the game, are being used to arrive at the financial penalty and whether the Trump family's business should be dismantled.

With that in mind, she asked Honig if Donald Trump should just take the Fifth since he has nothing left to lose in this trial, and that would keep him from increasing his legal exposure elsewhere.

After already claiming, "Yesterday went really poorly for Eric Trump," Honig turned to Donald Trump's upcoming testimony scheduled for Monday and how he should approach answering questions under oath.

"It's such an interesting and really difficult strategic decision Donald Trump and his lawyers will have," he told the hosts. "When he was deposed over a year ago he took the Fifth, he wouldn't answer anything other than his name and he took the Fifth as he is entitled to do."

"But the world has changed for Donald Trump," Honig elaborated. "Back then, there were all these swirling criminal investigations; none of the four indictments we have now had landed. The world was a bit more uncertain for him. A year and change later he's been indicted on four things, none relating to this particular fraud. If he takes the Fifth he protects himself against any of those cases roaring back to life."

"It's possible he takes the stand and says something that piques prosecutors' interest, they may think maybe we should open a criminal case on him for fraud," the ex-prosecutor suggested. "The risk of taking the Fifth is that the judge in this case, this civil case, can say I'm using that against you."
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A legal analyst who sat through two days of Donald Trump Jr's testimony in the $250 million financial fraud lawsuit argued on Friday that the president's eldest son needs a reality check if he walked away thinking he did well.

Appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," legal analyst Lisa Rubin suggested Donald Trump's oldest son's testimony was "damning" to the Trump Organization's defense against the civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Speaking with co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist, Rubin stated that Don Jr. appears to believe he did well but that Judge Arthur Engoron easily saw through his attempts to pass the blame onto others for committing financial fraud.

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Asked by Geist what she saw in the courtroom, she replied, "Willie, I'll say this again, every day in court on this matter is like a roller coaster and certainly yesterday was no exception."

"The examination of Donald Trump Jr. was one that seemed really calm and placid on the surface but was really damning if you think about what they got him to admit," she explained. "The fact that it was relatively pleasant in terms of the exchange with him and the attorney general's lawyer doesn't disguise the fact that Donald Trump Jr., who his father famously refers to as 'a kid' in order to infantilize him, was actually the co-trustee of what effectively was the Trump Organization for the entirety of the presidency."

"And in that capacity he not only signed financial statements over to banks and lenders, he certified that that information was true and accurate," she elaborated, "and he did that to Deutsche Bank repeatedly. He also did that to Mazars, his accountants."

"Donald Trump Jr. wants everybody to think he got a fast one over on people by saying, 'Oh, god, what did I do? I relied on accountants to do accounting,'" she explained. "The problem is, when you are a fiduciary, and when you're a trustee, you don't get to pass that buck. The buck stops with you. Donald Trump Jr., who has outsourced everything in his life, wasn't willing to concede that."

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New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron threatened to gag Donald Trump's attorneys after one of them referred to his law clerk.

"Do not refer to my staff again," the judge said, according to The Messenger reporter Adam Klasfeld, who is in the courtroom.

Donald Trump Jr. asked the courtroom sketch artist in the New York fraud trail to "make me look sexy" on his second day of testifying Thursday, reported Reuters.

This comes on top of a number of other revelations from the eldest son of the former president during the trial, including claims that he delegated all financial issues to accountants and wasn't aware of any fraudulent evaluations, even while admitting he signed off on at least one.